Sheikh al Junaydi

Throughout the novel the thief and the dogs, the protagonist named Said Mahran is portrayed as a criminal and bad person. The story begins with the protagonist himself walking out of prison after being jailed for four years. It was clear that Said Mahran was a man with evil intentions as he wanted to seek revenge on his former friends that betrayed him. Despite the fact that we are introduced to an evil character with bad intentions, we are introduced to more of a pleasant character being Sheikh Ali Al Junaydi. He was introduced as the spiritual advisor of Said's late father. This character can be considered as the moral voice of the novel, overflowing with wisdom. The sheikh who was identified as a sufi muslim, was extremely religious. His dialogue throughout the story suggest he is peaceful, forgiving, and always willing to give advice.

In the very first conversation between Said and the sheikh, there is immediate evidence of the personality the Sheikh has. His first words toward Said were "Peace be upon you." After realizing that Said was in a tough situation and was lacking basic necessities such as food and shelter, the sheikh gives Said some inspirational advice in order to strengthen his Muslim faith and religious beliefs. "Take a copy of the Quran and read... Also repeat the words 'Love is acceptance, which means obeying his commands and refraining from what he prohibited and contentment with what he decrees and ordains."

The Sheikh strongly advised Said to not commit any crimes and kill anybody whom he wants revenge on. However Said was extremely closed minded, and as a result of his attempted murder of Ilish, he instead killed an innocent door keeper. Despite this, he continues his stubbornness and doesn't consider the Sheikh's advice at all, and uses his own free will to get to his downfall. After the killing of the doorkeeper, he decides to visit the Sheikh again, and falls asleep rather than attending the morning prayer with his fellow Muslims. The sheikh notices and says: "You've had a long sleep, but you know no rest... you're burning heart yearns for shade, but continues forward under the fire of the sun."

The examples above are a few examples of the wisdom that the sheikh possesses. He constantly directs Said to the right path and begs him not to do any wrong actions however those are completely ignored. After the killings in Ilish and Rauf's homes, everyone begins to see that he is controlling his own downfall and begins to lose sympathy with the protagonist. This shows that ignoring the Sheikh's advice led to his downfall.

The sheikh contributes to the theme of fate vs free will. His role in the novel is crucial and highlights the protagonist's flaw and how he led himself to his very own downfall. He also characterizes Said as a tragic hero.

Thesis statement

Thesis Statement: In the novel 'The thief and the dogs' Naguib Mahfouz uses the sheikh as a foil character to portray Said's internal struggles and experiences.

Passage analysis

Dawn was close, but Nur had not returned--though the waiting and all his worry had exhausted him, bouts of insomnia kept crushing against his brain--and now the warm darkness was splitting apart to reveal one flaming question: Was it possible that the promised reward was having some effect on Nur?
Suspicion had tainted his blood to the last drop now: he had visions of infidelity as pervasive as dust in a wind storm. He remembered how sure he was once that Nabawiyya belonged to him, when in reality she'd probably never loved him at all, even in the days of the lone palm tree at the edge of the field.
But surely Nur would never betray him, never turn him over to the police for the sake of payment.
She had no interest now in such financial transactions. She was getting on in life. What she wanted was a sincere emotional relationship with someone. He ought to feel guilty for his suspicious thoughts.
The worry over Nur's absence persisted, nevertheless. It's your hunger, thirst, and all the waiting that's getting you down, he said to himself. 

Analysis:

This passage is taken from the very beginning of chapter 16 in the thief and the dogs. In the passage we can see that Said is waiting in Nurs apartment for her to make her return. We can also see from the passage that this is giving Said a lot of mental anguish and puts him in a tough situation since he feels helpless about her whereabouts or her safety. The purpose of the passage in the beginning of the chapter is so that Naguib can provide us with insight on how Said was feeling and what he was going through. There are many examples that show his struggle.
"Dawn was close, but Nur had not returned--though the waiting and all his worry had exhausted him,"
"The worry over Nur's absence persisted, nevertheless. It's your hunger, thirst, and all the waiting that's getting you down, he said to himself."

While waiting for Nur's return he came to many realizations. The possibility that he is to blame for his actions and he may possibly be part of the reason Nur left as he could not be what she really wanted in a man. He also realizes how strong his feelings are for her as he becomes emotional. 

Stream of Consciousness

In literary criticism, the stream of consciousness is also known as interior monologue is a narrative mode or device that depicts the thoughts and feelings which occur and happen in the mind. This technique is extremely common in many western novels. However, Naguib Mahfouz was the first ever Arab writer to implement the stream of consciousness into one of his novels, being the most famous one of them all; "The Thief and the Dogs."

