Analysis of the Actions of the Characters in the Novel The Curse of the Earth by Jalal Al-e Ahmad Based on Pierre Bourdieu’s Theory

Abstract

This study, grounded in the theoretical framework of Pierre Bourdieu (habitus, field, and the four forms of capital), seeks to analyze the novel The Curse of the Earth with the aim of understanding the actions of its characters. The efforts of the “schoolteacher” to transform the fields of the village (educational, familial, and socio-political) represent a form of conscious action that is enacted through his reformist habitus (Bourdieu, 1986). However, this agency is suppressed due to the incompatibility between his habitus and the dominant structures of the prevailing fields. The research adopts a qualitative and descriptive-analytical methodology, and the data have been collected through library sources and textual analysis of the novel. The findings indicate that: (1) the teacher’s cultural or symbolic capital proves ineffective in the face of dominant economic-political capital (embodied by Bibi, the steward, and Bibi’s son), resulting in structural conflict and the marginalization of the critical character; (2) the school, as a representation of structure, reproduces inequalities through symbolic violence (Bourdieu, 1991); and (3) the family (both the narrator’s past and present) functions as a microcosm of the same mechanism, reflected in the lack of economic and cultural capital in the past and the capital gap between the teacher and Mahjan in the present. Consequently, the novel predominantly reflects the dominance of structure as the determining force, although attempts at agency are also evident. Ultimately, structure prevails over individual efforts and leaves the dialectic unresolved. The novel demonstrates that if a critical habitus is not supported by convertible capital—particularly social-political capital—it cannot endure within asymmetrical fields and will inevitably be marginalized.