Imagery and Class in Abd el-Malik Nuri’s Short Story The South Wind

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to analyze selected passages of the short story The South Wind by the Iraqi writer Abd el-Malik Nuri, which was done in order to find out how the description of characters, setting, and events, are related to class. The main research questions dealt with how the use of word choice and imagery are used in connection to the setting and characterization, but also how the events and agentivity are presented, and what they reveal about class. It was concluded that the writer made use several metaphors, of which some from the introductory part of the story were contrastively re-used in the final paragraph. These contrasts went in a parallel line with the unfolding of the events, the conflicting aims of the characters, and the active/passive roles assigned to them, which is related to the issue of a lower class environment.