Memon 1

Umaima Memon
Mrs. Pelosi
AP Lang F Block
August 12, 2016
Beauty Salon
Seminar Notes:
At the very beginning of the book, something caught my eye, and it was a very harsh
reality. Kawabata Yasunari has a quote that states, Anything inhumane becomes human over
time (Bellatin, 2000). This quote is an eye opener because there are many things in this world
that are inhumane but became human over time. An example would be something we see every
day, which is child labor. Almost every family that has workers dismisses the fact that children
are doing their work. When I first came to Karachi and saw child labor I was astonished. One of
the most important things I learned about in America was child labor, but I never would have
thought that I would see it in Pakistan. I frequently debated with my family on this topic, and
they always said that I would change my mind eventually. I look at it now, and feel disgusted in
myself because I dont think child labor is a huge issue after living in Pakistan for three years.
Time truly does change a persons opinion on certain things, another example being our caste
system. Marrying people that dont fit in financially and socially, is considered taboo. Many
families have even disowned their children for doing such things.
At first, the text really confuses me, but after a while I adjust to the tone of the narrator.
The tone seems dead, unfazed, and dispassionate. Terminal is what Mario calls the beauty salon.
It has transformed from a regular beauty salon into a refuge or hospital for the diseased. Fish is
what Mario Bellatin shows as the narrators distraction. The narrator finds fish as a distraction
from the putrid smell and situation in his Terminal. I believe that the fishes are allegorical in a

Memon 2

sense that they exhibit the characteristics of humans. The narrators interest in fish and keeping
up with them, providing them with the best aquariums and accessories, it seems like an escape
from reality. I connected this with our lives, and how we escape from the horrors of reality
through the form of entertainment. As for myself, I dont like to watch crime shows and read
articles about the many different problems throughout the world, instead I keep myself in a
bubble of fiction books and T.V shows. Ive constructed my favorite genres to be rom-coms and
horror films to run away from harsh realities.
The tanks represent rejuvenation, which might not seem like much since theyre not fish,
but its like what I said before, its an escape from reality, even if it lasts for a few moments. My
grandmother suffered from lung cancer, and I remember this story that my dad told me about her
that relates to the fish tanks. My grandmother had a scent that she fell in love with, so she hid a
box of that perfume in her closet. When she fell sick, she couldnt take that box with her, so she
used to always be irritated by the smell of her clothes and the room she was in. When her health
showed no signs of improvement, my dad took a whole week to find that box, and when he did,
he bought her a scarf and sprayed the perfume onto it. She was very grateful for it and when she
passed away, the doctors told my dad that she kept it under her pillow so no one could take it
away from her. It was something special to her, and she died with it.
The narrator has no sympathies at all towards the infected patients, he simply sees them as
guests, like at hotels, who suffer and die eventually.
I believe I've mentioned that the doctors and medicine are prohibited here, as are herbal and
spiritual healers and moral support from friends and families, (page 20). I believe thats the
reason why he transformed his salon into a Terminal.

Memon 3

The narrator doesnt allow any diseased women to enter, because he spent so many years to
make the women beautiful, so he has men and boys in his Terminal. I understand where hes
coming from, when you see something that you practically spent your whole life doing, you cant
see it go to waste.
At this point, I picture the guests as zombies like the ones in Red Dead Redemption,
except the uninfected person isnt shooting them; he tends to them and lets them die.
His ignorance has let him come towards plenty of danger, like the purification ritual of
the Terminal.
The atmosphere the narrator wants to create is death-like; he brings in patients and takes
them to the state of mind where they wont have any hope, which enables him to keep a
safe distance away from him.
He feels regretful that he got attached to the boy, now he thinks that he shouldnt have
started an intimate relationship with him and treated him different as opposed to the rest
of the patients.
His life is sad and robot-like yes, but he feels content in it in a way because he spent his nights
homeless and unfit in the society. His detached personality came through his past, and he had no
control over what he was doing, he gradually became more and more empty. His unique touch,
the fish, became his distraction. The evolution of the salon became his responsible nature, he
cared about his actions, and he did his deeds in the dark.
I now realize how the transformation of his beauty salon began. After taking up on a favor of his
co-worker, the narrator sheltered a friend of his colleague and sheltered him till he passed away.
Though, because of the fact he got attached, he almost went ballistic trying to revive him.
Since the law forbade medical attention and support from friends, the narrator thought the
patients would at least have something to eat and sleep on. He wouldnt take in those who were

