Characterization of Said Mahran in TTATD

Passage:

Said started back in fright, darting in again between the tombs while the barking grew louder. He pressed his back against a tomb and took out his gun, staring out into the darkness resignedly. There it was. The dogs had come at last and there was no hope left. The scoundrels were safe, if only for a while. His life had made its last utterance, saying that it had all been in vain.

 It was impossible to tell precisely where the barking came from; it was carried in on the air from all around. It was hopeless now to think of fleeing from the dark by running away into the dark. The scoundrels had indeed got away with it; his life was a proven failure. The barking and the commotion were very close now and soon, Said knew, all the malice and revengefulness he'd been running from would be breathed right into his face. He held his gun poised as the barking grew ever louder and closer. And suddenly there was blinding light over the whole area. He shut his eyes and crouched at the base of the tomb.  "Give yourself up," a triumphant voice shouted. "There's no purpose in resisting."  The ground shook now with the thud of heavy feet surrounding him and the light spread all around, like the sun.  "Give yourself up, Said," the voice said firmly.  He crouched closer still to the tomb, ready to open fire, turning his head in all directions.  "Surrender," came another shout, confident, reassuring and dignified, "and I promise you you'll be treated with all humanity."  _Like the humanity of Rauf, Nabawiyya, Ilish and the dogs, no doubt?_ "You're surrounded on all sides. The whole cemetery is surrounded. Think it over carefully, Said. Give yourself up."  Sure that the enormous and irregular multitude of the tombs prevented them from actually seeing him, Said made no movement. He had decided on death.  "Can't you see there's no point in resistance?" the firm voice shouted.  It seemed to be nearer now than before and Said shouted back warningly:  "Any closer and I'll shoot."  "Very well, then. What do you want to do? Make your choice between death and coming to justice."  "Justice indeed!" Said yelled scornfully.  "You're being very stubborn. You've got one minute more."  His fear-tortured eyes could see the phantom of death now, stalking through the dark.  Sana had turned away from him in alarm, hopelessly.  He sensed surreptitious movement near, flared with rage, and opened fire. The bullets showered in, their whistle filling his ears, chips flying from tombs all around. He fired again, oblivious to danger now, and more bullets pelted in. "You dogs, you!" he raved in a frenzy of rage and more shots came in from all sides.  Suddenly the blinding light went out, and the firing stopped; there was darkness again and quiet fell. He, too, wasn't firing any more. Slowly the silence was spreading, until all the world seemed gripped in some strange stupefaction. He wondered . . . ? But the question and even its subject seemed to dissolve, leaving no traces. Perhaps, he thought, they had retreated, slipped away into the night. Why then he must have won!  The darkness was thicker now and he could see nothing at all, not even the outlines of the tombs, as if nothing wished to be seen. He was slipping away into endless depths, not knowing for himself either position, place or purpose. As hard as he could, he tried to gain control of something, no matter what. To exert one last act of resistance. To capture one last recalcitrant memory. But finally because he had to succumb and not caring, he surrendered. Not caring at all now.

Analysis:

Within the core of this passage lies the deep-rooted characterization of Said Mahran as the stubborn protagonist, unable to move on with his life due to his heavy thirst for revenge.

Despite being greatly outnumbered, Said unleashes his gun. Only in this moment he realizes that his long continued plans are on the verge of failure. However instead of surrendering to the police, he continues to run away and fight back. The repetition of “give yourself up” and “surrender”, loudly articulated by the police, further projected Said’s resistance and stubbornness, as these characteristics were present from the start of his descending journey until his last breaths. Once the police assure Said of his humanity, Mahfouz integrates stream of consciousness when Said says to himself “Like the humanity of Rauf, Nabawiyya, Ilish and the dogs, no doubt”. This form of sarcasm is a direct reference to his major tragic flaw regarding his inability to move on and change, as this grudge held towards those who betrayed him was still present during such time of crisis. Moreover the term “dogs” is stated during this phrase as well as “You dogs, you!”. The repetition of this animal metaphor is targeted at all those who betrayed Said. This is significant as Said is continuously singling himself out as the victim, where he believes everyone is against him and he is the only one that is doing everything right. As a result, this fuels his anger and thus his constant drive for revenge, as he cannot register anything else but killing his enemies. Now that he is cornered by the “dogs”, in which were Said’s last words, he is ironically overthrown by them. Nonetheless, Said’s persistent and stubborn character further shines through after his death where he assumes that he has won after experiencing complete darkness. Mahfouz seamlessly employs third person narration to describe this as well as Said’s final state of mind: “He was slipping away into endless depths, not knowing for himself either position, place or purpose. As hard as he could, he tried to gain control of something, no matter what. To exert one last act of resistance. To capture one last recalcitrant memory. But finally because he had to succumb and not caring, he surrendered. Not caring at all now.”

This being the last portion of the novel concludes and reaffirms Said’s lost self, which begun during his reversal of fortunes when he was betrayed and sent to prison. Despite his release he was already in a state of decline, which triggered instability within his psychological state. Furthermore, Said’s perseverance is apparent from his attempts to resist even during his last moments. Nonetheless, his lack of power and defeat by the police resulted in his surrender. This circular representation of Said, in which portrayed him as a tragic hero, was the source of his death.

