Sensitive Soul-dier

The ending of Naguib Mahfouz’s novel, Palace Walk, shows one of the main characters opening himself up to the reader. Like an oyster, he opened his strong shell to expose his soft inside. Throughout the entire novel, al-Sayyid Ahmad plays the tough dictatorial father who allows no questioning of his authority, and does whatever he pleases whenever he pleases. But in a dramatic change of events, Ahmad reveals that he isn’t only the strict tyrant that he is perceived to be, he is a delicate, innocent person who, like most other on this world, is torn apart after finding out terrible news about one of his children.

“The young man said with obvious sorrow, 'We are sad to inform you of the death of our brother freedom fighter Fahmy Ahmad… (495)'” Ahmad learns that his son Fahmy just died during a peace rally. He asks the soldiers many questions and among them is a comment which shows Ahmad's ignorance. Ahmad thinks that this was Fahmy's first rally against the war, well it wasn't. Fahmy had gone behind his father's back and attended other rallies before. He must have thought of the saying, “What daddy don't know, wont hurt him.” Well that didn't, but Fahmy's death did. And with Fahmy also died the tyrannical Ahmad that Mahfouz portrayed throughout the novel. Like Daniela mentioned in her blog, Hiding Behind the Wall, “...[H]e was too sensitive, he acted so rough with them to protect himself from being hurt by them.” She is talking about how he acts with his daughters, and this also applies to his sons. But after Fahmy died, he can't be tough on him anymore, and there is no more act.
Like previously mentioned, Ahmad wasn't the nicest guy in the world. He wasn't faithful either to his wife or his religion, he was mean spirited, and he obviously wasn't a good role model, but an even like the death of your child, that can really turn a person around. I'll sidetrack to my personal life briefly. Whenever my mother hears a story about how someone's son died, she says, “Ay no! Yo no podria vivir sabiendo que se me murio un hijo.” With that, she summarizes some of the feelings that Ahmad is having. He could not live knowing that one of his children died. No one can truly feel what Ahmad feels unless they are a parent themselves.
And Ahmad learned a lesson that any other parent in this situation would learn. As I believe Johnathan tries to get at in his blog Father's and Children's Relationships, he learns what the role of being a father is. The death of Fahmy is going to bring him closer to his remaining children.
Fahmy is now dead, but he left an inheritance of lessons for his family, and the first one to get his share, Ahmad, learned quickly, and changed his ways.



Works Cited

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