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).

Sweet Escape

There's something about dreams of owning a candy store that makes you look twice at Kamal.

He's certainly the youngest, and a boy for that matter. He attends an all boy school where his father's influence reaches him even out of the household. Mahfouz writes how the boy is like, " a prisoner waiting to be struck at any time...(47)" and he can't stop but just wait to be punished or bullied by the other boys because he's around it at home all the time. As Mahfouz describes how Kamal dreams of owning a candy shop, the reader is reminded he's just a innocent kid who can't have fun because his dad's power will not let him. When you think of a candy shop, we think every inch of the facility is made of sweet, sweet candy that makes every kid feel happy. Happiness, that's what Kamal needs to find at home but doesn't because his dad thinks he's trouble but what I think Mahfouz is hinting at is that the father just doesn't understand how different this boy is from his elder brothers who probably avoided telling their dad of childish dreams.

Childhood...

Why is Kamal so different from all the men in this society? Does the fact that he is ten years old make a difference. Kamal is looking for attention constantly from his brothers, especially his mother. He is the only one who seems to have a deeper respect for women. Women in this society are either used as maids such as in the case of Amina and her husband Amad or as sexual objects from which men gain pleasure. If they are house wifes as Amina,  they can't leave the house for any reason unless accompanied by their husbands, they learn about the outside world only from what by mouth of their husband, and are basically ignorant of everything except for the teachings of the Koran and what they need at home. Kamal seems to be very different from all his male brothers, he enjoys the company of his mother and two older sisters. Mahfouz describes Kamal's reason for wanting to teach his mother about what he learned at school, " The truth was that he loved the women's company with all his heart and did not want to be separated from them even when working. Seeing them gave him a pleasure nothing else could equal. He loved his mother more than anything in the world (Mahfouz 65)." Kamal spent his time trying to teach his mother  many things he found interesting and in doing that I feel that he is being inclusive with his mother. Kamal seems to think that maybe his mother shouldn't be any different from him or even men. Men are the one's who get educated in this society and Kamal makes a difference. I attribute this difference to his age and experience because he can't have so much respect and admiration for a man like his father who treats him as if he doesn't deserve respect. Mahfouz placed this paragraph to show us probably how men in this society grow out of their admiration and respect for women. Is Kamal going to change later in the story? 

P. 65, top paragraph 

A Refreshing Drink of Chlidhood

On a little page called forty-seven, in a little book called Palace Walk, there's a little chapter about a little boy who's eating a little pastry. It seems totally random (although in my opinion, the whole book is pretty good at meandering) but there is a purpose to it. Kamal, the aforementioned little boy, is the youngest person we meet in the book. He's not yet 10. He is also the only one who seems to have a childhood to speak of. He likes to joke, move and play. His father likes to kick his butt for doing these things. He wants to own a candy shop just to eat candy. He likes school! What a novel idea! He likes the fact that his achievements in school bring him praise from his family, but it overshadows his mind when his dad doesn't give him one one hundredth of the praise his brother gives him. However, this doesn't even change his mind about his father, and he loves him the same. The childhood of Kamal is great thing to immerse yourself in while reading Palace Walk. It might be your only chance!

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.

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.

"...his young heart found hard to bear."

“’Oh…’ He had been having such fun talking and playing that he had almost forgotten the message he had come to deliver. Her question reminded him of his mission. He looked at her with a different eye, an eye that wished to delve deep inside her to learn the secret power that was rocking his fine, sober brother. When he realized that he as the bearer of unhappy news, his inquisitive look disintegrated. He said despondently, ‘Fahmy sent me’” (134-135).

This passage was probably the passage that really hit me the most. In this section, the author of Palace Walk, Naguib Mahfouz, introduces the story of a young boy and girl that are pretty much in love. Although young, Kamal and Maryam are shown to be in the process of falling in love. Mahfouz shows us the process in which the two engage in activities that a couple in a relationship would normally engage in. Through Mahfouz’s writing, we’re able to see that Kamal and Maryam truly care for each other. On page 134, we see how Kamal and Maryam are playful with each other.

“She stretched her hand toward his armpit, but he moved in the opposite direction and crossed his arms over his chest to protect himself. A nervous laugh escaped him, as though her fingers actually were tickling him. . . She raised her hands over her head. His fingers attacked under her arms and proceeded to tickle her as gently and quickly as possible” (134).

This passage clearly demonstrates the playful relationship that Kamal and Maryam had. It shows the affection they had for each other just as it’s shown when Mahfouz writes, “Maryam grasped his chin with her right hand and kissed his lips time and again” (134). The relationship between the two was clear and without a doubt, the feelings were real. But, as soon as Maryam asks Kamal how he was able to get away, we see sadness overcome the two. Kamal’s brother, Fahmy has chosen Maryam for himself and has already asked for permission to become engaged to her. Although permission wasn’t granted because Fahmy had yet to complete his studies, they both know that he intends on engaging her and he’ll, more than likely, succeed.

The fact that arranged marriages occurred in this time period and still do makes me extremely sad. I find it appalling how, in some cases, a couple that is in love and happy can’t stay together simply because another man has claimed her to be his first. Obviously, since I was born and raised in the United States with different customs and beliefs than those in the book, I find this very heartbreaking. But, I’m forced to read this in the eyes of the people with the customs and beliefs that are completely different than mine. To them, this is how things are supposed to go. A man finds a woman that he finds useful or “good enough” to be his wife, he asks for permission to become engaged and married, and the woman must obey. It’s how things are. As much as we’d like to go against the way of life of people like this and as much as we’d like to tell them how this is wrong, we shouldn’t. And if we could and DID, it wouldn’t be very effective. To them, we’re wrong and they’re right and there’s not much we can do about it. It is better to not judge for the sake of not being harshly judged in returned.

Role Model

In the novel Palace Walk written by the Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz introduces us to a Muslim family. We see how in this novel the men are the ones with the power and the woman must be submissive to everything that men say. We also get to see the type of relationship that the wife has with her sons. In the dialogue we see how her Kamal wants more freedom and is asking his mom how is it that he can receive all that freedom.
“His mother smiled and replied Going out nights is not a goal you should be dreaming about now.
He shouted in protest, But my father goes out at night and so does Yasin.
His mother raised her eyebrows in confusion and stammered, Be patient till you become a man. Then you can get a job. When the time is right, God will grant you opportunities.” (57)
In this quote Kamal is asking for more freedom like the one that his brother Yasin has gotten all because he works. Kamal also uses his father as an example of why is it that they have so much freedom why he has to tell his mom where he’s going and what time he’s going to get back home. Kamal’s mom tells him that he should not be looking forward to going out at nights and having a lot of freedom. One thing that Kamal’s mom doesn’t do is explain to him why is it that having so much freedom should not be looked forward to. As a child I would find it pointless if I don’t receive an explanation for why so much freedom is not given to me.
Kamal seems to want to be like his dad and brother. He doesn’t understand that what his brother and father are setting as an example is not a very good example. Kamal’s mother is telling him to wait for the right time and that everything would be clear to him. She says that the right time would be when he becomes a man. Kamal must also have a job and more importantly God will grant him the opportunities that he wants. Kamal’s mom is very religious and she believes a lot in God and therefore she believes that God will open the path for Kamal.
This novel is very interesting especially since we also get to learn about the culture of another country.