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.

Wake-Up Call

After having everyone regard Ahmad as a hero throughout the entire book, we finally see that Ahamd is human just like everyone else. For one thing, his friend Muhammad Iffat takes a stand and defends his daughter from the injustices that Ahmad and Yasin put women through. After Zaynab finds her husband cheating on her with her maid, Nur, she flees to her father’s home and tells him everything that Yasin has done. Iffat says, “Is my daughter destined to share a husband with her in a polygamous marriage? By the Lord of Heaven, no”.(406) Muhammad Iffat feels that his family’s honor has been disrespected and therefore requests for Zaynab and Yasin to get a divorce. Ahmad reacts as if it is only natural for a man to have other women whenever he pleases and that shows he is a hypocrite and a narcissist. Since Ahamd seems to be only concerned with his honor, he scolds Yasin and for the first time Yasin doesn’t look at his father as a hero, instead he thinks, “Discipline yourself. Give yourself some advice. Have you forgotten Zabuyda? Jalila? The music and the wine? After all that, you appear before us wearing the turban of the most authoritative Muslim legal scholar…”(410) As Lauren describes in her blog, “Ahmad leads a double-life”. According to Dr. Gail Saltz, “secrets can cause people to behave in ways that seem entirely out of character — to go to any desperate length to conceal what simply must be hidden, at all costs”. This is exactly what Ahmad is trying to do with his life because he knows he feels ashamed for the things he has done.

Unfortunately Ahmad only realizes where he has gone wrong when he learns that Fahmy has died while at a demonstration. This is the turning point in Ahmad’s life. It becomes the wake-up call that Ahmad needs to realize that he is not the almighty and that he is human just like everyone else. Ahmad asks, “Won’t you allow me to begin his funeral procession at his home”.(496) This is the first time Ahmad asks for permission to do something. It is incredible to see Ahmad would ask if he could bury his son because before he would usually just do as he pleases. Now he questions, “ How can I have a home without him? How can I be a father if he’s gone?….This really is pain.”(496-497) As Daniela mentions, “he admits….that he is not God”. This is the moment when Ahmad knows that that things have to change.










Works Cited


Mahfouz, Naguib. Palace Walk. New York: Anchor, 1990
Saltz, Gail. “When does a secret become a double life?” MSNBC. April 11, 2006. Web. March 17, 2010. http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/12191728/
Barajas, Daniela. “He’s Human After All” Digging Even Deeper. Web. 27 Mar. 2010.
Clemons, Lauren. “Leading a Double Life” Digging Even Deeper. Web. 27 Mar. 2010

Why does the book end with Kamal?

“Visit me once each year, For it’s wrong to abandon people forever” (498).

Before we talked about this passage in class, I was planning to focus more on Khadija and Aisha’s pregnancies, but when we went over this I was interested so I decided to write about this. But we talked about why Mahfouz chose to end the book this way, with him walking in the door to Kamal singing this song. I was more interested in why Mahfouz chose to end the book with Kamal, the most insignificant significant character.

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. Kamal is seen as just a little kid

that likes to ask a lot of questions and annoy people by his mother and his siblings, but his father views him very negatively in the beginning. Kamal doesn’t feel the love from his father that his older brothers feel and is therefore, in an emotional sense, closer to his his sisters Khadija and Aisha and his mother Amina. 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). To see the book end with Ahmad walking in on Kamal’s singing, is something I never would’ve expected as an ending.

Ivan inspects Kamal’s role in the book when it comes to innocence and freedom. He talks about the scene in the book where Kamal is asking his mom for freedom to go out at night and seek entertainment or whatever he wants and his mom is talking to him letting him know he’s too young right now because he isn’t working yet. And Aby, in her blog "...his young heart found hard to bear" explores his feeling for girls that are already developing at a very young age and his relationship with Maryam and how he had to sacrifice it because his brother wanted to marry her. Both of these are two scenes that are described in great detail and are in a sense determining factors for the way we see him and the people he interacts with in the book. Ivan even notices how he tries to be like his father and get the freedom he sees they have that he feels he should be able to get when he’s able to work. This just shows how much he loves and aspires to be like his father and older brothers. He just wants something different than what he has. He wants to be able to do what he pleases without being told he can’t because he’s too young or inexperienced. Kamal plays a very important role in the way we think of Ahmad in the book. We can see how much Kamal respects and fears his father, “His respect for him was as great as his fear” (50). Kamal wants to be able to have a relationship with his father, but Ahmad seems to be so interested in himself that he doesn’t even notice that his son is craving attention and love from him. Or, maybe, he just doesn’t care. Ahmad says himself that he feels his son is immature and he plays too much. He doesn’t pay Kamal very much attention but the chapter ends with Ahmad walking in on Kamal singing and enjoying the same thing his father does.

1. Mahfouz, Naguib. Palace Walk (Cairo Trilogy). New York: Anchor, 1991. Print.

Not a God, Not so Strong

The final section of Naguib Mahfouz’s, Palace Walk, brought forth a number of surprises, the most obvious being Fahmy’s death and the revelation of Ahmad’s affair with Maryam’s mother. But, one thing stood out to me the most. The way Ahmad didn’t seem as superior to the others as he once did was really surprising to me. As the novel came to an end, we saw how Ahmad, at force, had to obey the British soldiers who held him at gun point and forced him to work. For a man like Ahmad, it seemed like something so degrading.
Throughout the whole book, Ahmad had been described as all powerful and so much better than everyone else. As Daniela said in her blog, “Worshipper Blinded by Love and Fear” she writes about how Ahmad’s family treats Ahmad as if he were a God. She gives the example of Aisha’s feelings towards Ahmad after she’s told that she cannot marry. It is clear that Aisha is upset, but Aisha couldn’t bring herself to stand up to her father. This may have been simply because Aisha didn’t want to disrespect her father, something that is written in the Koran as wrong, but why couldn’t she at least say what she wanted to say? At the beginning of Chapter 65, we see how Ahmad is confronted by two soldiers. When Ahmad sees the soldiers coming, Mahfouz describes Ahmad’s reaction by saying, “With a pounding heart and a dry throat, al-Sayid Ahmad watched the soldier approach” (442). This clearly means that Ahmad was scared. Anyone else would be scared by a man in a uniform, fully armed, and physically strong, but if Ahmad was so “God-like” why wouldn’t he be scared? God’s are usually all powerful and nothing frightens them. Seeing how Ahmad could do nothing to communicate with the foreign soldiers and get himself out of the mess made Ahmad look just as inferior as everyone else. He was no longer giving orders to everyone, he was the one taking orders.
Fahmy’s death brought forth a surprising reaction from Ahmad. At the beginning of the novel, we saw Ahmad as a man who cared solely of himself and how he was viewed. As Lauren wrote in the blog named, “Ahmad’s Priorities,” Ahmad didn’t care about his relationship with his family as much as he cared about his relationship with others and his image in the eyes of the public. He did what he wanted and was content with the happiness of others rather than that of his family. But, when Fahmy is killed during a demonstration, we see Ahmad breaks down. We see him finally thinking about how his family, Amina, will take the news. We see his pain on page 495, when he replies to the young man offering his condolences to him by saying,

