Foreshadowing

Picture by
D'Arcy Vallance
"He had entered the nest of matrimony with no leftover desires and heart full of good intentions..." (308). Yasin imagined marriage this way. Little did he know what lay ahead of him.

Mahfouz says:

[Yasin] saw the similarity between his father’s character and that of his own mother. Both of them were sensual and pleasure-seeking. They ignored convictions…The relationship between them had ended quickly, because a man like him could not stand a woman like her, and vice versa. In fact, married life would have been impossible for his father, if he had not happened to upon his current wife. (298)

As I read this passage, I began to think more about Yasin than about his parents. Yasin himself is a lot like his father. As Dominique Hackett mentioned on one of his blogs, people inherit certain things from their parents genetically that affect the way they act. Here I’m not talking about eye color or height; I’m talking about Yasin inheriting his father’s lustful ways, and maybe even his mothers’ ways.

I kept this passage in mind as I read, and when I started seeing the way Zaynab behaves, I wondered if Yasin could have long relationship with her. Yasin and Zaynab reminded me about Ahmad and his first wife. All four of them are pleasure-seekers in different ways, but in the end they want to enjoy the pleasures of life, Yasin with women, and Zaynab with freedom, as she lived with her father. There is definitely a similarity between Yasin’s and Zaynab’s character. “Both of them [are]...pleasure-[seekers]” (298).

If his father and hi mother couldn’t stand each other because they were similar, why should Yasin and Zaynab be able to stand each other? Later we learn that Yasin cheats on Zaynab, and she decides to leave him. She is not Amina; she will not stand the humiliation. She managed to be patient for a little bit, but “she could no bear to be patient and forgiving any longer” (386).

Yasin thinks that if a woman like Amina hadn’t appeared on his father’s path, than “married life would have been impossible for his father” (298). As I said before Yasin is so much like his father, so how could we expect Yasin to last with Zaynab if she is basically the opposite of Amina? Yasin needs a woman like Amina, someone that will be submissive and obedient.

I thought about all this points, as I learned more about how different, or liberal, Zaynab is, and came to see that Yasin and her would probably not last. I feel like the author foreshadowed the separation of Yasin and Zaynab using the passage at the beginning of this blog. It doesn’t take much effort to see how masterfully he makes it all fit in like a puzzle.

NOTE: When I found that Zaynab had left her home, I wondered how did she have the courage to do that and if she even could do that. I will not lie; I thought that in the Muslim culture you got married and never had the chance to get divorced. You either stay married or died. That’s what I assumed, but I did a little research and found that it was somewhat this way in ancient Egypt. But in modern Egypt law have been changed to make it more possible for women to get divorced if they want to.

Bibliography
1. Mahfouz, Naguib. Palace Walk. New York: Anchor Books, 1991.
2. “Talking health to men.” 2000.Women’s Rights. March 3, 2010.
<http://library.thinkquest.org/C001142/countries/egypt.php>

Divorce

Throughout Palace Walk, we witness a lot of sexual tension, an urge for marriage, and divorce between both young adults and adults. Divorce is the one topic that really stands out. Ahmad has already divorce his first wife and then he throws Amina, his second wife, out the house for some time also. If a couple is not actually divorce, but separated for some time. What is she to the family?

When Yasin goes to his father, Ahmad, to tell him that his mother is going to re-marry, Ahmad is shock and angry towards the situation. He tells Yasin, “Didn't we vow to consider her a person who never existed”(107). From Ahmad point of view after divorce, an ex-wife is nothing. In fact, he act as if she never even existed. But, according to Yasin, she will always be his mother and be could no forget the fact she still exist. When Ahmad throws Amina out the house, her mom refers to her as a stranger. The narrator says the following paragraph below, when describing what Amina's mother thought about the temporary separation.

When the old lady found her silent or sensed that her daughter's thoughts were wandering, she would tell her, “Patience, Amina. I fell sorry for you. A mother away from her children is a stranger. She's a stranger even if she's staying in the house where she was born” (231).

Amina's mother says she feels sorry for her and that at long as she is away from home, she is consider a stranger. Amina is being referred to as a stranger, even though she is not officially divorce. But, according to her mother and mother who lives outside her husband house is consider a stranger no matter what. A stranger is somebody that you don't know exist. Some one you know nothing of, similar to what Ahmad thinks about his first wife. But, its her children that cannot let go of her. To them she will always exsit. Why is it that divorced mothers or mothers who live outside the house are considered bad? Is it an older generation view? To Ahmad and Amina's mother a wife out the house is nothing, but the children can't seem to let go of there mother, whether bad or good.

CNN reporter, Olivia Sterns, reports that when Egyptian women get divorce they are look at as being evil or something not right. She also reports that Egypt is a very male-dominate place. Being a male-dominate place, men always blame the women for all the problems. Which we see in Palace Walk. Men are in authority throughout the book; therefore, when divorce or separation is brought forth, people always wonder what the women did to cause their husband to kick them out. It is obvious throughout Palace Walk that men are in control and that they dominate the women. This causes a separation from men and women.

Another thing Olivia Sterns mentions is that divorce rate has gone up, because of women rights. In Palace Walk, women aren't allow to do multiple things. Women aren't allowed to go to school, have a job, or even rome around outside the house because it is frowned upon. With women rights, women have the right to education and employment. Therefore, women are less willing to accept an unhappy marriage. If Amina was allowed to education and employment, will she leave Ahmad?

I think that Amina would leave Ahmad is she had the right to education and employment. When Amina mother is talking to her, she say, “I feel sorry for you”(231). She said this because Amina was depressed and because Amina didn't have anything. She had nothing to hold her up. With a background educations and a job, she'll be able to support herself and keep busy. The narrator also says that even though she was raised at her mother's home, that house could not be consider her home. And with an employment she'll be able to get her own home and will be able to live without the help of Ahmad. She is not with Ahmad because she loves him, but because she has nowhere else to do or anybody to be with.

Sterns, Olivia. "'Let's Talk About Sex, Divorce' In Egypt." CNN World. Web. 24 Feb. 2010. .