The main focus of this paper aims at analyzing the themes and characteristics of Pak De Samad in the short story entitled ‘Pak De Samad’s Cinema’ written by one of the most prominent Malaysian writers, Che Husna Azhari. After studying this short story meticulously, there are probably four main themes such as the novelty of something will soon wear off, education is a tool to behave in an acceptable way, changes are needed for survival purposes and resistance to change. Aside from the themes, there are two characteristics of Pak De Samad which are creative, and committed. These aspects play a vital role in enhancing one’s understanding of this short story.
Themes
The very first theme that is obviously illustrated in this short story is none other than the novelty of something will soon wear off. With reference to this statement “the schools no longer needed to resort to using Pak De’s Panggung for school concerts and speech days”, it is highly proven that something will no longer be used after ones have finally found the thing that works more effectively. Pak De Samad’s cinema, which is regularly used for school concerts, Speech Days, and to name a few, is finally “dead”. The death of Pak De Samad’s cinema was due to the existence of the state-of-the-art facilities and the rapid advancement of electronic mass media. It is definitely clear to the readers that everything will eventually come to an end. Therefore, the hidden message is to encourage the readers to be far sighted, optimistic and make use of the latest development. Otherwise, ones will surely be left behind and will not go far. Another theory that can explain the death of Pak De Samad’s cinema is “It was cursed by Pak De’s late father”. This theory suggests that ones must seek for their parents’ blessings before doing something so that this blessing will help them achieve their missions, goals throughout their lives. In other words, the parents’ blessings and commitment to one’s job is an indispensable key to the success of one’s life.
In the beginning of the short story, the readers are told that the gedebers, most of the time cut off their enemies’ ears and therefore there are few probabilities as to why the gedebers resort to cutting of their enemies’ ears. One of the probabilities is that most of the gedebers are uneducated and therefore will result in taking impulsive action. These actions shown by the gedebers indicates to us that education is an effective tool to differentiate what is considered as right actions and wrong actions. By receiving education, it will enable ones to live in a civilized way of life with reference to these two statements “we have become much more civilized” and “one hardly hears of any mini-axe attacks now”. In other words, the author also highlights the importance of being educated so as to behave in an acceptable way and to make an appropriate decision or wise judgement. Besides that, it is hoped that education will help ones to take a decisive action on dealing with problems. Conflicts, for instance, can be resolved without recourse to violence. Otherwise, ones will simply take immediate action as illustrated by Pak De Samad’s action “to go an amok” when his late father refused to give his share of the family land.
The next theme depicts to the readers that there will be some changes in one’s attitudes in order to adapt or survive in a new environment. This theme reflects the changes in Pak De Samad’s personalities in which he, who initially starts “his life in a very un-gedeber-like fashion” finally ends up being one of the author’s home-grown gedebers. This change has something to do with the survival purposes as “there were the marauding Japanese, always asking for food(and other things beside), and then there were the roving bands of robbers, hit-men and gangsters also going around looking for food and loot” at that time. Thereby, “desperate times called for desperate measures” and his solution was to be gedeber .The readers may conclude that particular circumstance compels ones to completely change their attitudes and these sudden changes in attitudes will affect their personal development either negatively or positively. Although his attitudes help him to survive during the war time, for example, it without no doubt affects his personal development negatively in which the gedeber’s attitudes are deeply embedded in him even if he stops being gedeber by referring to this statement “ but acquired habits die hard, so Pak De continued.” It is apparent when he threatened to go on rampage because his father did not want to give his share of the family land and the author seems to make a conclusion of Pak De Samad’s personalities by saying “ once a gedeber, always a gedeber…….”