“…Dead! I’ll never see him again at home or anywhere else on
the face of the earth? How can I have a home without him? How can I be a father
if he’s gone? What has become of all the hopes attached to him? The only hope
left is patience…. Patience? Oh…. Do you feel the searing pain? This really is
pain. You were mistaken previously when you claimed to be in pain. No, before
today you’ve never known pain. This is pain…” (495-496).

This was the first time I actually saw Ahmad showing such vulnerability. It was the first time that I saw him show his pain and emotions to a complete stranger. What shocked me even more was how on page 497 he started thinking of how Amina would take the news of Fahmy’s death. Mahfouz writes,

“He remembered Amina for the first time and his feet almost failed him. What
could he say to her? How would she take the news? She was weak and delicate. She
wept at the death of a sparrow” (497)

informing the reader of Ahmad’s first realization of how Amina would feel about what had happened. For the first time, I saw Ahmad worrying about someone other than himself.
Ahmad’s transition in the book was clear and surprising. It was evident that Ahmad had undergone such a huge change, but it was surprising that he did and in the manner that it happened. Seeing him take orders from someone and not be able to fight for what he wanted allowed readers to remove the perception that Ahmad was god-like. The way Ahmad went from caring solely of himself and his image to others to worrying about the feelings of others and being able to express his vulnerability to strangers was a huge turnaround from the beginning of the novel. But is his transformation legit? Is it a transformation or simply temporary feelings? Could Fahmy’s death have sparked something in Ahmad or will Ahmad go back to being the way he was before?

Works Cited
Daniela. "Worshipper Blinded by Love and Fear." 27 February 2010. diggingevendeeper.blogspot.com. 22 March 2010 < http://diggingevendeeper.blogspot.com/2010/02/worshipper-blinded-by-love-and-fear_17.html >.
LaurenF. "Ahmad's Priorities." 10 February 2010. diggingevendeeper.blogspot.com. 22 March 2010 < http://diggingevendeeper.blogspot.com/2010/02/passage-im-writing-about-is-on-page-10.html >.
Mahfouz, Naguib. Palace Walk. New York: Anchor Books, 1991.

Life and Death

“His arms and legs began a slow limp disjoint motion. ‘How loud the clamor is. But what are they screaming about? Do you remember? How quickly memories are slipping away. What do you want? To chant? What chant? Or just call out? To whom? For what? There’s a voice speaking inside you. Do you hear? Do you see? But where? There’s nothing. Nothing. Darkness and more darkness. A gentle motion pushing with the regularity of the ticking of a clock. The heart is flowing with it. There’s a whisper accompanying it. The gate of the garden. Isn’t that so? It’s moving in a fluid rippling way and slowly dissolving. The towering tree is dancing gently. The sky… the sky? High, expansive…nothing but the calm, smiling sky with peace raining from it”’ (493).

This paragraph is the description of Fahmy’s death. It describes the quick thoughts that flows through his mind as he is dying. there is a lot of questions racing through his head because as Tianna puts it "Death at the end of the novel poses a lot of questions in many people's minds and influences their actions" Death leaves things unaswered and pointless. It’s interesting how Naguib does not outright say Fahmy is shot and killed with a bullet. Death for Fahmy did not end with darkness and nothingness, it ended with peace. The thing he fights for and the reason why he’s in the demonstrations and risk his life for. Peace. Ahmad wonders, “ Peace? Where had it gone and when would it be ready to return? Even in his store there were distressing, whispered conversations about bloody events” (463). The revolution took away peace not only in the streets and in his store but in his very household since his rebellious son was so ready to demonstrate in the bloody revolution. Fahmy’s ‘peace’ will only be felt by him as his life slips away. His death brings the worse part of the war right in his home. All he wants is for everything to go back to normal but was the way everything was the best for his family and for his country. Death is the point of no return for change. Nothing will ever be normal or the way it was without Fahmy. Even though his death will change everything for his family but what about his country he fights for. His life is lost and his country is still not free. Ahmad tells his friend, “Fahmy learned how the boy had been lost and might just have never existed…the poor lad perished, but Sa’d didn’t return and the English didn’t leave” (466). Is all this death necessary for freedom? Is Fahmy’s death for his country really pointless? In the long run the demonstrations and rebellion are necessary. If the country continues to be submissive and servile to the English then nothing will ever change.
Toward the end of the book death and new life are being compared. Aisha and Khadija are pregnant and Aisha gives birth to her baby however it has a high risk of dying, Yasin’s mother dies, and Fahmy is killed in what is suppose to be a peaceful demonstration. Also Mahfouz includes small scares of death with Aisha, Ahmad, Kamal and Fahmy before he actually dies. Chapter 67 ends with gruesome descriptions of death that happened in al-Aziziya and Badrashin and chapter 68 begins with the birth of Aisha’s baby. Its no coincidence that Sa’d Pasha has been freed on the same day Aisha delivers her baby which happens in the next chapter. The revolution relates to Aisha’s birth because in a way it’s like a new birth of the nation and a new birth of freedom. Since Mahfouz does not kill of the baby, the reader is left with hope that it will live which compares to Sa’d Pasha’s return which gives people hope for the freedom of Egypt.

