Can you really be GOOD?

The Good Woman of Setzuan tackles some real issues throughout this play but I think what's the most interesting topic of satire is whether a person can, in all actuality, be a good person. The only person who's perceived to be a good person is Shen Te, and she can't even be a truly good person without changing into someone who can be mean. In fact, I think this whole book is satirizing that aspect of human nature. I don't know of anyone who is consistently nice all the time and that is their actual true character. For example in the play, Shen Te is constantly being a "nice" person and allowing people to run all over her (56). But she doesn't have the courage enough to stand up for herself without changing into a whole other person. My question is, is Shen Te truly a nice person? She's simply putting on a mask, she's not changing into an entirely different person, so can she really be good if it's still her who has committed the crimes and who has been selfish and mean towards others (103)? I think that this situation shows us that for some people it is hard to be nice yet firm at the same time, just like Shen Te. I don't think she's a bad person just because she made mistakes under the mask of Shui Ta, but can she really be the good woman of Setzuan if she lied, cheated, and schemed? I think the play is trying to say that it's almost impossible for someone to be good all the time, but it's not fair that someone be good all the time. Even the gods didn't expect her to be good all the time, which is why they didn't get mad when they found out she wasn't being good all the time. No one in life is perfect, and putting too much pressure on someone so that they can be a good person can have an adverse effect on someone, like it did with Shen Te. She couldn't handle being nice to everyone and being run over and having the title of being such a good woman, and the pressure pushed her into having to be Shui Ta.

 Brecht, Bertolt, and Eric Bentley. The Good Woman of Setzuan. Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota, 1999. Print.

Omniscient?

As I read this section of the book, the idea that I continually saw to be satirized was the idea of the gods. In my personal beliefs, 1) I only believe in one God and 2) He's omniscient. So in my personal life, I carried that over as I was reading this book, and I took it to be fact that the gods in this book would be omniscient as well. But, as I read a lot of the scenes where the gods were involved, it seemed that they themselves didn't know what was going to happen even more than any other character would. This happens several times, but the exchange between the gods and Wong on page 40 is where I really started to have doubts:

Wong: It does. She's doing good deeds all the time.
First God: Ah? What sort? What sort of good deeds, Wong?
Wong: Well, she has a kind word for everybody.
First God (eagerly): And then?
Wong: Hardly anyone leaves her shop without tobacco in his pocket--even if he can't pay for it.

I decided to just put a snippet in there, but really what I was trying to say is that if they don't even know what's going on down on earth, what makes them such an authority to tell what's good and bad, or who's a good or bad person? For me to believe that you're some kind of "god", then show yourself approved. Maybe I need to know a little bit more about this culture before I say that, but right now, I'm not convinced that they're true gods and true judges of character. That doesn't mean that I don't believe Shen Te is a good person because I think she is a wonderful person. In fact, I think she's the best and most moral person in the book so far.

So, personally, I think the whole idea of the omniscient quality of a god is being satirized in this section of the book.

Khadija's Envy

From the introduction of Khadija in Naguib Mahfouz’s Palace Walk, she has proven an interesting character. From the start of the plot we could see how negative her attitude is towards her family. Initially, I thought the reason that she came off as so upset was because she was jealous of her sister and the life she is given because she’s more attractive than Khadija. As I continued reading, I began to see that what Khadija felt was a little more than jealousy towards her sister despite the fact that Mahfouz continuously refers to it as such. Khadija is not jealous of her sister. Khadija is envious of Aisha’s looks, happiness, and ability to evade responsibilities. Khadija’s envy of her sister comes in many different forms and targets many different goods (The thing that the envier wants. It can be anything from a state of being to an object.) that Aisha has that Khadija wants.

