As a politician, he is good at disguise, have it both ways. He is a fascist through and through, but he looks like a gentleman on the surface, full of goodwill, but he is cruel at heart. During the reign of King Richard, he helped the imperial court suppress the people, colluded with foreign intelligence agencies, engaged in espionage, extorted money from others and obtained political and economic benefits. 194 1 In August, he quickly disguised himself after the Soviet Union and the United States entered Iran at the same time.
At that time, the domestic democratic movement in Iran was surging and sweeping across the country. Due to circumstances, King Richard abdicated in September. The big landlords and big bourgeoisie who supported his pro-German policy suddenly became "Democrats". Master Haji is one of such shameless politicians in Iran's reactionary ruling class. Faced with a sharp decline, he had planned to flee to the United States and transfer his money to the Bank of America. But he soon discovered that his terrible partners, speculators, traitors, spies and criminals had now "re-manipulated all the important things". So like a crocodile, he squatted there hesitating, watching and waiting for the opportunity. He dare not openly oppose the democratic movement. In public, he called himself a pseudo-Democrat, took every opportunity to flaunt himself as "the father of Iranian democracy" and "the son of revolution", and endlessly cursed the fascist dictatorship of King Richard. Recruiting troops secretly, piecing together various reactionary forces, doing everything possible to create chaos and provoke tribal conflicts. He is ambitious, not only taking his minions out as ministers, but also unwilling to be manipulated behind the scenes to actively run for parliament and covet the throne of the cabinet prime minister.
As a businessman, he is greedy and mercenary. For the sake of money, he is not afraid of hurting nature, and he is eager to expand the property inherited from the profiteer's father through various despicable means. He not only made huge profits from manors, shops, bathhouses, rental houses, knitting mills, textile mills and other industries, but also made a fortune by buying and selling short positions, forging securities, smuggling and evading taxes, and buying official titles for others. As long as it is profitable, he can rely on his wealth to influence the law, promote the officers who embezzled public funds and killed tribal people to generals, and bail out the criminals who killed them-Marx once pointed out: "In the early historical period of capitalist mode of production-and every capitalist upstart must go through this historical stage alone-the impulse to get rich and greed play a dominant role as absolute lust." Master Haji is really a nouveau riche. As a landlord and capitalist, he is not only a crazy and insatiable vampire, but also a miser who loves money and is extremely stingy in the social environment of Iran in the early stage of capitalism.
In his mind, the relationship between people, in addition to naked interests, is a "ruthless cash relationship." Money dominates his soul. He educated his son: "rich people have everything, and people without money have nothing." Therefore, the possessiveness of gold is the primary feature of his character. At the mention of the word "money" and the jingle of gold coins or the rustle of paper tickets, he "immediately jumped in his heart and was on cloud nine." Often in his sleep, he always thinks about how to make money. Money is a panacea for all his diseases, and money is his only purpose in life. There is a story in the novel that he woke up just after the operation. When he heard that someone gave him a golden fruit bowl, he quickly asked, "Is it real gold?" "... is it heavy? When he heard this exciting answer, "a satisfied smile swept over Haji's chapped lips." This detail vividly depicts not only the greed of Master Haji, but also the money fetishism of the landlord and bourgeoisie.
Extreme meanness is another characteristic of Master Haji's personality. He has a lot of money, but he always looks poor at ordinary times, afraid of exposing his true feelings and causing expenses. In order to accumulate wealth, "he will also squeeze oil from white water"! In order to save money, "if a fly lands on his sputum, he will chase all the way to Petersburg"! In order to control the food consumption at home, he personally distributed sugar, counted the leftover plums and even weighed the firewood for cooking at home. He loves to drink, and he drinks a lot when he is a guest. But I never want to spend money on wine. Someone gave him wine as a gift, and he carefully poured it into the jar and drank it slowly like taking medicine. Master Haji calls himself a devout believer. According to Islamic Shariah, Haji should give110 of his annual income to help the poor. But he couldn't bear to give up the money. After careful consideration, he calculated the money accurately, signed a check, put it in a bucket full of dates, gave it to Hong and gave it to the poor. But when Arong mentioned the jujube barrel, he used the excuse that the children wanted to eat jujube, and immediately bought it at the market price, so that Arong could use the money from selling jujube to help the poor. He destroyed the check himself, and so on, which completely exposed the humble soul of a miser.
In addition, Master Haji has some deep-rooted hobbies. One is gluttony. The author wrote: "As soon as it comes to eating, the old man's face suddenly lights up, saliva flows straight into his stomach, and even his pupils suddenly dilate." "There is an insatiable desire in his eyes." The second is the desire for sex. He has many wives, six of whom are divorced, four of whom are dead, seven of whom are now family members, and there are many concubines in the back room of the inner court. Even so. All he has to do is "catch a glimpse of how many women can attract his attention" ... his eyes are still wandering around. The third is to brag and not pretend to understand. He can't even explain the new words in the primary school textbook, but he boasts that he is writing a special paper on local customs. I know nothing about history, but I insist on talking nonsense about historical events.