Aside from that, the author also underlines the theme of resistance to change in this short story. The readers find out that Pak De Samad’s idea of opening the cinema was strongly opposed by his very own father, Awang Kecik (the little Awang). The rejection of the notion of opening the cinema was due to the fact that “ his father was not going to be party to the building of a house of sin” and “only ingrates and infidels go to the cinema”. Based on these two statements, there are two interpretations that accounts for the rejection of Pak De Samad’s idea as well as his father’s resistance to change. Firstly, the readers may discover that religious excuses have simply been used to disapprove of the new idea or new change. Ones will simply resort to using religious excuses without really understanding the positive effect of new change on the community itself. In fact, Islam especially never discourages people to make new change as long as it is in accordance with the Islamic teachings. In addition, Islam greatly encourages Muslim people to make change in improving standard of living instead of staying remaining in the comfort zone for example. Secondly, the narrow-mindedness shown by Awang Kecik reflects the vast differences in idea between the old generation (Awang Kecik) and the young generation (Pak De Samad). It is undeniable that the gap between these 2 generations causes new change to be hardly accepted and it implies to the readers that being a senior member of the community does not necessarily mean the symbol of ultimate power whereby he or she can simply brush aside other people’s ideas and take them for granted. By looking at different angle, it also gives the readers a new perspective on the best way of dealing with the new idea that requires ones to listen to the new ideas put forward by someone, study the possible effect of the new idea and finally work the new ideas out collaboratively and cooperatively in order to make it a great success.
Characteristics
The final aspect that should be taken into account when analyzing this short story is the study of Pak De Samad’s characteristics since he plays a major role in the short story. Pak De Samad is undoubtedly a creative individual since he comes up with the idea of opening the cinema in Molo which is “the very first ever cinema in the whole district too’. The notion of opening the cinema stems from his determination of doing something different which anybody has not done at that time. Although Pak De Samad has not received any formal education, he is amazingly able to think of this wonderful idea and most importantly, he is keen to make this idea an auspicious success. Even though his father deplores, loathes his idea and refuses to give him his share of the family land, he is extremely resolute to carry out his mission by “threatening to go on an amok”. The readers will also realize that by being creative shown by Pak De Samad benefits them since they actually open their minds to all the probabilities and ultimately, a successful outcome is actually within the realms of possibility. This is proven when Pak De Samad’s cinema is “used for everything” in which the use of Pak De Samad’s cinema is not limited to showing films only but also to performing school concerts and Speech Days as well as performing bangsawan plays like “Puteri Cendawan Merah” and “Puteri Cendana Biru” and indubitably, it is indeed a phenomenal success. In other words, ones never know the potential of something until they try it out and are willing to take risks.
Aside from being creative, Pak De Samad is also viewed as someone who is passionately interested in being gedeber and committed to this job. This is evident when Pak De Samad “takes his vocation even more seriously” and “becomes a full-time gedeber” during “zaman ka’ak” (“hard times”). Moreover, he also does a few successful commissions on disposal jobs, teach-a-lesson jobs, the send-a-salam jobs and never turns down “any member of the family to run errands”. Therefore, some readers may look at this attitude embodied by Pak De Samad in a positive way in which commitment to ones’ work is a primary key to one’s success and triumph. Without doubt, this kind of attitude plays a very significant role in improving the quality of one’s work. Several readers, however, see this attitude does not go hand in hand with Pak De Samad’s profession since this kind of profession is against any religious teaching. In the point of religious teaching’s view, this job is morally wrong in which requires ones to barbarically or violently punish for example his or her preys. It is totally different from someone who is absorbed in his or her work which is in accordance with religious teaching. Although many interpretations made by the readers, ones above all should bear in their minds that positive attitudes towards ones’ work will enable them to enjoy the fruit of their labour at the end of the day. All in all, Pak De Samad is seen as an epitome of man of his work in which he consistently tries his very best carrying out his duty.
Conclusively, the themes and the characteristics that have been discussed such as the novelty of something will soon wear off, education is a tool to behave in an acceptable way ,changes are needed for survival purposes ,resistance to new change and being creative as well as being committed to the job enable the readers to understand this short story better and explicitly, the study of the themes benefits the readers since it help broaden their minds and deepen their horizons. Most importantly, the readers will appreciate the beauty of the literature as it undeniably enriches their lives and their souls by reading such a thought-provoking story.
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