Khadija is openly envious, not jealous. Stanford’s Encyclopedia of Philosophy says the distinguishing factor between jealousy and envy is the number of people involved; jealousy involves three people, in the example of a relationship, the jealous person (wife), the victim of the jealous person (husband), and the person that’s in the middle taking what the jealous person wants (the mistress), and envy involves two, the envier and the person being envied. Sometimes the way she feels towards her sister is described as jealousy, but I feel that her true feelings are a deeper than that. Khadija is experiencing what the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy calls, “a symptom or instance of the human tendency to evaluate one's well-being comparatively, by assessing how well one is doing in comparison with others.” Khadija makes this a clear habit when she compares herself to other people’s standard of beauty, particularly her family’s, “Khadija laughed to hide her uneasiness. She went to the mirror and looked carefully at herself. She covered her nose with her hand and said ironically, ‘There’s nothing wrong with my face now.’ Removing her hand from her face, she commented, ‘Now, like this, only God can save me’” (144). We see this again when the matchmakers come to visit her house for her sister and she thought it was for her, “Khadija on the other hand, was disposed to suspect the woman, since it was her nature to be suspicious of everyone” (28). Khadija’s fluctuating emotions toward her sister are another example of how she compares herself to other people allowing her to become envious. The times that she feels defeated and that someone is better than her because of the good¹ they have she makes it really obvious that she’s envious. The quote that Lauren F. uses in her blog All Daughters are Made Equal, "Khadijah did not enjoy affectionate words of comfort when defeated. She received Aisha's statement with unconcealed annoyance" (237), shows Khadija’s deeply rooted envy of her sister and her happiness.

Khadija does not only limit her envy to her sister’s beauty, she also shows envy of her sister’s happiness. Any time her sister seems to find a piece of happiness in something, Khadija comes along to say something negative to her to try and ruin it. We can see this when Aisha is singing at the window to the guy she likes and Khadija comes in and reprimands her for doing it. Anytime Khadija sees Aisha feeling happy and enjoying something she comes over and ruins it for her. Aisha recognizes that her sister is envious of her voice at that time and calls her out on it saying, “If your voice were beautiful like mine you wouldn’t say that” (26).

Lastly, Khadija is jealous of Aisha’s ability to evade responsibility. On the same page, Khadija says, “You loll about, off by yourself, while I prepare everything. We’ve had enough singing.” This shows her intense despising of the Aisha’s ability to drift off and look out the window at her boyfriend while Khadijas has to do all the housework and take care of things when Amina needs help or can’t do the job. Another example is when Amina was run over by the car and couldn’t work for their father. Even though neither one of them wanted to do it Amina says to Khadija, “You’re better able to serve him. Don’t waste time young lady. He may be needing you this very moment” (186). Although Khadija kinda wanted the job, she felt that Aisha should’ve have at least been brought up in the decision of who would take on Amina’s responsibility so she did it herself. Khadija thinks of her self as “second-in-command” to her mother and, although she wishes her sister had more responsibilities, liked the title. In Dominique Hackett’s comment on Lauren F.’s blog, All Sister are Created Equal, I agree with him when he says Khadija wants to be the example for Aisha even though Khadija doesn’t change the way she treats her to get her to follow.

Though Khadija’s feelings of envy are detrimental to their relationship and their later marriages, Khaduja never allows her envy to reach the point of resentment which is where I disagree with Dominique Hackett’s statement in his comment that Khadija becomes resentful of Aisha’s getting married. Even the narrator says, “Regardless of how long her jealousy lasted, it did not warp her disposition to become hatred or loathing” (27). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy says also,

“Although much of the psychological literature on envy supposes that envy is concerned with matters of perceived injustice, most philosophers reject this suggestion.^[9] The received view is that envy is to be distinguished from resentment. The latter is held to be a moral emotion, whereas the former is not. What makes a given emotion a moral emotion has been glossed in various ways. Roughly, the idea is that moral emotions are ones that somehow embody moral principles or appraisals. Resentment is a moral emotion because a given emotional episode does not qualify as a state of resentment unless the subject holds some moral complaint against the object of the state. The claim that envy is not a moral emotion may be understood strongly, as the claim that it never involves a moral complaint per se, or weakly, as the claim that it need not embody such a complaint.”

Khadija was envious of her sister in many aspects but, she never allowed her feelings to reach the point of utter resentment of her sister even though the way she treats her can be mistaken as such.

D'Arms, Justin, "Envy", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2009 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = .

Hackett, Dominique. "Re: All Daughters Are Made Equal." Web log comment. Blogger.com. 24 Feb. 2010. 29 March 2010. .