Bruno, Tianna. Death in the end. Digging Even Deeper. http://diggingevendeeper.blogspot.com/2010/03/death-in-end.html

Death in the End

“Death is new to me. I've never witnessed it before. I wish the end could come without it. We all die...really? I've got to resist my fears. Nowadays we hear about people dying all the time, on Ministries Street, in the schools, and at the mosque of al-Azhar...What can the families of the martyrs do? Should they spend the rest of their lives weeping? They weep and then forget. That's death”(428).

It seems that death is a very prominent theme at the end of the novel Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz. In almost every situation that they get into, death is the outcome to worry about. When Ahmad was trapped by the English soldiers after leaving the neighbor's house, he worries that he would be killed by the English soldiers. In the passage above, Yasin is worried about his mother dying. It makes him ponder about dying himself. When Aisha is having issues during labor, Ahmad and Khalil worried about her and her child's death.
We see the characters that appear to the reader to be really tough and inconsiderate of people's feelings have a heart. They think about and are saddened by the idea that life for everyone else goes on after people die. The dead are soon forgotten. There existence is no longer taken into consideration after a week after their death. These two characters are Ahmad and hi son, Yasin.
Ahamd, a man well respected by his family and his community, shows that he is not an all knowing and ready-for-everything being. As Daniela puts it, “we find out that he is not a God.” When death comes to someone close to him that he cares about, we see that he does not know what to do. He does not know how to break the news to his wife. He is simply hit unexpectedly and dumbfounded, which is something that he gets a lot from Fahmy at the end of the novel. Death is not something that anyone in the family was prepared to handle.
Mahfouz brings the theme of death into the novel when Yasin finds out about his mother's sickness. Yasin, who is called a “bull” and has treated woman as they are simply object to get sex from, shows a pensive and delicate side as his father did when confronted by death. Yasin learns from and mirrors a lot of Ahmad's actions, as Marixa says, “Yasin is influenced by his dad and the things that he sees at home.” This situation where Yasin has not seen his father, or anyone else for that matter, deal with this allows the readers to see Yasin in a new light. He questions life itself. When we see Yasin in the mosque praying, he is so sure about what he is doing. He knows not to ask for repentance because he would then have to give up his ways. He isn't troubled about getting a divorce from Zaynab, or at least that is how he tries to appear. But when his mother is stricken with malaria, he doesn't know what his next move will be. Should he cry? Should he part with her on good terms or will their relationship end as it has been existing all these years? Should he get mad at her new husband? He has all these questions because of one thing death
Death at the end of the novel poses a lot of questions in many people's minds and influences their actions. More people joined the demonstrations, probably, because they heard about the people that the soldiers had killed. Death made a huge footprint in the lives of may of the Egyptians at that time.



Work Cited
Mahfouz, Naguib. Palace Walk. New York: Anchor Books, 1991.

Rod., Marixa. "Courage & Influence." Digging Even Deeper. Web. 26 Mar. 2010. .

B., Daniela. "Hes Human After All." Digging Even Deeper. Web. 26 Mar. 2010. .

He’s Human After All

Throughout the first part of the book, we see how the family views Ahmad as a God, and how the author to a certain extent portrays Ahmad as a God. The author shows us how Ahmad is loved and respected by so many people. Everyone in the family fears Ahmad, and he feels that’s how it should be because as Javi mentioned, “he thinks really highly of himself”; thus, he thinks his family should fear and respect him. In a sense he feels that if they don’t fear him, then they won’t respect him. As Lauren says, “His entire life is based off the fact that the things she does for him are done out of her fear for him.” Ahmad behaved so strict with the family because he fears that if he’s nice with them, then they will no longer fear him, and he will lose control. He wants to continue to be almost worshiped by the family.

But in the last section of the book, we finally see an Ahmad that’s human, and isn’t so perfect and powerful after all. He’s in denial for a long time, but he comes to realize that he is not all-powerful. When he’s forced to help fill the hole with dirt by the English soldiers, Ahmad says talking to himself first and then to God, “Your body’s powerful and strong and can take it, despite being impaired by the evening’s inebriation…O God, preserve us…I’m not meant for this…not meant for this. God vanquish those who doubt Your power…We are weak…I’m not meant for this” (448). Here we see Ahmad first trying to convince himself that he was strong; he wants to make himself believe that he can take all the work because he it a tough man. But he admits after being put through so much work that he is not God; he comes to see that he can’t take it because he is weak, because he too is human.

Here for the first time we see Ahmad come to this realization. He was always so cocky before. He always wanted things to be his way because he had the control. He always had the power over everything. When the officer wanted to marry Aisha, he said that “no daughter of mine would marry a man until I am satisfied that his primary motive for marrying her is a sincere desire to be related to me…me…me…me” (157). He feels so important and powerful. He wants everything to have him at the center, and he knows that at least in this case he has the power to make that decision. Another time when we see that Ahmad feels so highly of himself is when he tells Fahmy, “The only word that counts here is mine. Mine, mine, mine…” (425). But when he is filling the whole, we see a completely different side because for the first time he doesn’t have power over the situation; for the first time, he can’t have the final say. We see that he finally realizes that only God has the power over everything, that he is only human just like everyone else.

It is in this later part in the book that we see him accept it himself, and for the first time, we see him suffering and about to break down. When he finds out that his son died, Ahmad takes out his human side completely. We see how human, how sensitive he truly is. He thinks when he gets the bad news, “How can I have a home without him? How can I be a father if he’s gone?” (495). I mean here we see that basically Ahmad is saying that he can’t have life without his son; he can’t be a father without him. Before getting to this part, we would have never thought that Ahmad would think this way because we always get a different attitude from Ahmad. Here he’s humbled by the situation and he finally touched the ground and sees that he can feel pain too because he isn’t God, as he and other people in the family saw him as.

