A Critique of the Short Story "General Amnesty" by Bozorg Alavi in the Light of Sociological Theory of Emile Durkheim's Punishment

Bozorg Alavi is one of the greatest contemporary novelists who has played a significant role in the development of short stories in contemporary literature. In all his stories, he has critically addressed various issues of society. One of Alavi’s short stories is the story of “general amnesty”. In this story, the author depicts the social realities and changes of that time. In this research, an attempt has been made to adapt the issues criticized in this story to Durkheim's sociological theory of punishment. Emile Durkheim thinks about punishment that punishment has the function of integrating society. In his view, when a crime occurs, the values ​​and morals of society are violated. As a result, society feels threatened and reacts. Punishment is the emotional and natural reaction of society to the defect of collective values. In this research, the author intends to study the short story "General Amnesty" by Bozorg Alavi based on Durkheim's sociological theory of punishment in an analytical-descriptive and library method. The results show that although punishments change over time their origins will not change. From this point of view, the change of punishments is, in a way, the adaptation of the punishment to the collective conscience of the time. In fact, as society changes, so does punishment.