Lauren F., “All Daughters are Made Equal.” Digging Even Deeper. Feb. 24, 2010. (http://diggingevendeeper.blogspot.com/2010/02/all-daughters-are-made-equal.html#comments)Mar. 29, 2010.

Mahfouz, Naguib. Palace Walk. New York: Anchor /Doubleday, 1991.

Transformed Man

Throughout Naquib Mahfouz’s Palace Walk, we are introduced to a number of different characters that represent a different aspect of life in Egypt. But, amongst the many different characters Mahfouz introduced, one stood out – Al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad. In part II of Abu Talut’s article, “The Status of Women and Men in Islam,” the responsibility of a man is great when it comes to maintenance and protection of his family (Talut, II). Al-Sayyid Ahmad represents a Muslim man who, at times, is overprotective towards the women in his family, controlling of everyone and everything around him, and experienced in forbidden pleasures like extramarital affairs. But, throughout the novel we learn that he worries mainly about his social appearance rather than what is best for his family. Through this all, Mahfouz shows us a transformation in Al-Sayyid Ahmad’s behavior as the novel progresses and by the end of the book, we see a side of Ahmad that we had yet to see throughout the novel.
At the beginning of the novel, we see Al-Sayyid’s wife, Amina waiting on her husband to arrive after a night out with friends. She weighs on him hand and foot, removing his cloak, loosening his sash, removing his shoes and socks, pouring water for him to wash his face, and just sits around waiting for him to tell her what to do or giving her permission to speak. Mahfouz described Ahmad’s attitude towards this when he wrote, “Her husband spared no effort to safeguard his dignity and authority” (10). This made it apparent that he made it obvious that he was the one who held the authority in the marriage – something that is apparent in Muslim marriages. But, we also see that Ahmad cares more about his appearance outside of the home and puts in as much effort as possible into his outside relationships rather than those that should be most important, being his family’s. According to Talut’s article, this is not the responsibility of a man. Ahmad’s desire to seem perfect and powerful in public isn’t his responsibility, his responsibility is to protect his family and do what is best for them, not him (Talut, II). This strengthens the idea that Ahmad is selfish and careless with the relationship between him and his family.
As the novel progresses, we see Ahmad dismiss the idea of Amina marrying the man she loves clearly because he is afraid of what people may say about the engagement since no man had ever seen his daughters. He was worried about what people would say about this rather than his daughter’s happiness. As Daniela said in her blog, “Worshipper Blinded by Love and Fear” 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. In Talut’s article, he writes that a man’s responsibility is also to protect and defend a woman and to make his family feel safe and secure (Talut, II). It may seem that Ahmad is protecting his daughter but in reality, he’s simply protecting his image and by putting fear into his family, he is doing something that he shouldn’t do – especially if he expects to create a safe environment for his family.
Later in the book, at the beginning of Chapter 65, we see the beginning of Ahmad’s transformation. Mahfouz shows us how Ahmad reacts when he sees two British soldiers approaching him and describes his 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. Mahfouz also shows us how Ahmad begins to care for his family as he thinks about never seeing them again when he writes, “When he [Ahmad] remembered his family, he felt such painful homesickness that tears almost came to his eyes” (445). By doing this, Mahfouz reveals part of Ahmad’s transformation in which he is no longer the “God” he was once portrayed as. He shows Ahmad finally worrying about the future of his family and how their lives will be after he is gone seeing as how he is the one that is responsible for their well being. But, he is now also shown just like any other citizen who has to give in to someone else’s commands and has to endure the possibility of possibly never seeing his loved ones again.
By the end of the book, we are introduced to a completely different Ahmad than we first were at the beginning. The death of his son, Fahmy 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 LaurenF 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 Ahmad showed such vulnerability. It was the first time that he showed his pain and emotions to a complete stranger. Even more shocking 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, Ahmad actually worried about someone other than himself and accepting the responsibility he has as a father and husband.
Naguib Mahfouz’s novel showed the transformation that one person can undergo as a result of specific events. 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. Ahmad didn’t seem as superior to the others as he once did and as the novel came to an end, we saw how Ahmad went from caring solely of himself and his image in the eyes of others to worrying about the feelings of others, being able to express his vulnerability to strangers, and finally acknowledging the responsibility he had as a father and husband.

