Accawi"s short story, "The Telephone," The village of Magdaluna was overcome by the telephone. Magdaluna was a simple town. The villagers did not have much, and technology was very new to them. They judged time by certain events that happened. For example, an earthquake, or the birth of an important person would be sufficient to get a feel time concepts. The children would play in the streets and run errands for the grown-ups for small sums of money. Accawi grew up in this town and he was content with his life. Change would surely be a bad thing to him because he had fun without all the advantages of technology. He assumed everyone else was happy as well. However, when the telephone came, it changed their lives forever. The telephone brought so many opportunities for the villagers. The whole village would sit by the phone and wait for it to ring and bring them news, and opportunities to make money. The people of Magdaluna almost started worshiping the phone. The congregations around the phone grew larger and larger. People would receive job opportunities and leave the village. This was upsetting to many people of Magdaluna, especially Accawi. It was disturbing their way of living, and taking them away from a life that they enjoyed.

             Accawi states in his short story that the telephone was bad. I agree with this statement to an extent. The telephone had a bad impact on the village, in that they were torn apart from each other, and changed a way of living that was truly unique. A way of living in which time did not matter and where there were hardly any worries. Before the telephone the places where everyone socialized and relaxed were always bustling with people. Now that there was a telephone, everyone huddled around it, waiting for his or her opportunity of a lifetime. Im Kaleem, for example, was a woman who pleased the men of the town. She was the "town whore," if you will.