Susan Allen Toth's : Classification Essay on "Going to the Movies"

Susan Allen Toth express her discontentment of the way men take relationship's by classifying different men which accompany her to the movies. Men who go with her to the movies are not worried to much about what she needs instead they all seem to looking out for themselves. The authors finalizes her essay "On Going to the Movies" by alluding that she is looking for a person who is also worried about what she feels and that values her opinion when she describes her experience "on going to the movies." One essential aspect that Toth classifies is  the type of movies. 

Toth goes to the movies by herself to see musicals. These musicals make her dream of what she could of been and also of what could be. The movies she watches have to end "happily". Toth ends this essay by saying "In the movies I go to by myself, the men and women always like each other. "(608)  This is a very powerful statement to make because she implies that she is looking for a man that likes her and that she has been wasting her time with all the men she has had any relations with. She goes to the movies with various men who choose what they want to see instead of asking her opinion. This seems really odd because these men are basically just going by themselves. The seek her physical company but other than that she is just a stranger who happens to be sitting next them. There is no emotional connection. These men would obviously not want to watch a romantic movie with the author because that would imply something different to her. 

This essay appears in  The Norton Reader: Shorter Tenth Version

The fall of a curtain...

Yasins' life was changed from this moment,

Sitting next to her was her father, not someone else. When he saw him, his heart pounded harder. His father had removed his cloak and rolled up his sleeves. He was shaking the tambourine and gazing at the performer with a face brimming joy with joy and happiness. The door was open only so long as Zanuba was in the room, one or two minutes, but during that time he witnessed an amazing sight: a secret life, a long story with many ramifications. He awoke like a person emerging a long dream, deep sleep to the convulsions of a violent earthquake. (P. 249)

This part of the paragraph is extremely powerful where Mahfouz conveys the importance of having Yasin see his fathers' other life. Yasin has never seen his father drinking, singing, playing instruments, or even being relaxed in anyway. Yasin's heart pounds hard when he sees that his father is sitting next to a woman and not only that he is the complete stranger to him. Mahfouz not only lets Yasin in on Ahmad secret it seems that he is letting the reader have a look over Yasin's shoulder. Mahfouz uses the methapor of the earthquake to show this revelation to Yasin,  "He awoke like a person from a long dream, deep sleep to the convulsions of a violent earthquake (249)" A dormant earthquake erupts without mercy when the time comes and nothing in the world can ever be hidden forever. Yasin was amazed at the sight he saw of the father he never really knew. So many things ran through Yasin's mind and he probably wanted to know about this made who smiled with such happiness.

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