 
Works Cited
Daniela. "Worshipper Blinded by Love and Fear." Web log post. Diggingevendeeper.blogspot.com. The Chinquapin School, 17 Feb. 2010. Web. 22 Mar. 2010. < http://diggingevendeeper.blogspot.com/2010/02/worshipper-blinded-by-love-and-fear_17.html >.
LaurenF. "Ahmad's Priorities." Web log post. Diggingevendeeper.blogspot.com. The Chinquapin School, 10 Feb. 2010. Web. 22 Mar. 2010. < http://diggingevendeeper.blogspot.com/2010/02/passage- >.
Mahfouz, Naguib. Palace Walk. New York: Anchor Books, 1991
Talut, Abu. "The Status of Women and Men in Islam II." 28 April 1998. 02 April 2010 < http://www.iol.ie/~afifi/BICNews/AbuTalut/AbuTalut5.htm >.

Successful Marriage

In Naguib Mahfouz's Palace Walk, marriage is a topic that is hard to understand, but is all the more intriguing because of it. It's been difficult for the most part, figuring out what makes a successful marriage. Why is it that Amina and Ahmad have been married for 25 years, when Ahmad has proven to not be a husband that many women crave? Ahmad sneaks out on his wife all the time with various women like Zubayda and his next-door neighbor Bahija Ridwan, yet Amina stays right there through it all. In this book, marriage is such a complex part of life that research was necessary to understand what muslims believe to be important in a marriage. According to the Qur'an, Muslims are to believe that “...among [Allah's] signs is this that He created for you spouses of your own kind, that you may dwell in tranquility with them, and He has put love and mercy for one another...” (Qur'an 30:21). As devout Muslims, which is what they characters of the book (especially Ahmad) are, they should base all of their marriages off of this because this is their law for living a truly Muslim lifestyle. This is the basis of their faith and what they should believe as Muslims. Although there are other marriages in the book that are unsuccessful, Ahmad learns that what's important to keep a marriage alive is this verse in the Qur'an. During his first marriage to Haniya, Yasin's mother, he didn't practice that mercy that is mentioned in the Qur'an but he learns to use it during his marriage to Amina, which turns out to be the most successful marriage in Palace Walk.
The short-lived marriage of Yasin and Zaynab is very similar to the ones between Ahmad and Haniya, Yasin's mother. When Ahmad was married to Haniya he admitted to actually enjoying living with her, which is the only true emotion for women Ahmad is rumored to have outside of lust (106). Like Marixa said in her blog, Ahmad and Women, in the book, we haven't really seen much emotion out of Ahmad for women besides lust. Haniya seems to have been the only woman who brought a little of that out of him, that is until he met Amina. But the “love” is short-lived when Haniya shows that she's a woman who won't take just anything from her husband. Ahmad began to beat her when she would leave the house or do anything that he didn't want her to do. Instead of loving her and treating her like a human being instead of a dog that you train, their marriage ends up failing. This marriage, like many other marriages in the book including Ahmad's current marriage to Amina, could be or could've been a lot better if the husband would put his wife first instead of him trying to seem like a masculine guy who can control his wife. It also could've been successful if Ahmad had learned to practice the mercy that the Qur'an speaks on. Had Ahmad shown mercy to his wife and put her needs before his own needs to be fulfilled as a “man”, many things in his life would have been different. Yasin wouldn't have a strained relationship with his own mother, and probably wouldn't have the outlook on women that he has now.
After his marriage to Haniya, Ahmad goes on to marry Amina. Amina is a totally different wife to Ahmad than Haniya is and she proves to be more along the lines of a wife that he wants. She's quiet, meek, obedient, and most importantly, fearful of him. She's scared to do anything that Ahmad might not approve of, and when she does, her worst fear comes true. When she leaves the house and goes outside to visit al-Husayn, Ahmad finds out and kicks her out. Right then, it seems that Ahmad has gone back to the old ways that got him in trouble with his first marriage. He seems to solve his problems with women by putting them out. But, he knew that just putting her out his house would cease to function. Even though it took him until the end of the book to truly realize, he's not all powerful. Like Daniela said in her blog, He's Human After All, he at some point began to realize that he needs help with things and he can't do everything on your own. When he takes her back, he practices what the Qur'an says is important in a successful marriage, and that's mercy. The act of mercy includes showing compassion to someone and forgiving them for something they've done. When Ahmad finally learns the importance of mercy and showing it in his marriage, he admits to not being perfect and needing help in their home.
At first, Ahmad doesn't seem to be capable of loving anyone besides himself. Once he learned to show love to someone besides himself, he begins to have a successful marriage. That love, like the Qur'an stated, is necessary to have a successful marriage but not just in the book but in real life. In Ahmad's first marriage to Haniya, he doesn't truly love her and doesn't practice mercy on her. Love and mercy should go hand in hand with one another. If you truly love someone, then you show them mercy because you can look past the bad things they've done and forgive them. But, if you want to leave them just because they did something you don't agree with, then that's not love. That's why it's obvious that Ahmad loves Amina. He gets angry with her, he cheats on her and sometimes treats her badly, and I'm not saying that all those things are acceptable for a husband to do to his wife. But, at the end of the day, he always thinks of his wife. When he's taken away by the British soldiers, his mind goes to his family, and it's not just the kids but her as well. Even though Ahmad is still a selfish man, he learns to make room for someone else in his life, and apparently Amina was good enough to fit the bill of that person.