Leading a Double Life

In my opinion, nothing is more aggravating than a person who tries to portray themselves as something they are not. In Palace Walk, a lot of these men are living double lives. Take Ahmad for example. From the beginning of the book he doesn't allow his family to see what he's really up to at times and does a pretty good job at hiding it from them. He goes out and sleeps with various women who aren't his wife and still claims to be a devout muslim. Finally, Yasin catches him in the act cheating on his wife, but instead of Yasin seeing the error of his father's ways he decided to emulate him. He decides that it's okay to live a life where he sleeps with various women, goes out and spends his money and drinks, all because his father does it. We've seen Yasin since the beginning of the book as someone who has admired his father so much, and it's inevitable that he'd want to be like him in every way possible. But, when Fahmy began lying about who he was and also leading a double life, it's apparent that this must be something that their family does. Ahmad wants Fahmy to stop participating in demonstrations dealing with the English, but Fahmy is so involved with doing this that he ends up disobeying his father , which will eventually lead to his death.
The passage that showed me that they really live this kind of life is found on page 424, when Fahmy shows us just how much this family doesn't mind lying about what they need to in order to get away with certain things. Fahmy thinks, “Lying was not considered contemptible or shameful in this household. Living in their father's shadow, none of them would have been able to enjoy any peace without the protection of a lie...None of the had scruples about it...” Fahmy talks about how many things that their family has done they've lied to Ahmad about it and they don't feel any remorse about it. But, my concern is why don't they? They consider themselves to be devout, faithful muslims, yet from most of the men in the book, we see them living lives that are contrary to what they should be doing as well-practicing muslims. I did research on the way that muslims view lying to see if they were actually living the way they should. I found a website written by a man named Dr. M. Amir Ali who was a man who came to the United States to spread the word of Islam to rid people of their pre-conceived notions and stereotypes of the religion. He wrote many articles on Islamic values and did a specific section for the views of falsehood. He writes, “Allah's messenger did not hate anything as strongly as he hated falsehood. If he received information that a particular man told a lie, he used to throw away that man's respect and honor from his heart...” So if Allah's own messenger did not tolerate lies, why would a good muslim truly want to do something like that.
Works Cited
1. Mahfouz, Naguib. Palace Walk (Cairo Trilogy). New York: Anchor, 1990. Print.
2."Falsehood." The Article Collection of M. Amir Ali, Ph.D. Web. 25 Mar. 2010. .

Ahmad never changes

“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.

Disobedient

Picture taken by Gilzee

Fahmy has been the most responsible of Ahmad’s children. “He was the only one in the family to adopt a skeptical attitude toward incantations, charms, amulets, and the amazing deeds performed by saints” (411). Being the most educated of the family, after Ahmad, Fahmy continues to pursue his beliefs until his life is taken away from him.

Fahmy had never failed to disobey his father’s orders until his patriotism took over him. At different occasions Fahmy tried to seek companionship with his family members, but always failed. He usually tried to share his beliefs and convey his message to his family members during the coffee hour, but his family wasn’t enthusiastic enough. They all believed that the war was important, but their minds were busy with other things. Yasin was busy thinking about women, Kamal with his soldier friends, and his mother trying to figure out what was really going on. Since there was nobody at home to share his thoughts, Fahmy was forced to look elsewhere. He discovered that his classmates were all he had. Fahmy wanted to be with them more than he wanted to be with his own family because he could pursue his faith without being judged.

After being confronted by his father and being told to stop distributing handbills, Fahmy continues to pursue his beliefs at his own will. There was no way he was going to give up what he had started with his classmates and easily give up and please his father by swearing on the Qur’an. Fahmy was never able to discover where he obtained the courage to reply to his father with determination and enthusiasm; “We are all ready to sacrifice ourselves for our country” (422). Amazed by his ability to confront his father, Fahmy gains more courage to continue fighting for what the freedom of his country. He sets danger aside and continues his transformation to a disobedient child. Fahmy ends the confrontation he has with his father by telling him:

“Forgive me, Papa. I’ll obey every command of yours more than willingly, but I can’t do this. I can’t. We work like a single hand. I can’t accept shrinking back and abandoning my brothers, and I don’t think you would like me to. There’s no way that life would be bearable if I did. There’s no danger in what we’re doing. Others have more exalted tasks like participating in the demonstrations in which many of them have been martyred. I’m no better than those who have been killed. There are funeral processions for the nation. Even the families of the victims shout slogans instead of weeping. What is my life worth? … What is the life of any man worth? Don’t be angry, Papa. Think about what I’m saying…. I assure you that there’s no danger in our little, nonviolent job” (426).

It is very hard for Ahmad to forgive his son and not to do anything about it because of his principles. He mentions that “[his] heart [wishes] to forgive him, but [he is] afraid he’ll think then that it’s okay to disobey [him]” (486). Ahmad is a typical father who forces his entire family to be submissive to him. He is strict to the point where he manipulates the way his wife and children act. The reason why Ahmad doesn’t show affection towards his own family is because he believes that if he does then they will take advantage of him. Every Muslim could understand Ahmad’s behavior because they all believe in what the Prophet (alayhis-salam) once told them: “Each of you is a shepherd and each of you shall be asked about his flock”. If Muslim fathers don’t man up then their children will do as they wish, just as Fahmy did.

Fahmy’s disobedience is very important in the novel because it shows that emotions have no limits. Not even the most responsible of Ahmad’s children is able to control his emotions to please his highly praised father. Just like Marcell previously wrote: “Fahmy is known to control his emotions and yet … he lets his emotions take control”. Stepping up and confronting his father made Fahmy a disobedient son, but at least he got the opportunity to participate in something that he believed to be the very important. Unfortunately his life got taken away from him before his father could forgive him.

Work cited:

Mahfouz, Naguib. Palace Walk. New York: Anchor, 1990

Yahya. "Why Muslim Fathers Have to Man Up." Web Log post. Muslim Fathers. 12 Feb. 2010. Web. 24 Mar. 2010. .

