About half way through the novel, Mahfouz shows us a little of Yasin's overexcited hormones. This is what was going through his head,
'Isn't it time yet, bitch? I've melted away, Muslims. I've dissolved like a bar of soap. Nothing's left but the suds. She knows this and doesn't care to open the window. Go ahead, play the coquette, you bitch. Didn't we agree on a date? But you're right to hold back ... one of your breasts could destroy Malta. The second would drive Hindenburg out of his mind. You've got a treasure. May our Lord be gracious to me. May our Lord be gracious to me and to every poor rogue like me who can't sleep for thinking about swelling breasts, plump buttocks, and eyes enhanced by kohl. Eyes come last, because many a blind woman with a fleshy rump and full breasts is a thousand times better than a skinny, flat-chested woman with eyes decorated with kohl. You're the performer's daughter and a neighbor of al-Tarbi'a Alley. The performer has taught you to flirt, and the alley has supplied you with its secret beauty potions. If your breasts have grown full and round, it's because so many lovers have fondled them. We agreed on this date. I'm not dreaming, open the window. Open up, bitch. Open up. You're the most beautiful creature ever to arouse my passion. Holding your lip between mine ... sucking on your nipple.... I'll wait until dawn. You'll find me very docile. If you want me to be the rear end of a donkey cart that you rock back and forth on, I'll do it. If you want me to be the ass pulling the cart, I'll do that. What a mishap, Yasin! Your life is destroyed, you son of Ahmad Abd al-Jawad. How the Australians gloat at your fate. Woe to me, expelled from the Ezbekiya entertainment district, a prisoner in al-Gamaliya. It's all the fault of the war. Kaiser Wilhelm launched it in Europe and I have become its victim here in al-Nahhasin. Open the window, delight of your mother. Open up, my delight...' (Mahfouz, 242)
Not much of a pick-up line, but it sure gives him a lot to talk about. When the reader takes a look at this passage the first thought that comes to mind is, “Is a woman supposed to reply positively to this?” If this isn't their first thought, it must be something along the lines of, “This is kinky.” Yasin gives Zubayda back to back backhanded compliments. He compliments the size of her breasts, but attributes it to the many men who have fondled with them. He also calls her a bitch right before calling her the most beautiful creature he has seen. Clearly, lust is a part of Yasin's life, and his religion doesn't seem to be very important to him. In the reader's eyes, Yasin might appear to be a good example of a bad Muslim.
Yasin's lustful comments to Zubayda wouldn't only confuse her during the attempt to decipher their vulgarity if she had heard them, but they also confuse the reader about his faith and his effectiveness. Yasin's XY chromosomes are way out of tune, and in order to get to any woman's heart, he is going to have to tone it down, and be aware of what he is saying.
"Marriage in Islam." Jannah.Org :: Islam the Eternal Path to Peace. Web. 25 Feb. 2010.
Mahfouz, Naguib. Palace Walk. New York: Anchor, 1990
Yea, so I totally agree with you, Mauricio. I feel like even though it's natural for a man to feel strong physical attraction to the opposite sex, he DEFINITELY takes it to another level. Like many of us have said in class, his lack of self-control when it comes to a beautiful women is atrocious and extremely out of line. What really crosses my mind the most when reading about Yasin's actions is why they are like this. We don't know about anyone else in the book who goes crazy over women like this, not even his father Ahmad. So what puzzles me is why he must take it so far and beyond? Can he not just say Zubayda's hot and that be the end of it? Personally, I think he strongly, strongly disrespects women. He even thinks his step-mother Amina, who has done nothing irresponsible, sexually immoral or politically "incorrect", could potentially be a whore (81). So why should he respect Zubayda, who's a woman that's going to engage in sexual activities with him without marriage, be treated with any respect if he can barely respect his own step-mother, who's the closest thing he's had to a true mother?
ReplyDeleteTo add on to Lauren's comment, I think that Yasin's disrespect for women stemms from the way he views his own mother. He has no respect for women because he witnessed his mother's looseness (for lack of a better word) with men. The fact that she has divorced and re-married countless times disgusts him and therefore he has no respect for his mother and if he cannot respect his mother, then he will not respect any other woman for that matter. Again, as Lauren said, he cannot even respect his stepmother who cares for him with the tenderness she shows her own sons, so then it becomes clear as to why he has no respect for Zubayada, a woman whom he barely knows (or at least not as personally as he has known his own mother and stepmother).
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