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.