Fahmy's struggle

On page 424 the first major paragraph shows the struggle that Fahmy is having with trying to listen to his father and doing what he wants. Does it feel like to you that Fahmy is struggling between trying to be that good kid that his father would want him to be and the person he wants to be? I feel like he is struggling but at the same time trying to rebel against his father and the person that his father wants to make him be. In the paragraph he talks about how he wants to protest against the British but the hardest part would be telling his father that he has become a protester. It seems that Fahmy also gets a thrill form being out there with the rest of the people. But i feel like he is doing what all teenagers do when their parents are to strict on him. I don't really feel like he is protesting because he is committed to the cause and because he really believes that that is what he is supposed to be doing, I think that he is more likely doing it because he knows that his father would disapprove of his actions and that he will be seen as a rebel in his fathers eyes. He is trying to break free of his fathers commands just like every child at some point in their life tries to do. And just like a child he also struggles with his rebellion because of his father. He may not agree with what his father does all the time, but he does respect him because of the fact that he is a dignified and well respected man out in the rest of the world. I'm still not sure on why Fahmy is so afraid of his fathers opinion and what he will say when he finds out that Fahmy is protesting. I think it still has to deal with the fact that children always want to rebel but they never want to fall to out of favor with their parents. They want to reach a certain limit where they make their point, but not go to far as to where their parents give up on them.

Father's and Children's Relationship

Throughout the novel, we witness a lot of lying. The children and the mother, Amina, lie in order to be happy. Why do they lie? They are suppose to fear their father, since he is so strict. You would figure they'll obey Ahmad at any cost to refrain from getting any punishment. But, this is not the case. Toward the end of this novel, the narrator states:
Lying was not considered contemptible or shameful in this household. Living in their father's shadow, none of them would have been able to enjoy any peace without the protection of a lie. They openly admitted this to themselves....If they had been totally truthful with their father, life would have lost its savor (424).
The first sentence says lying is not look bad upon in the household, which is true because everybody in the house has lied in many cases. Ahmad disapproves with lying and catches a temper rage when he finds out somebody is lying, but then he turns around and lies. The next line says none of the children would have never made it without sneaking around Ahmad back. Lying is how they found happiness. Even Kamal lies and goes of after school without any protection his father demanded him to have. Further along this paragraph, it says, “If they had been totally truthful with their father, life would have lost its savor” (424). This is true in many cases, even for us. If the children would have told the truth every time and asked for permission before they do something, this book would be boring. By having the children lie it keeps us into to the book always wondering what if. What if Ahmad finds out? Lying plays a big role throughout the book, but why do they continue to lie and disobey their father?
When reading this novel, I made conclusions that all the people that live with Ahmad feared him. I suggested that fear overcame the love throughout their relationship with their father or husband. It is not that they feared their father, it is simply that they loved and respected their father. A father's role throughout the muslim culture is to support the family and to guide their children on the right path. In the muslim culture, it is different than what we live by. The parent arranges the marriage, based on what they think is best for the children. If the child ends up to be a failure in life, many people would blame the parents for what the child has turned out to be. It is not the Ahmad dislikes his children and wants to make their lives a living heal, it is simply that cares and wants the best for his children.
In one of Danielas' blogs, Hiding Behind The Wall, she talks about the sensitive side of Ahmad. She says, “The anger, strictness, and sternness with the family is simply a shield to prevent the family from seeing his sensitivity”(2010, Barajas). I agree with this a lot. Knowing the responsibilities of a man, he knows he has to set an example for his children; therefore, he has to be mean and strict to show his children how to become a man. We see a perfect example of this with his son, Fahmy. After Fahmy has disobeyed his father, he return asking for his father's forgiveness and approval on page 486. In response, Ahmad is thinking to himself, “My heart wishes to forgive him, but I'm afraid he'll think then that it's okay to disobey me” (486). Ahmad wants to forgive his son so bad, but he doesn't want to come off as being weak. Therefore, Ahmad is left putting on a slight attitude hinting to his son that he does forgive him, but that he is still mad an upset on what he has done.
In one of Yesinias' blogs, Hard To Understand, also taking about Ahmad passion toward his daughter's she mention the role of a father. She mentions in her blog, a father is the first man in a daughter life. This is very important, because the father chooses who she is going to marry; therefore, it is up to the father to shape his daughter according to what he thinks makes a perfect wife. All the times he has denied marriage offers for his daughter Aisha, was not that he was trying to mean and wanted to make her life miserable. He just wanted the best for his daughter. When Aisha is having the baby, Ahmad reacts and is worried about his daughter's life. He reacts saying, ““What's happened to my little girl? The doctor! Why is the old lady keeping me from seeing her?” (474). Here we see that Ahmad really does care for his daughter and that he loves her with all his heart.
The children lied because they didn't want to degrade their father. They understood that being a father means being strict and mean toward them. They understood that Ahmad only wanted the best for them. All the screaming and fighting was just tough love. So, they lied giving Ahmad the satisfaction of being a father, Ahmad wanted to be. Through all the toughness of their relationship with their father, they manage to see past that and find the love.
Throughout the whole book, I never really understood why Ahmad was so harsh with his children. I figured he didn't care about his children. After I read the whole book, I realized he was just being father. He was just looking out for them, and want to make sure as they grow up they'll be prepared for life. Ahmad says towards the end of the book, “It's true that fear makes men do foolish things” (476). All along he was just scared his children will end up hurt some way or another, so his only solution was to be strict and try to control everything they do to protect them.


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

Ahmad's terrifying journey

It begins when Ahmad sets foot just outside of Maryam's mother's home. He begins slowly walking through the dark streets of the cul-de-sac, dragging his lamented body across closed stores and what seems like abandoned coffe-houses with not a single trace of life. Ahmad spotted a soldier, and this is where the author, Mahfouz, goes into the mind of Ahmad:

“He saw another soldier, not the sentry, heading toward him, armed to the teeth. What new development had brought on this treatment? Was the man intoxicated? Perhaps he had been overcome by a sudden urge to attack someone? Or was he out to plunder and loot?” (442)

He encountered the soldier and was commanded to walk the way that he was not intended to walk, and soon Mahfouz breaks his magic again; his wonderful description, into Ahmad's thoughts:

“He waded into the waves of gloomy darkness and profound silence, seeing nothing but phantom houses and hearing only the heavy footsteps that followed him with mechanical precision, as though counting out the minutes or perhaps the seconds left for him to live. Yes, he expected at each moment to be dealt a blow that would finish him off.” (443)

It's like Mafhouz is describing the surroundings in order for the reader to have an image of the place and diving into Ahmad's thoughts simultaneously. It is through Ahmad's eyes (that Mahfouz writes with) that we both can see the surroundings and what Ahmad is thinking;
“When he reached the corner of al-Khurunfush, his eyes were attracted by rays of light flashing in the darkness. He looked along the street and saw a lantern carried by another soldier driving before him an uncertain number of figures. He wondered whether the soldiers had been given orders to capture all the men they came across at night. Where were they leading them? What punishment would be meted out?” (444)
Three pages of non-stop description taking the reader into truly a character's pensive and fearful mind; this is descriptive narration. The novel is written in third person omnipotent, but the author Naguib Mahfouz goes into deep thought of his characters so zealously, that I often feel that Mahfouz is Ahmad, that Mahfouz is the one walking through the food markets and bars of Palace Walk. But one can easily distinguish Ahmad's thoughts versus what Mahfouz is describing in your head, it's just that this is all done with so much mastery and swiftness.

