Death Of An Effendi Imperialism

It was in 1882 when Britain acted alone to gain occupation of Egypt. Not too long after that, Britain was successful, and they captured the canal along with defeating the Egyptian army at Tel-el-Kebir. This notion of imperialism is what Michael Pearce wrote his book, Death of an Effendi (2004) about. Death of an Effendi takes place in Cairo in 1909. Gareth Owen, Chief of Cairo’s Secret Police, is called to investigate an interesting murder. The murder was interesting, because the man who was murdered was a foreign effendi, not one of Egypt. Pierce writes this mystery from a narrator’s aspect. The narrator is not Pierce or Owen, so what I found interesting was that the narrator channels Owen’s thoughts and views of Egypt, and tells the story mainly through Owen’s point of view. The narrator wants readers to be aware of the foreign colonial presence, but more specifically, the narrator wants us to be aware of Britain’s presence and power in Egypt. The narrator seems to privilege Owen’s perspective on things, and Owen claims that he sees Egypt through eastern eyes, but is that believable?

The narrator of the story describes what Owen sees outside as he walks into the central courtyard, stating, “Owen wandered out into the big central courtyard. The air was loud with the cooing of doves. They perched on the branches of a large sycamore fig tree which stood in the centre of the yard, its great branches offering shade to almost the whole of the yard” (Pearce 95). The narrator is channeling Owen’s views of Egypt by describing how Owen is in an area where it is not just a vacant, lifeless dessert, but there are the sounds of doves cooing and the sight of growing green trees, which is typically not a visualizing thought of