Works Cited
1.The Holy Quran. Maulana Muhammad Ali, 2002. Web. 5 Apr. 2010. .

2.Barajas, Daniela. "He's Human After All." Web log post. He's Human After All. 24 Mar. 2010. Web. 5 Apr. 2010. .

3.Rodriguez, Marixa. "Ahmad and Women." Web Log post. Digging Even Deeper: Ahmad and Women. 20 Mar. 2010. Web. 28 Mar. 2010. .

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

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. .

Influencing Zaynab

Throughout the book, we've been faced with women who are continually being oppressed by Ahmad and not allowing them to do simple things like go outside, talk back, or anything else that other women are allowed to do. Now that Yasin is married, his wife, Zaynab, is a new addition to the house. She wasn't raised like Khadijah and Aisha, who are accustomed to the ways of women in Ahmad's house. She was allowed to go out and see the world with her father, Muhammad Iffat. She didn't have to stay cooped up in a house all the time (314). So, it's without question that her moving into this new household is going to be a challenge.
On page 353, we see how Zaynab's character is being molded into that of an “Ahmad-ite” (I like to call the women in his house Ahmad-ites). Yasin was going on about the fact that activist Sa'd was being exiled to Malta and expressing his outrage for it. Zaynab felt like his feelings weren't necessarily backed up by his actions because he was still going to go out and drink that night. She felt if this situation was as serious as Yasin was trying to make it seem, then maybe he would spend a night with her instead of going out and getting drunk. Even though she felt like this, she didn't express her feelings to Yasin. Why couldn't she express this to her husband? Would that have been disrespectful for her to tell her husband to stay in tonight and not go out and drink? I agree that for her to say that in front of the entire family would have been embarrassing, but did she really have to suppress her true feelings? The next paragraph goes,
“She did not utter a word. She was too wise to cast her icy reflections into that fiery stream. Her mother-in-law resembled her in this. Her courage rapidly evaporated when confronted by anger, no matter how trivial. For that reason, she retreated into silence and kept her intense discomfort to herself as she apprehensively followed the raging, unruly conversation (354).”
We see here that Zaynab is becoming more and more like Amina everyday and I don't feel like that's a coincidence. They are all living in the same house and Ahamd's ego won't let a woman in his house even think that she might have a little control. Ahmad's the person who is controlling her and not Yasin, which, theoretically should be his job since he is her husband.
Why is Ahmad taking over so much? Does he not trust Yasin? We have reason to believe that. When Yasin and Zaynab decide to go to Kishkish Bey, Ahmad has a serious problem with it. We already know he wouldn't allow his wife and real daughters to even go out into the outside air, and he meant no less for his daughter-in-law. According to my research, many Muslim families believe in a strong extended family culture. They believe that the best help they can get with newcomers to the family are those in the family themselves. That is, why go outside of the home for help with your family when you can just ask those who are older for help. Professor Ismail Faruqi, author of this articlem writes, “...the nuclear family consisting only of husband, wife and children does not hae the resources, the human resources, the wisdom resources, the friendly resources that the extended family brings to the scene.” This part of their cultures is probably why Ahmad butts into the decision that Yasin and Zaynab make when they go to Kishkish Bey. He feels that it's his duty as father and leader of the home, he has to speak what he feels is necessary so that the women in his home live righteously. When Yasin and Zaynab return home, Ahmad tells her off and makes her feel bad for going out with her husband. He says, “...but there are matters that I cannot be silent about without committing what I consider an unforgivable crime. One of these is for a girl like you to stay out off her house until this hours of the night (313). While I see that this is the nicest we've probably seen Ahmad, I think that this exchange between them made it really hard for Zaynab to continue to be herself. He should have talked to Yasin and allowed him to deal with this situation in a way instead of stepping in and “chastising” her himself. He even says himself, “You're her husband and master. It's up to you to make her see things the way you want” (315). So he should allow him to deal with his wife in a way he sees fit.
But Ahmad's attempted refinery of Zaynab still fell short. When Zaynab found that Yasin had had an affair with a maid, she went crazy. She started yelling and screaming and intended for Ahmad to hear her so he would run to see what was the problem with her (385). It was Zaynab's first intention to not put up with a cheating husband but other people, like her own mother, had given her advice to put up with his affairs because he'd eventually grow out of it (387). But why should she have to wait for her husband to be faithful? He should want to do that because he loves her because she definitely loves him (386).
Basically, we haven't gotten a true sense of who Zaynab really is because she's continually being influenced into being a certain way instead acting on her true emotions. Even other women, like Aisha and Khadijah, are shown more deeply and complex in the book so we can see who they are and what they're like even though they were also always under the scrutiny of their father. Zaynab, on the other hand, is being pushed this and that way in order to become the “perfect” wife for Yasin.

