Kamal's Hatred

"He greeted Khadija and Kamal and sat down-as Kamal put it later-as though he were one of them. The boy seized the opportunity presented by the bridegroom's conversation with the others to scrutinize his face for a long time. It was a stranger's face that had suddenly appeared in their lives, where it occupied a prominent position that entitled the man to be one of their closest relatives-in fact, Aisha's husband. Whenever Kamal thought of this new relationship, he remembered the loss of Aisha, just as surely as the thought of white brings to mind the color black"(291). Mahfouz talks about description in this passage by the way he brings forth the character in our minds. We get the sense that Kamal doesn't like Khalil because of the way Kamal described him. Kamal doesn't like that Khalil feels like he is one of them and the author emphasizes this point by giving us Kamal's description of him. The author also uses color at the end of this passage to convey how Kamal doesn't enjoy the change of Aisha's marriage has brought to the family. Kamal misses aisha and blames Khalil for her departure. I can really imagine the face Kamal has when he is thinking about Aisha's leaving because of the way the author uses his words correctly. He uses words like "scrutinize" to let us know that Kamal doesn't approve of Khalil. The author could have used "notices" or "pays attention to", but instead he uses "scrutinize". It gives us a mental picture of how Kamal is reacting to the situation.