Critical Analysis- the Sinners

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The themes consistently present throughout Yusuf Idris’s novel, The Sinners, focus mainly on two aspects: the concept of sin and stereotypes toward social classes. The search for the mother of the murdered illegitimate child found along the bank of the canal turns the residents of the estate into a gang hell-bent on finding justice. This includes approaching friends and family with skepticism and increasing intolerance toward the migrant workers on the estate, who are there simply to make a living. Understanding the plight of Aziza, the migrant worker who gave birth to the child, makes the reader question if the actions of Aziza and the estate residents effectively label both sides as “sinners.” Indeed, by describing Aziza’a circumstances, Idris adequately portrays how mercy constructs bonds in the face of sin. A perfect example of this transformation from someone adamant on justice to exhibiting mercy is in the description of Fikri Afendi, the estate’s chief administrative officer. The discovery of the murdered child drives him into a state of disbelief, a sense of disgust that a sin of such atrocity could be committed on his estate. Fikri Afendi’s conception of himself is based on the belief that he is above the concept of sin he ascribes to others, particularly the migrant workers, the “Gharabwa.” Idris makes no attempt to hide the fact that Afendi is a sinner. Close to the beginning of the novel, one of the first things we learn about Fikri Afendi is that he, “like most people, had had relationships with women before he got married” and that “he found it hard to believe that there were women in the world who sinned like those who did so with him.” The discovery of the child makes him determined to find the woman who sinned, a woman who could only come from the migrant workers, he believes. “It must be one of them,” he reinforces to himself. Upon the

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