Works Cited 
1.Mahfouz, Naguib. Palace Walk (Cairo Trilogy). New York: Anchor, 1990. Print.
2.Role of the Family in the Spread of Islam. Jannah, 23 Feb. 2009. Web. 3 Mar. 2010. .

All Daughters are Made Equal

On page 236-237, we become aware of Aisha's chance to get married. This comes as a surprise because earlier in the book, we read that their family wanted Khadijah to become married before Aisha does. Aisha's excited to finally be moving on but Khadijah isn't really excited to see her little sister, to whom she shows a bit of resentment, get married before she does. Mahfouz writes, "Khadijah did not enjoy affectionate words of comfort when defeated. She received Aisha's statement with unconcealed annoyance" (237). My question at this point is whether Khadijah should be happy for her sister instead of annoyed and jealous with her. I mean, earlier in the book, on page 144, everyone was excited for her when they thought she was potentially going to get married, but now that it's shifted to her sister, she refuses to be angry. This contrast in behavior made me think about why is it so expected for older sisters to get married first. According to this website, I know that the marrying age for females in this culture is 16 and for males it's 18, but both Aisha and Khadijah are over that age. (Egypt) So why is it so important that Khadijah be married first? According to the book, they see Khadijah not being engaged as being bad luck, which I also don't understand. I think they should be happy that she got proposed to in the first place, and not complain about the order it's done in.

Also, putting so much emphasis on seeing that Khadijah be married first, creates a strained relationship between Aisha and Khadijah. Khadijah now feels resentment towards her own sister, who doesn't deserve to be treated that way. It's not like Aisha in some way made it so that she could be married first, yet Khadijah treats her like it was somehow her fault (237). She also begins to lose faith in her family and how much did she mean to them. She starts to believe that her father no longer loves her the way he used to. She loses sight in the love that keeps their family together anyways (238).


1. Egypt. Emory, 1998. Web. 26 Feb. 2010. .

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

A father's Influence

Lauren F. Clemons


Yasin is the son of Ahmad and his first wife, whom both Ahmad and Yasin aren't very fond of. The strained relationship between Yasin's mother and Ahmad began when they were first married and she proved to be a woman who was a little too free for his liking. He divorced her with the intent of getting back together with her later on, but she only wanted to come back if he would promise not to beat her (107). He grew so angry with her for not crawling back to him that he finalized their divorce and never looked back. Years later, Ahmad still grows angry just by hearing the mentioning of his first wife (106) which to me is strange because they've been separate for eleven years now. What could possibly still be the problem with Ahamd and his first wife.

