Decayed Teeth | English Book Summery | BICTE | first semester / year

                                                          Decayed Teeth

This is a story by Khalil Gibran, a Syrian writer. The story is about writer’s painful experience after he had decayed tooth in his mouth. The decayed tooth troubles him much. So, he goes to the dentist and requests him to extract it. But the dentist does not agree to extract rather he wants to fill with pure gold and does so. The writer pays money and returns back to home. However, after few days, he feels the same trouble (tooth aches severely). Then, he goes to another dentist and asks him to extract the damned tooth without asking question. This time, the doctor extracts his decayed (rotten) tooth.

On this background experience of decayed tooth, the writer discusses the Syrian society which is full of with such teeth. He argues that in many societies, when people trouble with decayed tooth, they prefer to fill with gold on it. Society makes no effort to extract the decayed teeth to get rid of the pain. So, the society is not healthy. The writer further says that in Syria (in the mouth of Syria), there are many rotten, black and dirty teeth. Such teeth create sickness in the stomach. It means disease still remains. Then, people still feel pain; trouble, sickness and many people die of it. According to the writer, there are many decayed teeth everywhere, in school, court, society and home.  If we visit rich people, we find falsehood, hypocrisy and conceit, if we visit poor people; they have fear, ignorance and cowardice. Reformers hold conferences and deliver public speeches if they are asked to cure decayed tooth.

Question) 

1) Interpret the sentence "the treatment it inflicted converted the beautiful songs of my soul into wailing and agony."

Ans_ The writer felt pain and agony with the decayed tooth every day and night. So he wanted to get rid of the problem of decaying tooth. He went to the dentist to extract but he suggested him to fill the tooth with pure gold rather than extract (remove). He did as the doctor suggested him. After returning home, after a few days later he felt again pain and agony as before. So, for the writer's life, the treatment becomes the beautiful song of his soul into wailing and agony.

Question)

2. Explain "the person who receives the blows is not like the one who counts them."

Ans_ When the writer went to the dentist to remove the decayed tooth, the doctor suggested him to fill up the tooth with pure gold rather than removing because that makes the tooth stronger then before. As he did what the doctor said, later he found his pain as worse than before. He says that the pain and suffering is only felt by the patient rather than others who only imagine the suffering. The pain kills more than wound itself. For this reason in his painful context the writer feels the person who receives pains is not like the one who just imagines them.