Ahmad breaking the news

In the novel Palace Walk written by Naguib Mahfouz we meet Ahmad the father of Kamal and Fahmy. We see that Ahmad is a very strict father and that he always thinks of himself. Throughout the whole novel we see that Ahmad cares more about his authority not being questioned and people recognizing him because that fed his pride. To Ahmad that is the most valuable thing that he has and we know this because he won’t even let one of his daughters marry unless the man proposing is doing it because he wants to be related to Ahmad.

In the end of the novel Fahmy dies and that in a way softens Ahmad. We see that Ahmad doesn’t know how to break it down to Amina or Kamal and when he walks in the house he hears Kamal singing “Visit me once a year/ For it’s wrong to abandon people forever” (498). This made me think about how is it that at such a moment something like that just happens by coincidence. Ahmad was entering his house with the intentions of telling Amina and Kamal that Fahmy had just died and then he hears those words. Those lyrics at that time were probably the last thing that Ahmad was expecting to hear. We realize at the end of the novel how much Ahmad really loved Fahmy because never in the novel did I read about Ahmad crying until he found out that Fahmy had died. Ahmad is a strict father but the true is that he just cares so much about his children that he’ll do anything to just protect them. Ahmad also cares about his children being able to live a life the way that Islam says life should be live.

My class was in a way wrong for saying that Ahmad really doesn’t love his children or Amina. The true is that he cares about them a lot and that is why he cannot tell Amina what has happen to Fahmy. He can't tell Amina because of the fact that he knows how important the children are to her. Ahmad is trying to figure out the best way that he could tell Amina about Fahmy but he knows that no matter what he says she will still be devastated. That’s why Ahmad doesn’t really know what to do at the end of the novel.

Mahfouz, Naguib. Palace Walk. New York: Anchor, 1965. Print.

The Point of No Return

When does a boy become a man? And when does a parent's rein over their children end? Throughout Naguib Mahfouz's Palace Walk, we get a since of Ahmad playing the fatherly role and raising his family. From my teachings as a Christian, which I'm pretty sure is the case in all religions, a father is to, as a spiritual leader, bring his children up in the way in which they should go. The bible talks about children reaching a certain age when they are to make their own decisions and lead their own lives. But what is that age in Islam or if not what is the age, when does a person reach a level of maturity that allows them to handle themselves and their actions?
Taking a look at this novel, Ahmad is seen as a strict and demanding father that does his best to raise his children in the way that they should go. But after raising his children, are they then allowed to think for themselves or are they prisoners to their father's desires? After choosing to indulge in demonstrations and is exposed as a Freedom Fighter, the author paints a picture of Fahmy's maturity, stating:

He started to bite his lips to suppress his tears. He felt ashamed at being so weak. When he was finally able to speak, he launched into a rambling plea, because he was deeply moved and wished to conceal his embarrassment: “Forgive me, Papa. I’ll obey every command of yours more than willingly, but I can’t do this. I can’t…I can’t accept shrinking back and abandoning my brothers, and I don’t think you would like me to. There’s no way life would be bearable if I did…What is my life worth?...What is the life of any man worth? Don’t be angry, Papa. Think about what I’m saying….I assure you that there’s no danger in our little, nonviolent job(426).
Does Ahmad want his sons to be men or does he want them to, like a subservient woman, follow his every wish and command without flaw. When looking at this passage, we see Fahmy, as seen in Marcell Johnson's Out With the Old, struggle for independence, though in this instance, he fights within himself and with his father rather than for his people. In this passage the word can't strikes me as extreme. When people claims that they can't, it implies that they are physically incapable of executing a task, and as a man, it seems that Fahmy is incapable of terminating his activity in demonstrations. Ahmad's intention was to raise his sons to be their own men and think for themselves, but how is that possible when he constantly shoves his views down their throats.
After reading an article called Islam 101 about the relationship between children and their parents, it is apparent that a father's duty to his sons is protection, feed, and care for until adulthood. As an adult, I believe that Fahmy should have the final say in the things in which he is associated and active in. Or should he? After reading What Makes a Man, a response written by Tianna Bruno, an authoritative reader and researcher of this novel, it has come apparent that what really makes a man a man is his career or job, and seeing that Fahmy isn't raking in big buck, he is no man.

Work Cited
Ishiguro , Kazuo. An Artist of the Floating World. New York: Vintage International, 1989.
http://www.islam101.com/sociology/parchild.htm

Ahmad transforming Zaynab

Even though we are now more than halfway through the novel Palace Walk the way Ahmad views women doesn’t cease to amaze me. In this particular section what shows us how he feels about women is how he reacts when Yasin sleeps with his wife’s personal maid, Nur. When this occurs Ahmad is enraged but not at the fact that Yasin has slept with a woman that isn’t his wife; he’s enraged because of who that woman is. Also, he strongly critiques Zaynab’s reaction when she finds out that Yasin has cheated on her. He goes as far out as to say that the way Zaynab reacted was a greater mistake than that which Yasin committed by sleeping with her personal maid.

