The Love of a Father

He might ask Kamal gruffly, ‘Have you washed your hands?’ If Kamal answered in the affirmative, he would order him, ‘Show me!’ Terrified, the boy would spread his palms out. Instead of commending him for cleanliness, the father would threaten him. ‘If you ever forget to wash them before eating, I’ll cut them off to spare you the trouble of looking after them.” Sometimes he would ask Fahmy, “Is that son of a bitch studying his lessons or not?’ Fahmy knew whom he meant for ‘son of a bitch’ was the epithet their father reserved for Kamal” (20).
Question/ idea: Do you believe this father loves his children?
Since there is not much dialogue in this book yet, the characters speaking must have great importance in illustrating. This scene gives the reader a visual to the harshness of Ahmad and shows how he makes his family fear him. Mahfouz uses words like ‘might’, ‘if’, ‘would’ making it seem like this scene at breakfast happens often but also unexpectedly adding on to the father’s mysteriousness and fear. The father remains mysterious because the main point of view is from the mother’s perspective. She knows little about who he is outside the home. Her imagination satisfies her curiosity.
His mysteriousness makes it hard to tell whether he loves his children or not but that doesn’t seem to matter because his family loves him all the same. Although his father was harsh the son and mother both love him greatly. “Kamal’s small heart absorbed its love for him from this environment, but that love remained a hidden jewel, locked up inside him by fear and terror” (50). Why does his son feel such love for the tyrant. Possibly he feels the connection with being a son of such a powerful man. Asking about his son’s hands and studies shows he somewhat cares.
It seems as though everyone is like a normal family the way they express their love to one another except for their father. He seems out of place, like a stranger. In a way he is. He separates his home life from his work, late night life. The people outside his home do not know how he is at home and his family do not know how he is outside the home. Mahfouz describes, “They would cluster under their mother’s wing with love and all embracing affection. The very way they sat leaning back with their legs folded under them showed how free and relaxed they felt” (52). They appear as any family would or maybe even closer than most. The children with their mother contrast with the way they are with their father. She is gentle them to even out the effects an abusive father could leave. In the novel. there is descriptions on how much they love their family. Mahfouz wanted the reader to not get confused because although they are harsh to one another they love each other more than anything in the world. Why let there be confusion with the father? There is little description describing how much Ahmad loves his wife and kids. Kamal, the youngest, hangs on to memories when his father was gentle to him. His father didn’t stop loving him because he got older. Possibly he loved him more and knew it was time for him to be discipline. This could possibly be tradition or how his father raised him. Why is Discipline so important that he can’t express tenderness to his children? Mahfouz describes, “The truth was that he was dreaded and feared only in his own family. With everyone else-- friends, acquaintances, and customers --he was a different person” (36). He was a stranger to his family. For some reason he had to be the “Big Man” at home. This reason could be his religion. He could possibly believed it’s his right to have a subservient family and they should know their places. He would enforce this by instilling fear in their hearts.