Analysis of a short story of Manto

NAME: SHAHAK
ID: 15006142009
PROGRAME: M.Sc (Psy) B.06
SUBJECT: Personality Theory
SUBMITED TO Ms. Haya Fatimah

UNIVERSITY OF MANAGEMENT AND TECHNOLOGY

Analysis of A short story of Manto through personality theories

Title of the Story: Khol Do ()

This is one of Mantos those

eradicating

evil.

The

ego

has

work for which Manto was charged

disguised the id impulses to calm

with obscenity. This story is in the

down the superego in order to pave

context of partition of Hindustan.

the way to satisfy the aggressive

The land of Hindustan has been

wild impulses of id. Ego tells the

divided into two parts, Hindustan

superego that its aggression for

and Pakistan. Manto witnesses a

good

similar

in

eradicate evil. Superego does not

peoples heart. People who were

interfere, rather appreciate the ego

living together for centuries as the

to carry on the aggression and

people of same land, sharing their

feels proud. Therefore, the id has

happiness and sorrows with each

got free hands to express itself with

other were all a sudden labeled as

no obstacle. Ego has no anxiety but

Hindustani

the appreciation of superego to

sort

of

and

line

drawn

Pakistani,

Hindu

reasons,

the

brutality

of

to

and Muslim, and became strangers

carry

for each other.

impulses. Ego has rationalized

People have bursted out with

on

aggression

id

the aggressive behavior.

aggression in the name of nation

Eros (the life instincts) and

and religion. Ego has rationalized

Thanatos (death instincts) have

the death instinct in the veil of

appeared

distinguishably.

religious and national patriotism.

on

hand

Those who are killing the people in

protection

the name of religion and nations

people on the other hand are trying

think that they are doing it for the

to

good reasons, killing them for the

impulses are not identified and

sake of their religion, for the sake

accepted to be the part of self,

of their nation, for the sake of

when these impulses are denied

one

for

end this

are
life

People

searching

preservation;

life. When the id

and suppressed, they burst out in

the solution to this complexity. This

such a pathological manner. Either

altruistic disposition is necessary to

call them destructive id impulses

carry on the genes to the next

or the shadow archetype, both

generation to be immortal. This can

suggests the same solution, to

be explained in Jungian theory as

acknowledge and accept them as

well.

the part of our nature and let them

disposition to love and care, to

release in a healthy manner and

sacrifice. This is what Manto shows

through proper channel so that it

through this character.

Mother

can serve the life in a productive

way. They need to be sublimated.
This story is about a girl

archetype,

the

In the refugee camp, a

group of volunteer young people
assures

Sakinas

father,

named

named Sakeena. She along with

Siraj Ud Din, that they will find her

her parents flees India on train to

soon. The active young group finds

escape from the Hindu and Sikh

Sakina somewhere in a Jungle one

rioters. But on the way her mother

day.

is killed and she gets lost in the

patriotism and morality. One of the

chaos.

was

boys offers him a coat to cover her

taking the last breaths, she asks

body as she has lost her Dopatta.

Sakinas father, Siraj Ud Din, to

They give her food and serve her

leave her and go away with Sakina.

well. But the id cant be suppressed

This altruistic behavior of Sakinas

for long. Defense mechanisms

mother cant be justified by Freuds

fail and the moral veils are torn off.

theory. This by no means comes in

Sakina is raped. Suppressed id

pleasure

Pleasure

impulses have flooded out. The

principle; it is to get pleasure by

dark side of human nature, be

satisfying the tension produced by

called id impulses in Freuds term

id. It is by no means a sublimated

and Shadow archetype in Jungian

sexual behavior. We need to go to

term. The act of giving the jacket to

evolutionary prospective to find

Sakina to cover her body was a sort

When

her

mother

principle.

Their

heart

is

filled

with

of

reaction

Ego

alive. And there appears cold sweat

of

on doctors face. Again, fighting

removing her cloth by covering her

with id impulses doctors ego fails.

body

has

Superego appears to makes him

obviously saved the ago to be

sweat with the feeling of shame

punished by superego.

and guilt. Ego may use the denial

disguised

formation.

the

with

id

cloth.

impulse
This

act

Sakinas father is still await of

Sakina. He asks those boys about
Sakina every day. They reply in
chorus that she will be found soon.
Suffering

from

moral

anxiety,

mechanism

satisfy

the

superego in order to get out of

shame and guilt saying that it did
not

find

the

scene

sexually

arousing.

they cant see in Sakinas fathers

The

eyes.

obscenity.

Being busy with volunteer

to

story

was

charged

Why?

with

Apparently,

activities, the memory would be

because

repressed

the

unacceptable sentences in the end

unconscious and they will get out

of the story which seem to be

of moral anxiety, satisfying the

morally

superego that they are good now.

through Freudian lenses, it is

deeply

in

One day Siraj Ud Din hears that the

dead body of a young girl has been
brought to hospital. He rushes in
the dark room and identifies the
dead

body

meanwhile

as

Sakina.

doctor

In

the

checks

her

pulses and asks Siraj Ud Din to

open the window , With
this sentence Sakinas hands move
towards

her

Shalwar

and

she

removes her Shalwar. Siraj Ud Din

shouts with excitement that she is

there

are

disgusting.

But

some

looking

because it removes the moral mask

of the human, showing the wild
face of human nature. The boys
who are volunteers, active for the
good reasons, did the rape of a girl
who

belongs

to

their

own

community. This is not acceptable

for the community. This makes
them suffer from anxiety. No, we
cant do so, we are not so. Denial,
Manto is wrong. He is to be
punished.

He

is

putting

us

in

anxiety. This is not our nature. The

something which Freuds theory

ego denies and drags Manto to the

cant explain. According to Freud

Court.

morality is acquired in a social

In the first sight, it seems that

Manto

is

showing

impulses
which

are

so

sometimes

that
much

our

id

savage

floods

out

whipping off the moral values and

civilized heritage. This is exactly
what Freud claims. But there is
another dimension. Manto tries to
show that the morality that has
been internalized from the social
environment is so fragile and very
superficial basis and the entire
statue of morality gets demolished
in the very second of time. He
wants to show that in place of
following

the

social

morality,

setup, from the outer world and

internalized. But we find many
incidents in our daily life where
morality is not stemmed just due to
the social bounds. To resolve this
complex

behavior

we

need

to

consider Jungs theory. Jung says

human

has

an

inner

moral

disposition, an archetype which

can be attained by reaching to one
collective

unconscious.

This

archetypical disposition is activated

when

person

encounters

situation like what faced the hero

of Thanda Gosht.
Therefore, we can say that though

everybody must probe deeply into

Manto

his mind to find out the inner and

exhibited human wild nature so

stable moral dispositions that are

broadly in his stories but he is not

permanent

pessimist

and

cant

be

had

focused

about

on

human

and

overall

demolished at all. This is clearly

nature. He just tries to ask people

evident in another Mantos story,

to be aware that the social morality

Thanda Gosht where the main

is an illusion, a very weak point to

character, a Sikh rioter loses his

be relying on. It is an artificial

sexual potency when he realizes

civilization. To be really moral, one

that the girl whom he is trying to

needs to follow the inner morality

rape

which is empathetic in its nature

is

already

dead.

This

is

because
universal.

it

is

collective

and