The Thief and the Dogs Narration

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

The Thief and the Dogs, by Naguib Mahfouz, is a subversive act of literary treason. Mahfouz, being one of the first Arabic authors to incorporate stream of consciousness in an Arabic novel, steers away from the conventions of a single genre, employing the conventions of modernism by fusing realism and stream of consciousness narration to create an exclusive piece of psychological realism. Stream of consciousness is a mode of narration that aims to reproduce the continuous flow of a character’s mental processes, in which sense perception mixes with conscious and half-conscious thoughts, memories, feelings, expectations, and random associations. To further elaborate, readers are exposed to the character’s uncensored thoughts causing their formation of a psychological analysis in which bases off of the character’s actions according to this criteria. In the Thief and the Dogs, Said’s internal and personal thoughts are open to the readers in order to justify his acts of theft and murder by rooting them to the betrayal of the ‘dogs’ within his life. This causes the readers to sympathize and understand why he committed such illegal acts; in addition this emerges the theme of revenge effectively within the plot, as through the stream of consciousness, the readers have access to Said’s mind map to his vengeful deeds.    

      

When placing this within Mahfouz’s context of production, Said’s internal monologue portrayed a social commentary of the post-revolution Egypt. As mentioned previously, by having access to Said’s mind and thought process, readers form a psychological analysis based off his deeds. Therefore, by witnessing Said’s criminal side and bad mental state, this is attributed to the consequences of Nasser’s government, in which include bloated bureaucracy, oppression of intellectuals, elimination of political opponents and heavy censorship. Within the novel, Said represents all traumatized citizens of Egypt, and Mahfouz depicts this negative aftermath as a result of Nasser’s ruling.

Within the novel, Mahfouz uses italics to represent Said’s internal thoughts. Specific references to Said’s internal monologue within the novel include: “She’s like a mouse. What's she afraid of? Doesn't she know how much I love her?” and “To kill them both--Nabawiyya and Ilish--at the same time, would be a triumph. Even better would be to settle with Rauf Ilwan, too, then escape, go abroad if possible.” These specific instances reflect Said’s thought process and drive for revenge. When he questions Sana’s fear, in which then causes for his rejection, he loses his sanity, consequently sparking his desires of killing Nabawiyya and Illish as well as Rauf Ilwan. In addition to this, from the very start of the novel, stream of consciousness is present as a method for characterizing Said as well as introducing other characters and the setting in which Said was familiar with. This was a major advantage to the writing of the novel.

When comparing the works of Achebe and Mahfouz, and both main characters of Said and Okonkwo, different narrations are implemented. In Things Fall Apart, Achebe narrates in third person while Mahfouz through both third person and the stream of consciousness. This consequently causes both flawed characters to be presented under different spotlights within the two novels. In The Thief and the Dogs, there is bias to Said’s characterization as through the stream of consciousness, Said’s flaws are reasoned and justified, allowing the reader’s perspective to shift to reason with Said and sympathize for him. On the other hand, in Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is presented from a third person narrative, which characterizes Okonkwo’s flawed nature from a neutral light, unbiasedly. This causes the readers to disregard any personal reasons for Okonkwo’s acts, causing them to lack sympathy towards him.

Translated Literature

Translated writings holds great value within the field of literature as it connects cultures and diverse communities by expanding the confined boundaries of ideas and knowledge in which one language holds. In reference to Amara Lakhous’s quote: “So many people consider their work a daily punishment. Whereas I love my work as a translator. Translation is a journey over a sea from one shore to the other. Sometimes I think of myself as a smuggler: I cross the frontier of language with my booty of words, ideas, images, and metaphors.”  This quote interprets that Amara figuratively travels great distances to reach huge milestones within his work, even if that requires him crossing regular limits of literature. His translation of texts goes beyond the direct and basic translation as he utilizes his treasurable tools of words, ideas, images, and metaphors as opposed to only words, which leads to the loss of meaning of the original text. When calling himself a smuggler, this analogy is effective as sea divides cultures and his figurative act of trespassing international borders and shores and violating laws and regulations allows him to get to the core translation of a text. This also implies that he is challenging authority, which causes his writing to be authentic. These significant themes form direct connections to Part 3 of the language and literature course as translated texts part take in the shift of the historical, cultural, and social contexts, in which is a benefit as this panoramic approach only connects cultures and provides a holistic view to global populations.

Moreover, in reference to the “Found In Translation” article by Claudia Pierpoint, the last line reads: “Whether any book will outlast its moment is impossible to say, but what follows is an account of some novels that are worth reading now, and that may prove to be worth reading even when newspapers divert our attention to wars and prisons somewhere else”.  This reference makes connection to the current presence of social media and news platform, in which present the Arab world through publicizing its negative circumstances such as war and devastation. Despite the presence of such conditions, behind these trapped doors lie the regular lives of the Arab nation. Therefore by means of translated novels, in which hold such hefty information, other populations around the world can be informed of this and become knowledgeable of the nature and lifestyle of the Arab nation within regular settings as opposed to only within war conditions. This a major benefit to translated literature.