The Bequests of Love by Marie Gerrina Louis

Characters and Characteristics

This short story build up a picture of a handicapped son, Karim, his perfect-
intelligence twins brothers Fariq and Faroq and his beloved Mak and Pak. Other
characters that can identified are the doctors, Drs Tan and Manogari. The followings
are the characteristics of those characters.

Karim

 Inquisitive and curious

Karim is a very curious and inquisitive son. He always ask his parents about
many things that cannot been answered by them. This is due to the text;

“That was one of his many unanswerable questions.” (page 1, paragraph 5)

 Emotionally strong and sporting

Karim has strong emotion when he is no whining at the extra medication given
by Dr. Tan to reduce the pain nor where there any grumbles at having to take
extra rest. It is the sporting way in which he accepted his disability and coped
with it.

 Intelligent and spirited

Karim is also an intelligent and clever boy as well as he got the strong spirit.
This is stated in the first page, paragraph 3.

“But no one in the house had expected Karim to outrun us in spirit or in

intelligence.”
Haryati

 Loved Karim
Haryati is a very loving mother. She loves Karim intensely as long as Karim is
her son. It is stated in the novel :

“…but his father and I loved him intensely…”

 Emotional
Haryati also an emotional person. She was frustrated with her life. This is due
to the novel;

The anger that flooded through me stopped the tears that threatened to fall
with the frustration of…
I broke down then...

 Still feels a link with her deceased son.

Haryati still remember about her son, Karim even though Karim was passed
away. She feels a link with her son by looking at the creased paper that left
them Karim’s bequest of love. This is stated in the novel:

“If I ever feel in need of loving now, all I have to do is look at the creased
paper on which my son left us his bequests of love and I feel all right again.”
Zulkifly

 Self-controllable

Zulkifly is a very well man by showing his self-controllable attitudes to the

family. He can accept the tears with courages. The example in the novel is:

…holding back tears with great effort…

 Reasonable

Zulkifly is also a reasonable person. He shows it in the novel by calming down

his wife, Haryati when Karim was sick in the hospital. It stated by this
dialogue:

“…I think you should learn to accept the fact…”

 Sense of humour

There is a sense of humour in yhe family. For instance, Zulkifly teased his
wife while she is answering some questions from Karim. This is due to the
text:

“…Karim enjoyed himself when his father and I teased each other this way.”
Fariq and Faroq

 Observant
Fariq is an observant person. He is the first who noticed Karim’s
preoccupation with death. It is stated in the novel:

It was Fariq who first noticed Karim’s preoccupation with death…

 Indifferent
Fariq and Faroq is totally indifferent. They are seem same.

“ …their previous indifference…”

 Active in sports
Both Fariq and Faroq are active in sports. For instance Faroq left his parents
with Karim playing their childish game to play football. Due to the text:

“…and the two of them left for their football game.”

 Intelligent and good-looking

Both of them are good-looking:

“They are good-looking and intelligent…”

 Loved Karim
they are also love karim very much. They play football less often to spent
much time for Karim when Karim is waiting his ‘time’:

…played football less often and spent a lot of time talking and goofing around
with Karim…
Plot

Exposition-
At the beginning of the story the writer tells the audience about Karim, that born
handicapped. He also tells us about the happiness of the family. They also have
twins, Fariq and Faroq.

Expanding-
The story continued with Karim that always ask his mother an answerable questions.
He likes to ask about death. Fariq, brother of Karim found that his brother were
obsessed of death by read the books about death.

Conflict-
Faroq, brother of Karim, feels angry when her mother just let Karim wear the shoes
that was very specialto him.

Climaks-
The climax in the story is when Karim suddenly collapse in his bedroom. Then, his
family took him to the Dr. Tan’s clinic and he was placed at the observation wards.
Not long time be passed, Karim lets his last breath besides his lovely mother.

Ending-
Karim leave this world with Last Will And Tastement that were dedicate to his family
that before this caring about him. His mother was waited beside him. karim was died
and he never said goodbye. Faroq and Fariq was found Karim’s ‘last will and
testament’. Karim found it in the blue envelop. It is Karim’s bequests of love.
Theme

Love and caring

 The main theme in bequest of love is about love. Karim is the youngest son in
his family. He was born handicapped but his family love him very much. His
mother Haryati can accept him as her sonHaryati shows his love to Karim by
waiting him in the hospital, waited for Karim’s last breath.”I was with Karim
right up to his last breath” (p 7. Para 1). From this passage we can see
Haryati loves her son Karim. His twins brothers also showed their love. They
are also love karim very much. They played football less often and spent a lot
of time talking and goofing around with Karim…

Sacrifices

 Another theme for this short story is sacrifices. We can see that Karim
scarifies for his life. He always asked his mother for his future life. He also
asked his mother when he will die. Karim want to be like another person. He
wanted to play football and see seek but he cannot play at all. He just can see
from the window. Karim has extra long leg make him very skinny and useless
leg.
Point of view

This story take the third point of view because the story was be story itself by the
character in this story itself. For example, this story was be narrate by Puan Hayati
as I in this story that tell all about her disability son. It is story like touching because
how hard family go on with the disability son.

Style

Place style at the Karim house and at the Dr. Tan Clinic.

Time style from morning to night, in the millennium time. People style the people
that very loving to the disability person and care about that.

Story style was a flashback story because at the beginning of the story was tell
about the death of Karim and her mother Puan Hayati was tell back about their
late sons, Karim. This story is also about flashback, it is started when mother of
Karim, Puan Hayati, story back about her belated sons that is Karim. This story
also about Karim life before he die. Puan Hayati just narrate the story until Karim
die.The ending of the story was very dramatic when Karim die and leave to his
family the bequest that is Last Will And Testament, that in that will stated that the
garden to his beloved mother, the chair for his father and colour tv to his twins
brother. This show the love of belated Karim to all his family. The dialogue that
was use by author was true and doesn’t have the word that have many junction.
This story also have its own humour when Karim father tease Karim mother
when Karim mother cannot answer Karim question.
The Synopsis of the story

This story is about the love feeling of the parents towards their disable son.
The son was born handicapped. The handicapped son is Karim, the son of Encik Zul
and Puan Hayati.. The story begin when Karim ask his mother an answerable
questions. He likes to ask about death. Karim very enjoy with his father and mother
because they treat him with full of lovely and Karim doesn’t feel that he was disability
person.
When the time shading and moving, Fariq realized that Karim become
obsessed about death. He reads books on death and horrible things that have
consequences to death.. The time after that, Karim conditions become more worst
One night, Karim was collapsed in his bedroom. His brother quickly takes him
to the car and his father quickly drives to clinic. At the clinic, Karim was placed at
Observation ward. Karim was passed away besides his lovely mother. Sooner,
Faroq found out the last will and tastement made by Karim. It is his bequests of love.