Knowing Family

“Perhaps it was the way his mother spoke about her husband that put him in such awe of him. He could not imagine that any other man in the world could equal al-Sayyid-Ahmad's power, dignity, or wealth. As for love, everyone in the household loved the man to the point of worship. Kamal's small heart absorbed its love for him from this environment, but that love remained a hidden jewel, locked up inside him by fear and terror”(50).

In Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz, the way Ahmad, the father of the main family of the book, treats his family continuously comes up. The level of disrespect that he gives his family, his wife especially, is immense. One finds it especially disturbing after reading the passage quoted above.
Ahmad has the gift of a successful family that loves him, but because he can he chooses to act the way he pleases. He disregards the effects that it will have on his family. His daughters will think that it is alright for their husband to treat them like that. His sons may treat women the same way.
It does not seem that that is so with the way the boys and girls are betrayed in the book. Fahmy adores women and respects his sisters. Kamal loves being around the women of the house and is highly influenced by the feelings that they have. The passage tells us that Kamal probably loves his father because he is influenced by the love that his mother has for Ahmad. Khadija does not let her brothers disrespect her even though they are men. We, the readers, don't know too much about how Aisha feels about men, besides that she is flattered by one. All of these examples show that Ahmad may not be having a negative effect on how his children think of the opposite sex. So the problem may not be the effect he has on them. The problem may be that he is not having an effect on them.
This passage tells us that Kamal's love for his father is “locked up” and “hidden.” This is the exact problem. He is not really being involved in the lives of his children because they have shut him out due to fear. While at the breakfast table, the children do not discuss anything with their father because they are afraid to speak around him. They developed a life that excluded him from any fun that they had. They would become a different person while he was around. Thus, he does not know who his children really are. Amina refrains from telling Ahmad about the things that Kamal has done at school and at home because she fears what he will do to him and sympathizes with Kamal. Because Ahmad continues to treat his family with disrespect, they continue to exclude him from truths about certain family members. Ahmad probably does not know how his daughters act because they are never around him. When they are in his presence, they are not allowed to express themselves. Because of Ahmad's actions, he has become, unbenounced to him, the ostracized one in the family. The family has a life and each member has a distinct and specific personality. He does not know the difference between their personalities, besides that Kamal likes to play around. The family has an alliance against him in a way. They don't tell their father about how each other really acts and they don't do anything to let them know their true characters. Ahmad seems to not care about the true characters of his family as long as they don't disgrace his name.
It is a pity that Ahmad is excluded from the real life of his family. He won't know what kind of person has been growing up in his house. He does little to raise them besides instilling fear in them so that they won't disrespect him or be comfortable around him. He wants them to be good citizens and not stick out in society. But he seems to not care about their characters.