Memon 4

physically fit, even if they accepted death in their minds. The narrator would reject their pleas
and tell them to come back when they were physically unfit as well and mentally unfit.
The narrator now catches the disease, and the first thing he experiences is a nightmare. His
mother didnt accept him for being homosexual, so he fled. However, he remembered the times
he went with her to the hospital when she said she was getting sick.*I dont know why this is
significant to the plot of the novel as of yet, Ill come back to it.
The disease begins to wear down the narrator, so he lights all of his memories on fire. While the
fire felt like a good escape from life itself, singing made him forget about his suicidal thoughts.
In the end, I figured out that the fishes were truly allegorical, and from what Ive interpreted,
they represent the patients, and their stages of misery.
The narrator believes in quick death, even if its painful. First, it takes up space on beds and
constant pain is annoying. This restriction would go against the narrators purpose and goal, to
help the infected. I connected it to pulling the plug since it takes a person out of their misery; the
only difference is that the narrator would keep them in their misery. He just thinks that constant
pain is annoying and quick death is better.
No religion related things are allowed in the Terminal.
At the very end, the narrator compares himself to a fungus covered fish, which is respected on
another level. Of course, that level of respect can also be called pity or disgust, but the fish is
sacred nonetheless.
Lovers have a different story though. They arent related to the characteristics and
behavior of fishes because they come back, no matter how revolting the person has
become.
The narrator didnt get the purpose of the lovers coming back; did they come back just to
get infected? The narrator was a bit jealous because he thought all he did was for nothing.

Memon 5

I think his dedication in his work and his respect for his coworkers was enough for him.
However, going back to Outliers, success can be material things or the little things that
count. Maybe a friend or a companion would make him feel happy with the world around
him. He believes that if he had gotten infected earlier, there would be his friends to
complain to, and not just empty walls.
He realizes that nobody misses a fish when its dead; they just have to eat it. Same thing
with humans, we all end up in graves and get forgotten, its tradition.
The narrator isnt scared of his own death, hes scared for what will happen to the salon
in his absence, and the patients will be given false hopes for nothing.
o To ensure that the patients will die with the same mindset, the narrator decided to
either burn the Terminal, flood it, or make it seem like there never was a Terminal.
o He will redecorate the salon to its former self, so loneliness could be respected,
and the Sisters wont have to take over.
I think time is a very cruel thing, minutes turn to hours and hours turn to days. These
passing days or even weeks could be spent wastefully, without any purpose. I think the
narrator skipped himself, being homosexual and reserved is what I thought if him. Death
roamed around him like a reminder of the ultimate end, everyone has to die. The patients
he tended to must have been grateful for the fact that they hadnt been given any false
hope. He himself accepts the fact of ultimately dying. Connecting this novel to the Myth
of Sisyphus, his acceptance of his disease and the plague itself made him ignorant, and I
personally think that in a case like this: ignorance is bliss.
The metaphor of fishes for me eased some tension in the book. The deep poetic language
made this novel mean much more than what it could have been if not for the fishes. For
example, the author could have written that the patients were suffering and no one went
near them.

Memon 6

Initially, the novel made me disturbed, but once I got the hang of the writers style and
the narrators feelings, I felt rather comfortable. Death is an experience everyone has to
experience, and in illness, the feelings of incoming death are different. Every single
minute feels as if its an hour, and the pain is excruciating. A person gets to think through
every choice they made in life and regret their bad choices. Loneliness can be one of two
things; either it can be life threatening or life changing. As for the narrator, I think his
loneliness made him grow as a person. Having different sexual preferences made him
different and unwanted by his mother. The laws created by the government that
companionship and loyalty wasnt available to the diseased made him different and
unwanted by the society because he opposed such things. He thought about his life, if his
mother would have accepted him as a gay person, he would never have even thought of
opening a beauty salon. If the society accepted his opinions then he would have never
transformed his salon into the Terminal. His disease made him think about life, it made
him think about others.
Personally, Im not a homophobe, but its awkward at first. I never questioned
sexuality before it emerged in America and I found out that A LOT of people have
different sexual preferences. Of course, its not like people with different sexual
preferences arent normal, Ive just never known what it feels like. In our country,
its taboo to be homosexual, and in Islam, its forbidden to be homosexual. On a
website called Islamqa.info, it was narrated that Jaabir (PBUH) said: The Prophet
(PBUH) said: There is nothing I fear for my ummah more than the deed of the
people of (Why does Islam forbid lesbianism and homosexuality?). The people of
Loot were homosexuals, and Allah punished them. Verily, We sent against them a
violent storm of stones (which destroyed them all), except the family of Loot (Lot),

Memon 7
them, we saved in the last hour of the night (Why does Islam forbid lesbianism and
homosexuality?). I respect the choices that people make, but that doesnt
necessarily mean I agree with them.
Respect the loneliness to come. What I think this means is that loneliness is special
in its own way, it makes you question your life. For me, its at night when I cant
sleep and I think about the things I couldve said, or how I could have handled a
situation differently, or how I could have made someone smile. Loneliness makes
me question my choices and if not that, then it makes me regret my decisions.