Theme
Write on the theme of love
‘The Curse’ written by Lee Su Ann touches on many aspects of life. Basically, all the aspects revolve around our own community and can be used as guidance in our life.
The theme of ‘love’ which is actually the main conflict in this whole novel. Firstly, we can see this aspect between mother and child when we read how loving was Azreen towards her mother when she came back from London. She realized her mother still does not know about the death of her sister, Madhuri. Azreen took over the duty to take care of her mother who was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease which was getting worse. Azreen cooked porridge for her mother like Madhuri used to do and fed her. This shows that Azreen loves her mother very much and feels responsible to take care of her after her sister’s death.
The concept of ‘love’ can also be seen through Encik Saleh who loves his daughters very much but does not know how to show it. He kept his love within him and was always looking fierce and angry towards his daughters and wife. He loved his family very much and that is why he worked hard on the farm.He also repairs chicken coop, repairs fencse and roofs and chops wood in order to earn a living for his family. As a hard-working man, he wanted to give his family the best out of him due to his love towards them which he does not show openly. Here, I admit that I admire Encik Saleh as a loving father towards his family but he should have shown his love in a more appropriate way.
Lastly, the concept of love can be seen in the characters of the Old Lady and Azreen. Azreen was very lucky to find a meaningful and comfortable relationship with the Old Lady of the forest. She was very close to the Old Lady until she told her all her secrets. She always goes and visits the Old Lady whenever she felt bored, angry or happy. This shows that Azreen really loves the Old Lady and does not give a single thought to what the villagers say about the Old Lady. Azreen’s love towards the Old Lady was very strong until she was willing to go into the burning house in order to save the Old Lady. But, faith wins. The Old Lady died in the fire while Azreen was saved by her father due to his love towards his daughter.
As we can see, the concept of ‘love’ is very strong throughout the novel. Each and every character in this novel has the desire to love and to be loved.
2) Write on the theme of forgiveness
Lee Su Ann, the writer of the novel ‘The Curse’ had brought up many themes in her writing. One of the themes that I liked very much in this novel is ‘forgiveness’ which was clearly portrayed in Azreen’s character.
As we know from the beginning, Azreen is a very outspoken, aggressive and stubborn character but towards the ending of the story she had learnt to forgive others. Azreen was very much influenced by the Old Lady who begged Azreen to learn to forgive others at the time of her death. We can see very much that Azreen kept her promise when she forgave Mohd Asraf who had deliberately played with her emotions. All the while Azreen thought Asraf liked her but, Asraf was actually falling for Madhuri and when he admitted that to Azreen, she was speechless at first. Azreen hid herself from Asraf by running away until she reached the cliff of the hills when Asraf confessed his love towards Madhuri. But as time passed, her anger melted away slowly and she forgave Asraf as the Old Lady had told to her just before she died.
Azreen too learnt to forgive her father who murdered Madhuri. Even though she felt sad at first but she did not feel angry or resentment at him but she realized that she had lost her only father that she used to know as a very hot-tempered man. Slowly Azreen forgave her father but she could not see him eye to eye so she left him alone and that was the time when Encik Saleh had a heart attack and collapsed. But if at all Azreen had not promised the Old Lady to forgive others, I do not think that she would forgive her father for murdering Madhuri.
Azreen too forgave Madhuri for all the hurt and resentment she caused in Azreen’s life. Azreen was jealous of Madhuri’s beauty and genteel behavior. She was the favorite daughter. She also resented Madhuri as Madhuri was able to captivate Asraf who eventually fell in love with her. But, when Azreen discovers that Madhuri was adopted and the truth about Madhuri’s murder at the hands of her own father, she feels nothing but pity for poor Madhuri . Finally she forgives her sister, Madhuri.
Last but not least, Azreen also forgave Asraf and wished him luck from the bottom of her heart when he left Langkawi to take a teaching course in KL. When she read a note from him, she did not feel angry but she smiled after reading the note and also questioned herself whether she had learnt to forgive others. From Azreen’s character, I too learnt to forgive others in my life if they hurt my feelings. Being revengeful will not give us anything in life except the negative value.
From the evidence above, the theme of ‘forgiveness’ had been portrayed very well in this novel through the protagonist, Azreen. I hope each and every human will learn to forgive others in their life.
The novel ‘The Curse’ by Lee Su Ann touches on many values that are useful in our daily lives. As for me, I am touched with the value of mother’s love in this novel.
Azreen’s mother is forever seen talking nonsense since her Alzheimer’s disease was becoming worse. She was not given a name in this novel but always referred to as ‘Mak’. Azreen felt guilty because she was the one who was responsible for her mother to loose one of her leg. Even though, we know that Azreen admitted leaving the gate of the farm open but actually she was only helping Mohd Asraf from being blamed. Due to her act, her parents met with an accident when her father’s motorcycle hit the bull. Azreen’s mother never hated Azreen for what had happened and she always loved Azreen. She even told Azreen that it was not her fault that she lost her leg in the accident. This proves that ‘Mak’ was never angry towards Azreen and she accepts what happened to her as faith. This shows the true love that a mother has for her child even though she is in pain.
Another incident that showed how true a mother’s love is when Madhuri’s mother, the mad lady who strolled in the village and always watched over her daughter. Even though Madhuri was raised by Encik Saleh and his wife from a baby, the mad lady always kept herself close to Madhuri. She used to watch Madhuri and Azreen when they come back from school. This shows that she still loved her daughter even though she gave in when her baby was lost. She knew she could not raise Madhuri in a proper way so she just kept quite when Encik Saleh took the baby and decided to raise the child. But as a mother, she still loved Madhuri and always sees how her daughter is living with her foster parents from far. This is what we call mother’s love. Even if the child is not with the real mother but she always pray for her child to lead a happy life and that is why she took revenge against Encik Saleh who killed Madhuri.
From these two mothers, the readers are shown the value of love that a mother has for a child. Both mothers in this novel are not normal in certain ways but their love for their children did not fade but they loved their daughters very much in their own different ways.
