Through the exploration of literary works, we gain a profound understanding of human life and relentlessly get involved with environmental, social, and psychological factors on the human psyche. This is particularly evident in the works of writers who have meticulously observed their surroundings. These writers are deeply concerned with the lives of humans in their environment and the environment’s role in shaping their destiny. Sadeq Chubak (August 5, 1916 – July 3, 1998), is a prime example of such a writer, who delved into the lives of marginalized people, a situation that a significant portion of Iranian society grappled with in the early twentieth century.
Chubak was born in southern Iran and raised in a middle-class family. His father was a successful merchant who provided him a good education. He completed his elementary schooling in Bushehr and Shiraz before enrolling at the American College of Tehran, where he became proficient in English. This skill allowed him to work in various government institutions. After retiring, he lived in England for a few years before moving to the United States, where he passed away in 1998 (“Sadeq Chubak”).
Despite his secure position in society, Chubak was not blind to the struggles of ordinary people. Unlike him, most Iranian people had grown up in the lower classes were surrounded by illiteracy and poverty in a society marked by tyranny and feudalism. Although Reza Shah sought to liberate Iran from the dire circumstances inherited from the Qajar dynasty, the depth of the societal issues was far more profound than his efforts, thus, most of the Iranian people lived in an unstable and insecure situation, which led to a high percentage of malnutrition, and societal problems.
Chubak’s fame as a writer began with the publication of kheimeh Shab Bazi (The Puppet Show 1945), which consists of eleven short stories, “Nafti” (The Kerosene Man), “Golhay-e gushti” (Flesh Flowers), “Adl” (Justice), “Zir-e Cheraq-e qermez” (Under the Red Light), “Akhar-e shab” (Late Night), “Mardi dar qafas” (A Man in a Cage), “Pirahan-e zereshki” (The Maroon Dress), “Bad az zohr-e aḵhar-e paiz” (An Afternoon in Late Autumn), “Yaḥya” (Yahya), “Esae-ye adab” (Insolence), “Musiyu Eliās” (Monsieur Elias) and the third printing of, The Puppet Show (1967) was published with a poem “Ah-e ensan” (The Sigh of Mankind). (“Sadeq Chubak”).
In this successful work, Sadeq Chubak is indebted to the colloquial and social prose that emerged in Iran after the Constitutional Revolution, the prose that was no longer written for the court and the nobility as in the past. Instead, it was written for ordinary people on the streets, and its goal was to have a social impact on the masses and create fundamental changes in society. To create this impact on the reader, Chubak tries to see the world from the perspective of his characters, to perceive their emotions and feelings as they are. His use of the stream of consciousness technique is so precise and manifest in his short story “Pirahan-e zereshki” (The Maroon Dress). While reading the story, the reader deeply feels the inner lives of women who work in a harsh atmosphere and struggle to meet their needs; this deep connection and immersion in the minds of his characters, mainly from the lower classes of society, mingling with a harsh criticizing of social criteria, which leads to suppressing people and prevents them from reaching personal growth, proves to be an effective combination that ultimately led to the creation of lasting and eternal characters such as Ozra in the short story “Nafti” (The Kerosene Man), and Morad in the short story “Golhay-e gushti” (Flesh Flowers).
Chubak’s exceptional skill in characterization stems from his deep understanding and knowledge of Iranian literature and other intellectual works of his era. He effectively navigated between his characters’ inner lives and the external environment, keeping his works from becoming one-dimensional. On the other hand, Chubak’s profound insights helped him avoid the pitfalls of political or social dogma that ensnared many other Iranian intellectuals. Thus, his works did not serve as manifestos for particular political groups, a tendency visible in the works of Samad Behrangi. As Dr. Baraheni has also remarked in his enduring book, Ghesenevisi (Story Writing) comparing the writing styles of Bozorg Alavi and Sadegh Hedayat with Sadeq Chubak’s characterization:
Writers can be divided into two categories: subjective and objective. For example, we can consider Sadeq Hedayat, a subjective writer; as opposed to Hedayat, we have Bozorg Alavi, who does not consider the inner life of his characters, and this hit his works; this shortage especially can be seen in his work, Chashmhayash (Her Eyes) which makes the characters too artificial. Chubak, however, successfully oscillated between these two techniques.
Chubak’s second work and collection of his short stories was “Antar-i ke luṭi-ash morde bud” (The Baboon Whose Buffoon Was Dead, 1949), including short stories “Qafas” (The Cage), “Chera darya tufani shod-e bud” (Why Was the Sea Stormy), “Asb-e chubi” (The Wooden Horse) and one Drama “Tup-e lastiki” (The Rubber Ball). (Sadeq Chubak). This collection profoundly delves into the concept of freedom and its relation to economic conditions and religious views in human life.
