Summary

The story, which takes place in Egypt, begins with a father taking his son to his first day of school. The boy is proud to be wearing his new school uniform, but wonders whether going to school rather than staying home with his mother represents some kind of punishment. As they walk along a garden-lined street the boy's father tells him that school is not a punishment but a place where boys are transformed into useful men. "Today you truly begin life," he says.

When they reach the school, which looks like a grim fortress to the boy, they stand looking through the gate at the crowds of children already in the schoolyard. The father encourages the boy to go through the gate by himself, to face the experience cheerfully, and to be a man. The father says that when the...