When Ahmad learns about the affair that Yasin had with Nur he is enraged but not because he has cheated on his wife, Zaynab. He is enraged because of who he cheated on her with. He explains why giving us examples of his own affairs

Just as he loved beauty in the abstract, he loved it in its glittering social framework. He liked to be noticed and to have a widespread reputation…. This social use of his love did not require him to sacrifice beauty, for in his circle beauty and reputation went hand in hand, like an object and its shadow. Beauty was most often the magic wand that opened the door to reputation and noteworthy status. He had been the lover of some of the most famous entertainers of his time. Not one of them had disappointed his yearning for beauty or his craving for loveliness. For these reasons he thought scornfully of Yasin’s conquests. He repeated disapprovingly, “Umm Hanafi! … Nur! … What a beast he is (391)!

With these statements Ahmad is basically saying that he disapproves of Yasin’s conquests because they weren’t beautiful, distinguished, or influential. Yasin had no criteria to choose his mistresses; when lust blinded him he would be content to lie with any woman. And this was exactly what enraged Ahmad; he didn’t like that his son was a savage willing to sleep with any woman regardless of what she looked like or who she was. He was not at all concerned with the fact that Yasin had just cheated on his wife.

Another notion that shows how low Ahmad thinks of women is how he disapproves of Zaynab’s reaction when she finds out that Yasin was cheating on her. He thinks, “It was not appropriate for a good wife to implicate her husband in a scandal as she had, no matter the circumstances. How she had wailed! How she had screamed! What would he have done if Amina had surprised him one day in a comparable situation? But what was she compared to Amina? …Yasin had made a mistake, but she had made an even greater one” (389). Here Ahmad makes it clear that he thinks Yasin was in his rights to sleep with Nur, and that Zaynab shouldn’t have complained at all. He compares Zaynab with his wife, Amina, who is very compliant with everything that Ahmad says and does. He believes that Amina is a good wife and all women should be like her. In Ahmad’s eyes, Zaynab made a greater mistake than her husband because she complained about his cheating on her.

Because of the way Ahmad views women I agree with Lauren's Blog when she says that it’s very difficult for Zaynab to adjust to living in her new home. Zaynab was raised in a household with more progressive views towards women so it’s difficult for her to adjust herself to the strict ways of Ahmad’s home. When she was younger she was allowed to go out and see the world with her father. Now she has to stay in the house all the time. This and the way Yasin’s affair with Nur was treated are examples of how Zaynab is being transformed into Ahmad’s image of a perfect wife.

Source Citation

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

Yasin Yasin

What is it about men having more of a reputation for cheating on their wife, than say a woman, particularly in the Muslim World? Yasin commits the most unfaithful act in Muslim culture; he cheats on his wife, with not even a single month of official marriage between the two. Deception is the enemy, the root cause to blame, that Yasin uprooted to seduce Zaghlul. But if the reason for marriage was more intrenched in pure love and commitment; if Yasin's decision to marry was stronger in purpose, than deception wouldn't of been such a potent factor in him cheating on his wife. “If love was straight foward and unchanging, that would be easy to acknowledge. But, when you take a close look at the nature of love and romance, one thing becomes clear: Love creates both happiness and heartache, opportunities and constraints, joy and sorrow.”[1] Is love to blame or Yasin (and his animal-esk lustful needs)? The predatory-like mind set is, in a larger sense, in all of us (after all, we are mammals that have sexual needs just as we have needs for a longing partner). I am not justifying Yasin's unfaithful actions, but I am considering the fact that as human beings, we have strong desires(sexual) perhaps. It is when the Love is strong, and not utterly futile, that a marriage can prosper. After all reflecting back on how the entire marriage was arranged, Yasin's options weren't so fluid; it was a rough and forced marriage influenced majorly by Ahmad.

1. http://www.authorsden.com/categories/article_top.asp?catid=57&id=17251

Similes and Metaphors

“He had perhaps intended from the start to agree but had refused to yield until he had expressed his anger, like a politician who attacks an opponent, even though supporting the same goal, in order to defend his principles” (306).

Lately, while reading the book, I’ve been interested in the thing Kersia brought up in her blog about noticing the language Mahfouz uses to get the story from different perspectives. I began to notice all of the descriptive language he adds to his descriptions of things going on in the book. Another example is when he was describing marriage and Yasin’s feelings toward his new marriage to Zaynab, “It was like a trick chocolate presented on April Fool’s Day with garlic stuffed inside the sweet coating” (307). This simile made me feel what Yasin was feeling in entirety. His similes are designed to put you in the situation and make you understand what the character feels as much as possible. I can definitely make the connection between garlic in chocolate and how Yasin felt about his marriage becoming boring and how the excitement of being married changed completely once he was married just as the excitement of eating a chocolate changes after you taste the garlicky inside.

He also uses many metaphors to accomplish the same thing. On page 308, he describes the same situation with a metaphor, “…, but it was no longer the desire of a fasting person for a tasty delicacy.” The depth he goes in to explain the significance of the issue makes for a better, more relatable read. But, what also struck me was the usage of little motivational words of wisdom that he incorporated into the situations in the book from the narrator’s perspective. As I read, I began to wonder why it was that he was offering the narrator’s opinion or interpretation of what was going on. I wanted to see if the situation was at all related to Mahfouz’s background. I wondered if he was a doctor, counselor, or any sort of motivational speaker of any sort. So I looked this up and found that he wasn’t any of these things and began to question if this was simply his style as a writer, or if these notes played an important part in the plot of the book. So I took my research a little further and found that he was simply a civil servant and an author and didn’t really the answer to the question I was looking for. But, my curiosity is still here and I wonder why he refers to diseases and other things when he writes these similes and metaphors to describe situations in the novel.

Work Cited

1. "Naguib Mahfouz - Biography." Nobelprize.org. Web. 6 Mar. 2010. .
2. Maḥfūẓ, Najīb. Palace Walk. New York: Anchor /Doubleday, 1991. Print.

Verbal Abuse

“What more does any woman want than a home of her own and sexual gratification? Nothing! Women are just another kind of domestic animal, and must be treated like one” (338).



