Kamal's Innocence

An important character that often gets overlooked in Palace Walk is Kamal. Kamal is very important because as a small child he is very innocent and in his innocence he says and does many things that affect greatly how some things play out in the novel. Like Dee explains in her blog, “Kamal was seen through my eyes as one of the characters that a lot of people blew off, but he offered an important role to a lot of the situation in the book that were significant to the over all theme of innocence and honor…We can see Kamal’s feelings when he says, “In that coffee hour Kamal frequently felt lost and neglected by his family. Hardly anyone paid attention to him” (53).”

I also agree with what Aby says in her blog, “Kamal seems to want to be like his dad and brother.” Like Dee and Aby say, all Kamal wants to do is be an adult, so he tries to act like a grown up and in doing this he says and does many things that have important repercussions throughout the novel. Although he has no intention to Kamal impacts greatly his family’s lives.

One example of this is how he becomes good friends with the soldiers that camped outside his house. Kamal is attracted very attracted to them because they are foreigners; he is especially interested in their appearance and the language they speak. Because of this Kamal begins talking to them and becomes acquainted with them. One day they give him a caricature they had drawn of him. Kamal looked at the picture and didn't think it looked like him. Then he saw that the men were laughing and realized that they were joking. However, when he showed the picture to Fahmy, he thought something else. Fahmy told him, "'O Lord, this picture omits none of your defects and exaggerates them . . . the small skinny body, the long scrawny neck, the large nose, the huge head, and the tiny eyes'" (438). He went on to say, "'It's clear what the secret of their fondness for you is. . . . They like to laugh at your appearance and foppishness. To put it plainly, you're nothing but a puppet to them'" (438). When Kamal saw this caricature of him he though it had simply been a joke between friends. However, when he showed it to Fahmy he learned otherwise. This episode could have fueled Fahmy’s anger towards the English, which eventually lead to Fahmy’s death. This innocent act by Kamal could’ve been a lethal consequence for Fahmy.

Another instance that shows Kamal's innocence is when he is telling a story at the evening coffee hour. He tells about how one day that he arrived at the encampment he saw Julian, one of the English soldiers, waving his hand to Maryam who was smiling at the her window. As soon as she saw him she left the window looking terrified. As soon as he finished relating the story he receives alarmed responses from everyone. Amina, incredulous, warns her son against making false accusations. However, Famhy commented, "'He's not lying. No sensible person would accuse him of lying about this. Don't you see that a person his age wouldn't be able to invent such a story?'" (439). As Fahmy said, Kamal in his innocence did not know what he was talking about. Although this was an innocent remark it led to Fahmy’s learning the truth about Maryam.

Work Cited

Mahfouz, Naguib. Palace Walk (Cairo Trilogy). New York: Anchor, 1990. Print.