Said Tragic Hero

1  - Said's ideology itself can be considered his flaw, since it ties him to an unfortunate end. As we have seen in the story, Said's intention is to carry out his own way of justice, which is the Marxist justice, the abolition of the social classes distributing the wealth among all individuals of society. This ideology drives Said to desire revenge on Raof, who now, after Said is freed from prison, has become a rich journalist that has abandoned his Marxist ideologies. Besides of this. his character itself, his need to take revenge on Nabawiyya, and Ilish doom his future.

In addition to this, Said keeps thinking about his past, and keeps focusing on taking revenge, instead of thinking about starting a new life. This event can be seen as lack of vision. As Aristotle said, it is the trait of the character that leads to his downfall, therefore in this case it is his hatredor lack of compassion that dooms his destiny.

2 - Comparing Said to Okonkowo, we can see similarities regarding attitude, although as it is shown in The Thief and the Dogs, Said is a person that demonstrates his selfishness through his actions more than through what he says. It is crucial to focus Said's attitude, and mentality from the right angle. Said, as individual, has his own aim or target, which is take revenge on Ilish, Nabawiyya, and Raouf. Throughout the story we see how an old friend of Said called Nur decides to help Said when he needs shelter, and food, without anything in exchange. Later we find out that Nur loved Said in the past, which is one of the reasons why Nur protects and hides Said. After Said was released from prison his only aim was taking revenge, although in this situation we see how he could have stated a new life with Nur, and escape from that sad place hat would only make him remember his past. As a proof that demonstrates Said's pride, we find in the story the fact that he places his aim or tarjet above everything and everybody.

3 - From my point of view, I believe that there is only one turning points in this story. The first turning point is when Said sees Sana for the first time and gets rejected b his own daughter. More than anything, this action damages Said's feelings and mentality. This fact only makes Said realize that he has lost his own daughter, who now has his former best friend as parent figure, therefore Said's desire to take revenge on Ilish and Nabawiyya just increases after this event happens, which later on triggers his unfortunate death. The reason why this happens is that Said's desire to take revenge grows so big, that he can only think in that, which drives him to kill innocent people.

4 -  I believe that this happens almost at the very end of the story, when the protagonist comes to realize that he will not have the change to see his daughter grow, or to be a father since he is in a situation that might trigger his death. The evidence that we find is a phrase in which the author portrays the idea that Sana ran away from said, as an abstract concept that shows his possibility to obtain his daughter back leaving.

The Thief and the Dogs Passage Analysis

Passage:

From the line 21 of page 94, to the end of the page 95.

This scene corresponds to the very end of the story right after Said Mahran, the protagonist, has to escape, away from the Sheikh's house, afraid of being caught by the police. In the scene Said finds himself cornered by the police in the cemetery, where he finds himself in a situation in which he personally realizes that he will not be able to escape.

While the police officers ask Said to stop resisting and give himself willingly to the police, Said's hatred towards the society, and towards his enemies keeps increasing. As the police officers keep warning Said, Said's only aim is to hide behind the headstones and shot aimlessly, as the atmosphere is described as an atmosphere with no vision whatsoever.

In terms of characterization, what is mainly revealed by Mahfouz through this passage, is how Said grapples to stay alive having present in his  mind his aim of taking revenge at all time. One of the pieces of evidence that shows this is Said's effort of talking to the police while he is cornered so that he can make time to think about an escape. On the other hand this whole passage uses a third person narrator.

This use of a third person narrator is essential and pretty significant. In this case we can see how Mahfouz's use of the third person narrator has as aim the perfect portrayal of the situation in which Said is involved. Being in Said's voice would have showed a sort of bias, that would not have defined, and explained his emotions properly. Trying to make time talking to the officers, and thinking about things that do not have to do with death do not really portray his feelings, therefore a third person narrator that is omniscient in this case, can perfectly portray the situation, providing the information straight ahead.


As the passage begins, Mahfouz's use of personification has an effective impact in the reader, that makes the reader completely be in Said's skin in that moment. " His fear- tortured eyes could see the phantom of death now, stalking throw the night." In frost place, it is observable how Mahfouz represents death as phantom that is able to stalk instead of representing it a what it is, a natural process in which an organisms's life comes to an end. This personification is used by Mahfouz to show how much Said knew that his time to die had come. The actual action of seen the death's phantom does not have a figurative meaning, since is an abstract concept that depicts the situation with accuracy.