The treatment of women has been a very big topic since we started reading the book a few weeks ago. The more I read the more disappointed I find myself getting because I have only see men look at women as the role of the wife and the sexual providers. Women are disrespected a lot in the novel and as my fellow classmates said, “women are submissive and sometimes are degraded by men, but we missed to see really how important women are.” Exactly, I am very disappointed in how men have treated most of the women in their lives. They have treated all the women like dogs and have verbally abused them. In the quote before this it shows how Yasin expresses his views of women to him. Its as if all of the women in his life are just meant to have sex lives and be submissive and be treated like dogs. This to me is no justification for treating women as if they were second-class citizens. One should really learn how to treat things that are important in our lives with care. Apparently, Yasin isn’t the only one who thinks that women are pretty much second-class citizens with special privileges. In this website that I found it shows how woman's rights in Islam are a bit controlled. I know we say that we shouldn't say that they get treated with less respect because of how their culture is set up, but how do we know if things are just? How can we say if women are treated with respect and equal rights when our culture and the Muslim culture is so different?






Work Cited:

"Women in Islam." Islam For Today. Web. 08 Mar. 2010. .



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

Courage & Influence

Throughout reading Palace Walk, I always saw the unfair way in which the women were treated. Finally towards the end of the book, we encounter a woman that has the courage to stand up against a man and his actions. After Yasin cheats on Zaynab with her maid, Zaynab is so angry that she decides to not put up with what Yasin has done. Zaynab thinks, “ It seemed she would prefer death to staying under the same roof with him, even for a single day, after what had happened.”(386) Perhaps what has made Zaynab even more mad is that Yasin cheats on her in their own house. Ahmad at least has the sense to not disrespect his family’s house by having sexual intercourse with another women in his home, but Yasin doesn’t care. Amina also knows that Ahmad has other women and that he gets drunk, but she doesn’t mind because to her the only thing that matters is that he always goes back home. To Zaynab it doesn’t just matter whether Yasin comes home every day, she also cares about the conditions in which he comes home in and what he does inside and outside his house. Zaynab is not like every other woman in the book, she doesn’t believe in complete submission to a husband. Instead she is more modern and actually believes that there should be mutual compromise in order to have a good relationship. Yasin of course doesn’t believe in women’s rights and therefore has no respect for his wife or his house. Yasin believes that Zaynab will be like Amina and will just go along with whatever he says. As Daniela mentions in Foreshadowing, Yasin is influenced by his dad and the things that he sees at home and therefore thinks his situation will be like Ahmad and Amina’s. Yasin cheats on Zaynab because he is influenced by his father’s actions. In an article about Adultery, it says, “ There is psychological evidence that adulterous behavior in parents dramatically affect children when they reach adulthood.” This means that Yasin could have been influenced by his father’s actions but that unlike father’s wife, Zaynab is not going to put up with his immoralities.





Works Cited



Anderson, Kerby. Adultery. Web. March 7, 2010
http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/adultery.html

Barajas, Daniela. Foreshadowing. March 7, 2010
http://diggingevendeeper.blogspot.com/2010/03/foreshadowing.html

Mahfouz, Naguib. Palace Walk. New York: Anchor, 1990

It's NOT love

“He glanced at Zaynab. He found her examining his face with a look that seemed to say resentfully, ‘Why are you so inattentive? Why are you so glum? Doesn’t my presence cheer you up at all?’ Yasin felt her resentment in the fleeting moment their eyes met, but he did not respond to her sorrowful criticism. To the contrary, it annoyed and riled him. Yes, he disliked nothing so much as being forced to spend a whole evening with her, deprived of desire, pleasure, and the intoxication on which he relied to endure married life.
He began to look at her stealthily and wonder in amazement, ‘Isn’t she the same woman? . . . Isn’t she the one who captured my heart on our wedding night? . . . Isn’t she the one who drove me wild with passion for nights and weeks on end? . . . Why doesn’t she stir me at all? What has come over her? Why am I so restless, disgruntled, and bored, finding nothing in her beauty or culture to tempt me to postpone getting drunk?’” (378)
Naguib Mahfouz demonstrates the loss of love in a marriage in his novel, Palace Walk. Yasin and Zaynab’s relationship is clearly at a loss of love in this section of the novel. Yasin has become “bored” of his relationship and no longer looks at his wife for pleasure. But, why could this be? Could this be that Yasin has just grown tired of his wife? Could it be because he feels no connection to her? Could this be a result of an arranged marriage? Does this tend to happen in all arranged marriages? Are they an exception to the so called, “success” of arranged marriages?
Yasin and Zayanab’s marriage was a customary arranged marriage and, at first, Yasin was quite enthusiastic. But, as the novel progresses, we see that Yasin loses interest in his wife, Zayanab. On page 378, we see that he begins to question his feelings and why he no longer feels the same way for her that he once did. According to Dictionary.com, the word “lust” means, Intense or unrestrained sexual craving, an overwhelming desire or craving, a lust for power, or an intense eagerness or enthusiasm. This definition allows me to assume that the feelings that Yasin once had for his wife weren’t any sort of love feelings, but feelings of lust. The eagerness that Yasin had to marry and his raging hormones caused for him to marry someone who he wouldn’t be very happy with as time progressed. In Dee’s blog, “Yasin has gone crazy!” she explains the attitude that Yasin has towards women and how the Lust he has for them came to be.
In my research, I found that countries that practice arranged marriages have higher success rates than those countries that don’t. One thing that the author wrote was that the reason that most marriages that aren’t arranged fail is that the couple bases their decision to marry on the belief that love will conquer all and that everything will be okay just as long as they’re in love, but when push comes to shove, love isn’t everything and their marriage ends up failing (Seabastian). But, what about Yasin and Zaynab’s marriage? It was arranged and had nothing to do with love yet it is still coming apart. Could it be that Yasin just wants to be with more than one woman? Or, could it be that he wants love and not just lust? Yasin and Zaynab's marriage is an example of how arranged marriages aren’t always as successful as people make them seem. Sure, some learn how to deal with one another without being in love, but some don’t and what happens then? Is it okay for Zaynab to leave or should she stay in a marriage where she’s not happy simply because it’s the “right” thing to do in her society?

Bibliography
Dee. "Yasin has gone crazy!" 17 February 2010. diggingevendeeper.blogspot.com. 04 March 2010 .
Mahfouz, Naguib. Palace Walk. New York: Anchor Books, 1991.
Seabastian. "Arranged Marriages - Past and Present 78." February 2010. HubPages.com. 4 March 2010 .