In the given excerpt from the novel The Book of Saladin by Tariq Ali, the speaker reflects

back on a significant incident of his childhood in first person narrative. The incident was of his
conversation with his paternal grandmother, and through this reminiscence, the speaker accounts for
one exception to all his other perceived characteristics that seemed to preclude him from becoming
a person of power, the apparently innate valor that his grandmother thought remarkable. However,
from the literary perspective, Ali conveys a deeper insight to this narrative, and that is the speaker’s
masked emotion. Largely through the style and the structure of the passage, Ali communicates to
the readers that the speaker in truth still doubts his own capabilities.

In the first paragraph, the speaker briefly describes his past and then proceeds to talk about
his present as a Sultan. Following this shift is also a change from the first-person “I was…” (Line 1)
statements to the statements direct addressing the readers in the form, “You are…” (Line 4); from
this narrative style, it can be inferred that the speaker does not hold great self-esteem. In the way
that he says “I was a very ordinary boy,” (line 3) and “my appearance and demeanor…” (Line 2-3)
using himself as the direct subject, it can be inferred that he feels comfortable and confident about
such statements. In comparison, the speaker puts the readers in the subject and says “you see me
now as a Sultan” or “you are impressed,” (Lines 3-4) to talk of his present as a Sultan. This sudden
change in the narrative style that coincides with the shift in time could be interpreted as the
speaker’s lack of confidence in his present status. Whereas he directly states his insignificance as
the younger son, he describes his current self from the spectator’s perspective—instead of a
continuation in the form “I am now the Sultan,” for instance—indicating a lack of belief in his
status as the Sultan.

Another component of the style of this passage that communicates the speaker’s emotion is
tone. Despite the rather serious atmosphere of the passage, the tone of it remains doubtful and
incredulous through the use of diction. On his ascension to power, the speaker writes that it was
what fate and history “conspired” (line 9) to do. The term “conspire” has a connotation of scheming
specifically to commit unlawful actions, and by describing the making of his current status with
such a term, he implies that his position is unjustified and unfounded. Even when speaking of the
serpent story that apparently his mother had dreamt while being pregnant with the speaker, he uses
the word “interpretation” (line 37) to categorize his grandmother’s belief that the dream was an
omen for him to be a powerful person. “Interpretation” again has a connotation of being merely
subjective, hence unreliable. Rather obviously, from these dictions it could be inferred that he is still
unconvinced of his own power and his rights to claim such status.

The structure of this passage further emphasizes this point in that while the speaker’s main
textual point is to show that he has become a different person than who he used to be, the structural
shifts in time is followed by no change in the tone of the paragraphs; this on the contrary to the
textual content, suggests that in truth, he is still the same weak kid. The passage consistently moves
in setting from the past to the present, and Ali makes this obvious by the change of tense. However,
no difference seems to exist in the way that the speaker describes his past-self and his current-self.
When he recalls his childhood pastime of catching snakes, he undermines it as “foolish” (line 13)
despite his grandmother’s approval of the game as to have shown the speaker’s bravado. Moreover,
he mentions that the “braver ones” (line 14) among his group of friends crushed the snake’s head,
almost readily excluding himself from such characters. The fact that even in his reminiscence such
characteristic of self-diminishing appears suggests that even now as the Sultan who could easily
have people stumble in fear, he inwardly feels unjustified of his own power.

The passage, from the contextual perspective, almost reads as though it delineates the
speaker’s effort at self-promotion, as the stories that he tells per se seem to suggest that in actuality,
his rise to power was foreshadowed despite his insignificance as the younger son. Such may be
true. However, as unraveled by the literary components of the passage, the ultimate message of the
passage that Ali tries to communicate I believe is not about whether the speaker really carries the
valor as foreseen by the grandmother or not, but is rather about the doubts he still has about his own
capabilities.