Raihan's DP Blog

Prompt: Pride can lead to failure and self-destruction or to accomplishment and self-fulfilment. Discuss the presentation of pride and its consequences in at least two of the works you have studied.  Thesis statement: The Thief and the Dogs by Naguib Mahfouz portrays a marxist ideology through the protagonist, Said Mahran who is characterized of having excessive pride using the tragic hero archetype that leads to his self-destruction. In Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe exhibits the dangers of inflexibility in a post-colonial world where change his inevitable through the characterization of the protagonist’s hubris, resulting into his suicide. Both authors communicate the necessity of flexibility and adaptation in a constantly changing world.  Topic sentence 1 (character): Both authors of TATD and TFA utilizes the tragic hero archetype on its respective protagonist, Said and Okonkwo, by characterizing them of having excessive pride in order to demonstrate the dangers...

Chapter 7: Said Attempts to Kill Illish  Passage: It seems you must knock on the door. But knocking might arouse suspicion, especially at this hour. Nabawiyya would fill the world with her screams, and bring some cowardly fools. That detective, too. So you'd better break the little glass pane in the door. He'd had the idea in the car on the way and now he came back to it. He drew his gun and gave the glass one blow through the twisted bars that protected it. As the glass broke and the pieces scattered, it made a noise like a choked-off scream in the silent night. He flattened himself against the wall, next to the door and waited, his heart beating fast and his eyes peering into the darkness of the entrance hall where the gun was pointed. A man's voice, which he could recognize as Ilish Sidra's despite the throbbing noise in his temples, said "Who's there?" and a door to the left opened, giving a faint light by which he could just make out the fi...

How, why, and to what effect does Mahfouz use stream-of-consciousness narration in the novel? The Thief and The Dogs is an Egyptian novel written by Naguib Mahfouz, and it is a pioneer of psychological realistic novels in Arabic literature. Mahfouz uses modernistic conventions, particularly the stream of consciousness in his novel to produce a unique piece, with the purpose to enhance the characterization the novel’s protagonist, Said Mahran. Mahfouz aims to reproduce a continuous flow of Said’s mental processes throughout the novel to be able to further understand Said as a character and the way his mind works that has led him to do what he does, thus justifying for his actions and behavior. Mahfouz creates the illusion that the reader is within Said’s mind, which is done through Said’s interior monologue. An example is “ I suppose I'd find nothing but betrayal there: Nabawiyya disguised as Rauf, Rauf disguised as Nabawiyya, or Ilish Sidra in place of both--and betrayal would...