A Handful of Dates

In the beginning of the story, the main character, a young boy, views his grandfather with high esteem. The boy's grandfather is his friend with whom he shares many special moments. The boy's view of his grandfather doesn't start to change until the day he learns that his grandfather disliked his neighbour Masood and that his grandfather was slowly buying Masood's land. Masood's land was full of date trees that Masood always said were living beings. The boy disagrees with any type of ownership over the land because in his mind it should be a place for his free imagination. The dates represent the wealth of the land and the boy probably wanted to spit them out because he realized that the dates were the same as money to the men who divided up the harvested dates. The boy did not want to be a part of the greedy group who did not even regard the living trees but only wanted the dates.