Death's Appointment: A reaction to Appointment in Samara

In Appointment in Samara, I felt that the opening sentence was very intriguing. I was given the vision of the streets of Baghdad, dirty and crowded. As the servant returned, the vivid image of the man filled with fear was heightened in my mind. I imagined the servant being very dark in complexion due to the region, and his being described as, "white," was a fantastic representation of his fright. I also found it interesting …

…me to sense the urgency of the servant to escape death's grip in Samara. The irony of the entire story was in that death was never due to meet the servant on his way to buy provisions for his master. Death was due to meet him that night in Samara. I felt that this was somewhat comedic, although it dealt with death. It was very clever, and made a very short story seem very complex.