Chubak also had a hand in literary translation, attempting to render several famous foreign works into Persian, such as Eugene O’Neill’s one-act play Before Breakfast, Arthur Schnitzler’s Liebelei, Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio, and Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” (“Sadeq Chubak”). Then he published his famous novel, Tangsir, in which he illustrated people caught in poverty, superstition, and illiteracy. This novel is remarkable from a sociological point of view in addition to its literary value. In Tangsir, Chubak presents a realistic picture of traditional Iranian society with all its contradictions and problems.
Tangsir marks a society formed around class struggles. The town’s economy is based on agriculture and sea trade. Poverty, unemployment, and economic inequality are among the main problems of this society; the main character of the story, Zaer Muhammad, is involved in a hard struggle to maintain his reputation and social position within this structure. Also, Power in Tangsir is in the hands of wealthy and influential people who use force and wealth to rule over others. However, Zaer Muhammad, as an independent person, stands against this structure.
After the publication of Tangsir, Chubak published two new collections of short stories, Ruz-e avval-e qabr (The First Day in the Grave, 1965), including “Gurkanha” (The Grave Diggers), “Chashm-e shishe-i” (The Glass Eye), “Daste gol” (The Flower Bouquet), “Pache ḵhizak” (Pache Khizak), “Hamrah” (Companion) and “Hamrah: shive-i digar” (Companion: another mode), “Arusak-e forushi” (A Doll for Sale), “Yek shab-e biḵhabi” (A Sleepless Night), “Yek chiz-e ḵhakestari” (A Grey Thing).
The second collection, Cheraq-e aḵhar (The Last Lamp, 1966), includes, a story whose name is the title of the book and “Dozd-e qalpaq” (The Hub Cap Thief), “Kaftarbaz”(Pigeon Fancier), “”Omar koshun” ( Omar Killing), “Bache gorba-i ke chashmanash baz nashode bud” (The Kitten Whose Eyes Had Not Opened), “Doust” (Friend), “Parizad va Pariman” (Parizad and Pariman), “Rahavard” (Souvenir), “Atma, sag-e man,” (Atma, My Dog) and one Drama, “Hafḵaṭ”.
In these latter stories, Chubak depicts the struggles of the unfortunate class in Iranian society, one of his most famous short stories among these titles is “Omar Koshun” (Omar Killing), whose main character is Mahdi, whom people call mad and always try to make fun of; Mahdi does not wear clothes like other people; he is always naked. This nakedness is a symbol of his personality and behavior, which is the same as his inner self. On the other hand, it can be considered a symbol of his deconstructive character because covering his body is considered necessary in religious and traditional societies, and breaking this rule is a taboo. Another fundamental difference between Mahdi and the society is his treatment of animals. He has a good relationship with animals, dogs, and cats and does not hurt them, unlike most of the city’s people.
The story begins with a religious festival during which people make an effigy of Omar, paint the face, and fill it with incendiary materials; this ceremony shows the cultural structure of traditional societies that compete and fight because of absurd beliefs. When people build Omar’s effigy, they bring a camel to put Omar on it, but Omar falls off the camel. They decide to find someone who will sit on the camel with Omar and hold the effigy. Thus, they choose Mahdi; here, it can be seen how different people face discrimination and harassment. Mahdi is the only person who is not hard on others; he buys food for people experiencing homelessness and sleeps on the earth; he is only a helper to kittens and dogs. However, people use him for their happiness in a ridiculous ceremony. Chubak’s subsequent work was his second novel, Sang-e ṣabur, (The Patient Stone, 1966), in which he precisely used the stream of consciousness technique and tells the story of a serial killer who murdered several prostitutes.
Sang-e ṣabur (The Patience Stone) was published in 1966 and was Chubak’s last work. Nevertheless, the impact of his works is still palpable in the Iranian literary space because, for the first time, he depicted in Persian literature with a direct language the lives of characters who had not received much attention before. Chubak’s descriptions of the living conditions of these people and their mental world still maintain their substantial impact on the minds of the readers of his works.
Works Cited
“Sadegh Chubak.” Encyclopedia IRANICA, Vol 4. Encyclopedia Iranica Foundation,
Web.2009.
Baraheni, Reza. Story Writing.(قصه نویسی) Tehran: Nashr-e Alborz. 1989.
The Collection of Works by Sadegh Chubak (مجموعه آثار صادق چوبک). Tehran: Nashr-e Jameh Daran. 2019.
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