Midaq Alley, by Naguib Mahfouz, is a narrative told from the third person omniscient point of view. Normally, this means that the reader gets to view the happenings of each of the character’s lives from the same vantage point as God. No one in particular is telling the story, and the reader sees the story from the view of an invisible person always present at the scene. Midaq Alley is decidedly different. Mahfouz creates an impartial character that is able to observe everything that happens in the novel. No, this character is not God, or even an invisible person; in Midaq Alley, this character is the alley itself.
From the beginning the reader is introduced to Midaq Alley. Immediately the reader learns that the alley “is one of the gems of times gone by and that it once shone forth like a flashing star in the history of Cairo” (Mahfouz 1). Also, the reader learns that “Midaq Alley lives in almost complete isolation from all surrounding activity…” (Mahfouz 1). Clearly the alley once used to be a bustling and important place but now is an isolated place stuck in times that have long passed. Through these descriptions, Mahfouz is introducing to the reader the main character of the novel, the alley. This detached and ancient alley will serve as the setting for almost the entire novel. All of the events described in the novel are from the vantage point of the alley.
Next Mahfouz introduces the physical aspects of the alley. “One of its sides consisted of a shop, a café, and a bakery, the other of another shop and an office. It ends abruptly, just as its ancient glory did, with two adjoining houses, each of three stories” (Mahfouz 1). Just as all authors do with any character, Mahfouz wants his reader to visualize Midaq...
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... different from a person, the alley attracts a certain group of people, like Uncle Kamil and Radwan Hussainy, while repulsing others, such as Kirsha and Hamida. Just as relationships between people grow and develop over time, the relationship between Abbas and the alley changed during the novel; he was content and at peace with his life in the alley, until his love for Hamida and some prodding from his friend Hussain showed him that there was more in the world than the Alley. Midaq Alley contributed a great deal to the development of Abbas and thrust him into a new life. Mahfouz brilliantly uses Midaq Alley as a catalyst in the lives of its inhabitants, making it a real and viable character that exerts influence and affects interactions among other characters throughout the novel.
Works Cited
Mahfouz, Naguib. Midaq Alley. New York, NY: Anchor Books, 1966.
Norris, Margot. "Blind streets and seeing houses: Araby's dim glass revisited.," Studies in Short Fiction, vol. 32, (1995) : Summer, pp. 309(10).
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The Author, Khaled Hosseini uses betrayal and motivation to help with the novels plot and to help explain the actions of his characters. Behind every betrayal in the novel was a motivation. Hosseini makes the read think about whether betrayal can take place without motivation. Hosseini highlights the consequences of betrayal with his main character Amir, who has to deal with his betrayal every remaining day of his life. The reader is opened to the guilt and regret behind a betrayal. Hosseini uses his other character, Hassan, to exemplify the consequences of loyalty. The novel focuses on a theme of betrayal. Although Hassan did not betray Amir in the situation with Assef, Amir did betray Hassan in the same situation. Loyalty is not always reciprocated and that is proven in the novel. Khaled Hosseini focuses on betrayal and is able to successfully portray the ramifications of betrayal. Amir betrayed Hassan, but Hassan remained loyal to Amir. The one that truly suffered from the betrayal was Amir, who had to live with the guilt and regret of his actions. Baba has to deal with the same regret and guilt. While the person who was betrayed, Ali, has no consequence. Betrayal is a theme in the novel and is perfectly portrayed by the characters in the
Although “Araby” is a fairly short story, author James Joyce does a remarkable job of discussing some very deep issues within it. On the surface it appears to be a story of a boy's trip to the market to get a gift for the girl he has a crush on. Yet deeper down it is about a lonely boy who makes a pilgrimage to an eastern-styled bazaar in hopes that it will somehow alleviate his miserable life. James Joyce’s uses the boy in “Araby” to expose a story of isolation and lack of control. These themes of alienation and control are ultimately linked because it will be seen that the source of the boy's emotional distance is his lack of control over his life.
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The narrator in “Araby” is a young man who lives in an uninteresting area and dreary house in Dublin. The only seemingly exciting thing about the boy’s existence is the sister of his friend Mangum that he is hopelessly in love with; “…her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood.” (Joyce 2279) In an attempt to impress her and bring some color into his own gray life, he impulsively lies to her that he is planning on attending a bazaar called Arab. He also promises the gi...
Norris, Margot. "Blind Streets And Seeing Houses: Araby's Dim Glass Revisited." Studies In Short Fiction 32.3 (1995): 309. Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 Apr. 2014.
It is this last line of the short story that symbolizes the narrator coming to terms with his prior disillusionment. On the way to bazaar, he had envisioned himself as a knight in shining armor, embarking on a noble quest to secure a beautiful present for his beloved. However, his experiences after that destroy his dreams. As he takes his first baby steps towards adulthood, he finally takes the world at face value. Ironically, he pays a heavy price for this realization: his vibrant imagination. He can no longer tease magic from the mundane actions of others, or his boring neighborhood houses. All the magic that he had created as a little boy disappeared in an instant. In a sense, being one step closer to adulthood actually prevents him from growing in many other ways. In “Blind streets and seeing houses: Araby’s dim glass revisited” by Margot Norris, she mentions how, “North Richmond Street is introduced as blind, mute, with emptiness inside – a proleptic figure of the boy at the end of the story” (Norris 1). She ties the story back full-circle by comparing all the
The three men in this novel represent the people who abandoned their homeland in search for a better life. This is what happens to people who abandon their homeland, their death is a shameful and undignified death not like the people who die defending their country where they are honored and looked up to. Abul Khaizuran represents the leader who betrays his people by promising them to fulfill their dreams but instead he led them to their death and he only cared to fulfill his personal needs. The road represents the struggle of life the characters go through to reach their dreams and the desert represents the obstacles that keep them for achieving the dreams. The three men had to knock to be saved but the never knocked, the Palestinians need to raise their voice in order to be heard just like knocking on the tank.
I believe Araby employs many themes; the two most apparent to me are escape and fantasy though I see signs of religion and a boy's first love. Araby is an attempt by the boy to escape the bleak darkness of North Richmond Street. Joyce orchestrates an attempt to escape the "short days of winter", "where night falls early" and streetlights are but "feeble lanterns" failing miserably to light the somberness of the "dark muddy lanes"(Joyce 38). Metaphorically, Joyce calls the street blind, a dead end; much like Dublin itself in the mid 1890s when Joyce lived on North Richmond Street as a young boy. A recurrent theme of darkness weaves itself through the story; the boy hides in shadows from his uncle or to coyly catch a glimpse of his friend Mangan's sister who obliviously is his first love.
In the story of, "Araby" James Joyce concentrated on three main themes that will explain the purpose of the narrative. The story unfolded on North Richmond Street, which is a street composed of two rows of houses, in a desolated neighborhood. Despite the dreary surroundings of "dark muddy lanes" and "ash pits" the boy tried to find evidence of love and beauty in his surroundings. Throughout the story, the boy went through a variety of changes that will pose as different themes of the story including alienation, transformation, and the meaning of religion (Borey).