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.