Pathetic Kamal

One of my favorite parts of the book is when Kamal walks to his father’s shop to demand that his father bring his mother, Amina, back. This scene is one of my favorites because it has so much emotion. You feel like a child again because you are placed in Kamal’s head as he approaches his father’s shop. This scene has so much pathos that it reminds me of when I was younger. I would get scared at night and want to walk to my parent’s room across the house. It would take me about 10 minutes lying there in bed staring and the dark ceiling to finally convince myself to sit up. It would be about 30 minutes when I finally reached half way down the hall that I started to rethink my decision. I would contemplate on everything that my parents would say. I would start to walk back when 5 seconds later I had run into the room and was tapping my mother’s shoulder telling her I was scared and if she could come sleep with me.

Kamal’s experience made me have a flashback and think of that one specific time. I could feel Kamal’s hands shake and sweat. I could feel his heart beat and possibly skip a beat. I could anticipate his fear to be rejected and turned down. I could feel the certain chill run through my back and up my neck and that jolt of strength that caused his reaction. This is an excellent scene full of pathos and such detail.

Mahfouz did a great job of interpreting a child’s mind and feelings. He even used simpler word choice to get you in the child mood. He also describes the feelings and emotions the child has very well. “The moment his father’s eyes turned away, the boy revived. Afraid the man would leave and the opportunity be lost, without pausing to consider what he was doing Kamal shouted. ‘Bring back Mama, God help you.’ Then he sped away as fast as the wind” (215).

Khadija's Hatred

Her anger for everyone in general was nothing compared with the feelings of jealousy and resentment against Aisha that she had packed into her breast. She hated her happiness. Most of all she hated Aisha's attempt to hide her happiness. She hated her beauty, which to Khadija's eyes appeared to be an instrument of torture and oppression. In much the same way, a man stalking prey finds the glistening full moon oppressive. She hated life too. It held nothing for her but despair. The progression of days only added to her sorrows as the presents of the bridegroom were brought to the house along with little tokens of his affection. While the house was filled with an atmosphere of unadulterated delight and happineses, she found herself in a forlorn isolation that was as fertile a breeding ground for sorrows as a stagnant pond is for insects. p 238

This passage uses pathos to effectively describe Khadija's hatred for the beauty of Aisha. Throughout the book you get a glance at how much Khadija disliked Aisha for her beauty but now it you get to fully understand how strong this hatred is. The author uses word choice to best describe how much Khadija hates Aisha. Words such as resentment, torture, oppression, and hated clearly show a picture of what goes through Khadija's mind. These words infect Khadija's mind with complete anger.
Descriptive detail is another element the author uses to get this hatred across to the readers. Khadija describes Aisha's beauty as "an instument of torture and oppression" (238) just as the same way "a man stalking a prey finds the glistening full moon oppressive." (238) With this one sentence you get can picture the intense brightness of the moon shining above a man as he tries to sneak through thick grass to kill his prey. But because the moon is oppressive, the prey is able to get away after seeing the man.

Not Another Speech

"As beautiful as the moon, by the Messenger of God! You're really your father's daughter. Anyone seeing those eyes would immediately remember this...I see you're all wondering how this woman knows al-Sayyid Ahmad...I knew him before his wife herself did. He was a neighbor and childhood playmate. Our fathers were friends. Do you think a performer doesn't have a father? My father was head of Qur'anic primary school and a blessed man. What do you think about that, you beauty?" (265)



This passage indicates how the performer Jalila is affected to be in the same building as her previous lover: al-Sayyid Agmad. The reader can almost see the performer Jalila just having a hard time trying to compose herself among the other women in the reception but she's drunk! I see the make-up on her smearing because she had been crying before, the bush of hair that's yet to be tamed, the empty bottle thrown at the side of the stage and the sole realization: he's here but what can I do?

A wedding is supposed to be a joyous occasion where the bride bids farewell to her family to join her husband and the life that comes with being with him. Jalila,however is not happy and needs to release all the emotions she's feeling by picking on Amina whie she's drunk. Naguib Mahfouz does a great job by using pathos, emotions of the lovely performer to convey lost hopes of love, marriage. By reading the above excerpt
you get a sense she's envious of Amina because she's not as beautiful, virtous as Amina who is by standard a good wife and woman. So now we can kind of see the comparison that's going on. Amina is beautiful as the Moon, what about Jalila? Amina is patient, what about Jalila? Amina is a wife,Jalila is a performer. Amina is dependent on Ahamd, Jalila is independent. Despite these things the two women do share something: their fathers. Both women had fathers were teachers dedicated to the Koran.


Maybe though, Jalila is recalling memories when she was happy and it just happen Ahmad was in them and she's distraught that he left her for Zaynuba(another performer) Overall, Mahfouz uses pathos to convey one woman's sadness, anger that life didn't go as planned for her.

To Catch Yasin, You Must Think Like Yasin. Feel Like Yasin

People, my post is of a sexual nature. Viewer discretion is advised. It's not my fault his sproink-a-doink-doink parts are very descriptive.
"He sighed with relief and victory, confident now that he would pluck this fruit he had patiently pursued. Lust surged inside him, the way a ravenously hungry man's mouth waters when his nose smells meat being broiled for him." (Pg. 244)
This is incredibly descriptive. He really wants us to understand this almost overpowering lust Yasin is feeling.Going through the laundry list, we see tactile used a lot, along with olfactory. We see the emotions he feels, along with the reactions these emotions elicit. His stance appeals to pathos. He really gets the emotions nailed down for you to feel. Great descriptions in this passage.
Again, sorry for the sexual nature of this post. I just put my finger down on a passage. Blame the Fates.