“You have disappointed my hopes in you so much that only God and His blessings can ever repay me. I raised and disciplines you. I watched over you….Then ll my efforts lead to what?... An alcoholic wretch who talks himself into raping the most humble servant in his families home. “ (408).
The more I read the book the more Ahmad ceases to amaze me. Since she start of the novel it has seemed that he thinks really highly of himself and only comments on everybody else’s errors. Like Johnathan said on a previous blog, he hates when people lie and when they act in bad ways but he goes around doing the same thing to other people. When Muhammad Iffat goes and visits his shop to request that Yasin and Zaynab be divorced he acts as if it were an impossible request. Muhammad feels that Yasin is unfit to be with his daughter because he goes out partying at night and has intimate relations with the maid of the house. In the entire conversation Ahmad it does not seem that Ahmad agrees with anything that Iffat is talking about. He simply said, “Don’t you see we’re all made of the same stuff, even if the details differ” in other words he pretty much made it okay for all the men in Egypt to behave this way due to their gender. Ahmad has no sense of self-judgment and it seems like he continues to ignore his own actions when he talks to his son, Yasin about the disappointment he has caused. In the quote above Ahmad is making it clear that God is the only one that can forgive him for committing this barbaric action. Now, if Ahmad didn’t truly think this was a bad offense he wouldn’t tell this to Yasin because we all know that Ahmad has intimate relations with other women during his nights out. I still don’t believe that he doesn’t think that he has been a bad influence on Yasin. Ahmad says, “I raised and disciplined you” yes he did but he also left a little trail for Yasin to follow his footsteps and commit the same stupid mistakes like sleeping with other women and being an unfit husband. Ahmad needs to realize that he is responsible for his family’s disgraces. And the sooner he accepts that the better it will be. He will have a chance to mend his errors and try and save his family from committing more mistakes.
Mahfouz, Naguib. Palace Walk (Cairo Trilogy). New York: Anchor, 1990. Print.
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I think it's true that Ahmad had an extreme impact on the way that Yasin came out as far as his first marriage ending so stupidly and the things that his family has done, but I think that's no excuse. I think that his family, especially Yasin, had many opportunities to not commit the same idiotic mistakes knowing good and well what could potentially happen. So even though Ahmad has made some retarded decisions, it wasn't like Yasin had to do the same thing. If anything, he should have been smart enough to realize that what my father has done is not smart and I shouldn't do it either.
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