Right after this personification, we find another sentence that conveys an abstract concept again. As it is mentioned " Sana had turned away from him in alarm, hopelessly.". This sentence just shows how through figurative language, Mahfouz's intention is to explain that in this situation Said had no longer an hope of recovering the time that he had lost with his daughter Sana, which makes the audience understand the extent at which Said's realization of death was. This only shows Said's downfall. As it is presented throughout the story, Sana is the main reason why Said wants to take revenge on Ilish. Not being able to see his daughter, and be part of her life as her dad is the reason that empowers Said's desire of revenge. For that matter, Mahfouz here, wants to represent how this possibility, and this aim disappears from Said's mind, looking at the situation in which he is involved.


As the passage continues, the rest of the lines in the page 94 just portray Said's attitude, resisting the threats of the police officers, and rejecting to surrender, until the very last line of the page 94 shows a 180 degree turn in Said's state of mind and situation. In a sudden, all the threats, shouts, and barks of the dogs shut down, while darkness, silence, and calmness invade Said. As a final representation of his death, Mahfouz's portrayal of Said's death is pretty abstract, and unclear. Since it is not told directly, the assumption has to be done, although taking into account Said's attitude, a contrasting attitude is portrayed in order to show that what Said was experiencing was death.

Right after all sounds are shut down, at first Said's intention is to show resistance to that lack of feeling, or to that lack of memory, eventually surrendering to make the effort, which is portrayed as the loss of will, which at the same time can be interpreted as the loss of the character itself, since his real attitude is not being shown anymore, leading to his death.

Why does Mahfouz employ stream consciousness narration in the novel and to what effect?

The Thief and the Dogs is a novel written by Mahfouz in 1961. Taking into account that the story was written about a decade after the 1952 revolution it is pretty reasonable that this lapse of time gave Mahfouz an advantage, since he was able to examine and study how Nasser's raise to power affected the Egyptian society, and the social classes.

Once Nasser's consolidation of power in the Egyptian state occurs, the working class, or also known as the low class, becomes disappointed when the middle class takes advantage of the revolution to place itself on a higher position of society. This position brought power, in the form of privileges and wealth to the middle class individuals, which upset the working class. Before the revolution could happen, the middle class, more specifically the intelligentsia, was the class that spread out the Marxist values needed in the social mentality, that one day would overthrow the existing power. Once that power is overthrown, the Marxist mentality that believes in the equality of wealth among all social classes is no longer present in the middle class individuals' mentality. With the pass of the time, the middle class society establishes itself on a higher position of wealth, were Marxist values are completely abandoned. In turn, this upsets the working class, that collaborated and endorsed Marxist values that would finally bring justice, and equality to the Egyptian society, which in fact only brought a feeling of disappointment that can be compared to getting stabbed.

This situation is key when it comes to understanding the characterization of Mahfouz's main character in the Thief and the Dogs. Said, driven by the Marxist ideology of one of his teachers, decides to start stealing from the rich individuals of society, with the aim to redistribute the wealth among the ones that need it. Said represents himself as  robin Hood, whose ideology can be compacted in the statement, "the mean justify the ends". In the story Said gets caught stealing, and therefore goes to jail. The story starts right after Said is freed from his condemn, and is free from the jail. At this point the only thing that Said has in his mind is revenge towards his traitors.

The stream of consciousness narration is a main feature that should be considered Mahfouz's most important narration feature. When using Soliloquy, and interior monologue, Mahfouz transmits the idea that Said's thought and feelings do not represent only the life and situation of an individual, but the thoughts and feelings of an entire social class. For that matter, throughout the novel we recognize different parts of the story in which direct monologue, indirect monologue, and soliloquy are used in order to portray Said state of mind, and ideology clearly to the reader. In order to directly show how Said feels, the author uses direct monologue, as we can see in the very first page of the book when Said tells himself "Nabbawiya. Ilish, Your two names merge in my mind, For years you will have been thinking about this day". In this case Mahfouz wants to portray Said's rage, and bitterness, produced by the betrayal, therefore there is no better type of narrator that could explain the feeling through the use of similies, than Said himself.

On the other hand taking into the account that the story itself focuses on Said's feelings and thoughts regarding his situation, the plot itself is not given much importance, where we can see the use of a third person narrator through which the plot is advanced. A good example of this can be seen at the beginning of the chapter thirteen, where the third person narrator is used to simply advance the plot, therefore the narrator explains how Said carefully studies his moves to get to Tarzan's cafe, to obtain some information.