Ahmad's a very arrogant man, who believes that women should just flock to him, no questions asked. He expected nothing less from his first wife, and made sure of that in their marriage. When he decided to divorce her, he only had the intent of carrying it out for a little while, but things didn't go as planned. He believed that she should come crawling back to him carrying no stipulations are conditions. When she did, he grew embarrassed. He thought he was high, mighty and powerful enough to get her back without having to work on himself. When he didn't get his way, he left her alone without even being able to keep a relationship with her son. To do this, just because she only agreed to come back if he wouldn't hit her strikes me as odd. If he really cared about her, then simply agreeing to keep his hands off her shouldn't have been an issue. But with Ahmad, being married is not for happiness, but it's because he wants to be a man. He wants to only allow his wife certain freedoms, and make sure she understands that he's the man. He couldn't allow her to come back into his house if she even thought she could tell him what to do. So he ran off simply because he coudn't have his way.

The passage that made me realize this about Ahmad is on page 106, when Mahfouz writes about Ahmad's anger he still has inside. The sheer embarrassment he felt could still be seen eleven years later. This passage is also when we begin to see how Ahmad's feelings about his first wife have rubbed off on his son. On page 107, Mahfouz writes, “The woman was at least forty, and Yasin was fully grown and aware of his ability to defend his honor from harm and humiliation,”. His mother's remarriage probably isn't necessarily an extremely controversial issue at this time since he also says a little before that sentence that this marriage is one of her more honorable mistakes. Mahfouz states that Yasin simply believes “this anticipated marriage seemed more outrageous than the previous ones and more calculated to cause pain” (107). He sincerely believes, like his father, that she's doing these things to dishonor them and embarrass them. Ahmad's beliefs have influenced Yasin to a point where he doesn't even seem to care at all about his mother. When he goes to visit her, he can't even morsel up any small act of love to show to her.

Ahmad's Priorities

The passage I'm writing about is on page 10, and it's the first full paragraph. I want to focus on one sentence that states:

“At once he would get control of himself and press his lips together while stealing a glance at his wife. He would find her as usual, in front of him, with her eyes lowered. Reassured, he would return to his memories and his heart that cherished them as though from an unquenchable thirst for the pleasures of life.”

To me, this is when we see a lot of different sides to Ahmad. First, we see that the moments that he lets escape when he's drunk are moments that reveal that he could actually be a nice person. He shares intimate feelings with her, and things that make him happy. This, in turn, makes Amina happy because she just wants to feel like she's not a doormat that he comes home to, but his actual wife. And even though drinking is an abomination in their religion, she's kind of happy to get those memories of happy times shared with her husband. But, we then see that those moments released are just a time when he loses control of the situation, and order must be restored in the universe. He then shuts up completely and refuses to talk to her. He must feel like if he talks to her too much, and let her inside to get to know him a little more intimately, she won't fear and respect him. His entire life is based off the fact that the things she does for him are done out of her fear for him. Then he looks back up at her to make sure she has returned to her submissive state of mind, and he can relax assured that she will keep that level of fear for him.

Also from this passage, I can see that his main focus is on himself and having a good time. The things that he cherishes the most are those times when he's out partying and hanging out with his friends instead of being at home with his family. He says that those are the times that quench his thirst for pleasure and, to me, that's a problem. Why is it that he can't find the times that he's at home to be exceptionally great pleasing? In any culture, your family should be your pride and joy. Later into the paragraph it says, “...and the success and delight they occasioned, making him everyone's best friend” (10). Apparently, the joy he seeks from being “everyone's best friend” is more pleasing to him than the joy of his own family. This suggests something to me that he must have some type of problem with family in general, not just women. He's passed down those perverse beliefs about women to his son (81), but he has something else towards his family as a whole, especially to Kamal, whom he repeatedly calls a “son of a bitch” (20). In my opinion, Ahmad has messed up priorities when it comes to family, if he can't even assess the times he spends with them as more valuable than the time he spends with his colleagues getting drunk and partying.