Passage Analysis

Passage: Chapter 1

How will he look when he first sees you? How will his eyes meet yours? Have you forgotten, Ilish, how you used to rub against my legs like a dog? It was me, wasn't it, who taught you how to stand on your own two feet, who made a man of a cigarette-butt cadger? You've forgotten, Ilish, and you're not the only one: She's forgotten, too, that woman who sprang from filth, from vermin, from treachery and infidelity.

Through all this darkness only your face, Sana, smiles. When we meet I'll know how I stand. In a little while, as soon as I've covered the length of this road, gone past all these gloomy arcades, where people used to have fun. Onward and upward. But not to glory. I swear I hate you all.

The bars have shut down and only the side streets are open, where plots are hatched From time to time he has to cross over a hole in the pavement set there like a snare and the wheels of streetcars growl and shriek like abuse. Confused cries seem to seep from the curbside garbage. (1 swear I hate you all.) Houses of temptation, their windows beckoning even when eyeless, walls scowling where plaster has fallen. And that strange lane, al-Sayrafi Lane, which brings back dark memories. Where the thief stole, then vanished, whisked away. (Woe to the traitors.) Where police who'd staked out the area had slithered in to surround you.

The same little street where a year before you'd been carrying home flour to make sweetmeats for the Feast, that woman walking in front of you, carrying Sana in her swaddling clothes. Glorious days--how real they were, no one knows--the Feast, love, parenthood, crime. All mixed up with this spot.


Analysis

The following passage is taken from chapter 1 from the novel the Thief and the Dogs. Naguib Mahfouz paints the story of Said, a man who feels betrayed by his family and friends after his prison release. The key elements in this are the plot development, imagery, and characterization. Considering the audience has just been introduced to Said they are able to understand conflicts from his view points. With the use of stream of consciousness Mahfouz is able to reveal Said's darkest innermost thoughts making the audience aware of his revenge plot. In this passage he has gone to his wife's house to retrieve his daughter, but is rejected. 

Said's charterers is a complex one as it times the audience  is meant to sympathize with him when he is rejected from his daughter, whereat other times they are given justification for his actions. The best example of this switch is the passage above. The passage reveals the interactions between Illish (Said's friend) and Said. As it can be seen that Said begins with the remark "How you used to rub against my legs like a dog". At this point the audience is able to see the connection with animal imagery and the title of the book, implying the dogs are the betrayers.  This stated the audience is able to understand the relationship Said and Illish had before where they were genuinely close to the extent where Illish would worship Said. This stated the reader is unable to understand why their relationship deteriorated hence setting a sense of mystery.

Further looking into the use of dogs and its imagery in chapter 1 specifically in Arabic and English there are multiple interpretations that arise.  Depending on whether the reader is reading the translated novel, or the actual novel when looking at how dogs are portrayed this can be seen as ironic, because dogs are known as extremely loyal, although when looking at this from the Arabic culture this makes more sense as dogs are looked down upon.  Further going into the animal imagery it further emphasize the betrayal Said is facing. In the sense of characterization the audience is able to understand Said's point of view. 

As the passage continues the reader is able to see the switch in behavior when Said addresses his daughter, Sana.  The way Sana is described tells the reader that she is innocent, and almost a father's child. In the sense that Said's affections describe her the way he remembered her before he went to prison. He also describes her in another light looking at her now, seeing a grown up child. The reader is able to see through Said's eyes and feel an intimate connection as this feeling is a relatable one. As the reader gets attached to Sana the way Said is, Mahfouz uses her coming of age as a way to reject Said resulting in the reader's feeling of sympathy for said.