Finally, it is also crucial to differentiate the use of the indirect, and the direct monologue. All in all, throughout the story, we are able to observe how the focus is Said, when he reflects on his situation, on the things that could have happened if things were different, and therefore the use of direct, and soliloquy directly portrays Said's feelings. On the other hand, the indirect monologue is a biased type of narration in which the information given is directly related to the protagonist's mentality. This bias is just a literary tool, that makes us remember that that the story is all about one perspective, and one ideology, which is Said's ideology. The effect on the reader through the use use of this type of monologue just shows how Said's mentality is the center of the novel.

Value of Literature in Translation

From my point of view, I believe that translation literature from one language to another has a huge value. Many novels that become recognized, and that gain popularity for their message, or for the quality of their plot, are being made available for other individuals by translating them into other languages. This action just adds to the enrichment of society. When we are able to recognize the best literary works written in our language, such good works are worth translating so that people that talk other languages are able to appreciate such literary works.

Therefore the main advantage that translating literary works from language to language gives us, is the possibility to read works written by authors from other cultures, that might express and transmit certain values that are worth to know. As an example, we find the book Don Quixote written by Miguel de Cervantes, a book that has been translated into 28 different language. This only shows that translating a good literary work into different languages only adds culture to the languages in which the book is being translated, since now a message that could not be understand, can be accessed and understood.

The problem in translating the books is not determining whether or not it is worth it to do it, although there is division of opinions when it comes to the adaptations of books into different languages. As in the example shown in the text "Lost in Translation" many literary critics criticized a well known Chinese write for changing the message of the real author of a book. n the one hand the Chinese writer that adapted the book argued that he made use of his interpretation in order to portray a more accurate version of the book, while the critics only responded that he had completely changed the message of the original author, and had misunderstood the message.

Besides of this in the second text, we find that a writer that has experience with translating books transmits the idea that it is impossible to exactly replicate a book, since the interpretation of the writer adapting the novel or the literary work plays a crucial role when the message of the original author is being analyzed and portrayed. I some cases, several words of one language d not exist in the language in which a literary work is being translated, therefore the message becomes a bit changed due to this fact, which seems to upset many literary critics.


When good writers translate literary works from other language that is not their original language, the only product is a literary work that tries to replicate in the best way the message that the original version conveys. En if the message can change at one point of these translated literary versions of a novel, the essence of the original literary works are not lost, and the changed version can portray better a story that a different society that speaks a different language can understand better, even if several words are changed.

All in all. translation literary works just adds a variety of good novels, poems, and essays to the literature available for a society

Paper 2 Thesis Statements

1Discuss the significance of social status in Things Fall Apart, and comment on its contribution to characterization.

Social status is the most important thing for and individual that belongs to the Igbo culture, in which characteristics such as rudeness and toughness are valued and seen as a virtue more than anything else, and where not having titles can make a man be considered a woman.

Social status is the part of the individual that is placed above anything else, including family, and friends. Example: Okonkowo killing Ikemefuna in order to show toughness. 

Any sign of weakness and ability of empathy displayed by a male character, is only subject of contempt and hate that leads to a bad reputation. Throughout the stories we have seen how characters such as Unoka and Nwoye are being despised for lacking rudeness and showing a more human personality and hobbies, such as playing the flute. 

In order to portray the characteristics and attitude of the protagonist Chinua Achebe shows how Okonkowo has to deal with an internal conflict in which he has to struggle to keep his social status intact, in order not to diplay any weakness.  Example: Throuhout the story it is possible to see how the free will of the protagonist is against his destiny. Even after being advised not to kill Ikemefuna, Okonkowo decides that his priority is to keep his socials status no matter what, therefore deciding to kill the child in front of the leaders of the tribe.

4. With reference toThings Fall Apart, how does the text conform to, or deviate from, the conventions of a particular genre, and for what purpose?

In order to show and portray the values of the Igbo culture Chinua Achebe shows in Things Fall Apart how the role of the woman deviates from its conventions in order to show how the man holds a superior role in society.

In the Igbo culture the man is able to access privileges that the woman is not able to access, and enjoys a freedom that the woman is not given. Throughout the story, it is pretty evident that the woman does not enjoy the freedom that the man does. First off, the man is given the right to have several wives that are expected to cook and take care of the man without questioning his decisions. Besides of this, when in this story we see how when conflicts arise among different tribes women are subject of trade in order to settle the disputes.

In the Igbo society the role of the woman is portrayed as only taking care of the husband and taking care of the children. In several parts of the story we see how the main character, Okonkowo, gets angry when finding out that one of his wives, Ekwefi, has not given food to his daughter Ezinma, getting angry and stating that this is the only that Ekwefi has to do, responding to this action by beating her.