In the very first chapter of the novel, Naguib introduces us to the main character/protagonist of this story being Said, who is in jail. This first chapter is significant in terms of the stream of consciousness since Naguib constantly manages to change and switch around his style of writing. Examples are switching from first person to second person, or even implementing the stream of consciousness. Naguib's writing style specifically in this first chapter allowed him to achieve some character traits, which will continuously be developing as the novel continues.

As we are first introduced to the protagonist Said, Naguib provides us the audience with some insight on his extreme hatred towards Nabawiyyah and Ilish. Nabawiyyah being his wife, and Ilish his friend. There are also some significant quotes which show the extent of hatred from Said towards them. The main one being "I swear I hate you all." The hatred towards his wife is also extremely clear when Said says: "that woman who sprang from filth, from vermin, from treachery, and infidelity." Of course after the reader sees those lines we get a first impression on Said that he is an extremely angry person filled with hatred towards other characters and people in the story. However Naguib provides some contrast to the hatred filled in Naguib towards the other people, and his unpleasant character. Said shows lots of love for his daughter. "As the thought of her crossed his mind. The heat and the dust and the hatred all disappeared, leaving only love to glow across a soul clear as the rain washed sky. The first chapter shows the audience that Naguib has successfully managed to portray the protagonist Said with a deep insight regarding his character and traits. Also we get a clear insight into Said's thoughts, feelings, and emotions thanks to the monologue and quotes used.

Also, we were introduced to Ilish's character in the beginning stages of the novel, however not from Naguib, but rather through Said's inner thoughts and feelings which he showed in the first chapter. Said's thoughts gave a rather negative impression on Ilish's character, however those thoughts can't be reliable since those thoughts might be biased against Ilish. His chaacter is also yet to be introduced which means that the audience are unable to judge the character just yet. Naguib uses indirect characterization for Ilich's character.

Value of Literature in Translation

Studying different texts in translation opens the path for new understanding, as well as the fact that it provides us with numerous advantages when it comes to literature. Texts that are translated from its original language to another provides the reader with a brief insight into its context. This may include culture, traditions, beliefs, and values. Those of course depend on where the text was originated and differ between different countries and regions. The ideals that are shared through the novel could also give us an insight into context, and can tell us about the authors views, and the conditions that were occurring around the author while the novel was being produced. In this case, the novel we have began studying 'The thief and the dogs' by Naguib Mahfouz is an Egyptian translated text that gives the reader an insight into Naguib's opinions, and his unhappiness with the results of the Egyptian revolution. These are some of the few advantages of studying a translated text and how it may benefit the reader.

On the other hand there is also one main clear and obvious disadvantage in studying a translated text. That being that the meaning of the text won't be perfectly accurate compared to what is actually meant in the original text. There are always some words that cannot be translated leading to a translation of another word in similar meaning, and that is where loss of meaning comes into play.

Propaganda 4 Corner Reflection

The prompt I will be choosing to examine throughout this post will be: "It is okay for the government to mislead in order to promote security."
I decided to choose the corner of 'Disagree' and there are a variety of different reasons that played a role in my decision.
Firstly, I strongly believe that any sort of regime or government must stay truthful to its people no matter what the situation is. For example: if you're country was in danger of being attacked by another country, you would want to know and be informed that it would be happening in order to take necessary precautions and preparations. I believe it would be ethically incorrect from a government to mislead its very own people.
Considering the government did in fact mislead its people, the results they really wanted would only be temporary. The consequences of misleading may be extremely destroying and negative in my opinion. Expanding on my previous example: If the country and people were in fact attacked, people would most definitely be questioning why they weren't informed about this event that would be coming, which would then raise questioning and doubts. People would doubt there government and there will be a lack of trust between them, which in the extreme cases could possibly lead to revolution or strikes.
The reason I disagreed with this statement, but not completely disagree was because I thought that there might be some extreme and rare situations where a government would need to basically lie in order to ensure the security of their people.

Media Bias: Palestinian victim

The Israeli government has returned the body of a Palestinian man who hurt a border officer. A mass Palestinian funeral is expected. The body of the man was returned with some organs missing, and Palestinian officials are looking more into that.

The body of Ibrahim Safaqi was returned to Palestinians after he was shot when he injured an Israeli police officer with his car near the borders in Halhul.

The return of the mans body was not given back to where it belongs and the Palestinians immediately, and Israel delayed the return of the body. The official laws were not followed as the return was delayed with missing organs, which has raised speculation that they have been cutting off some of his organs in the time being, as the body that has been returned had missing organs.

Palestinian officials also claim that this is not the first time this has happened, and there were many similar cases that have been happening before. It has been believed that occupied forces have harvested organs from the Palestinian victims.

Israelis returned the body of the victim under the condition that they would deny the palestinians from throwing and organizing a mass funeral for the victim.

However the Palestinians obviously view that as being unfair and will organize a mass funeral for the victim very soon.

Hebron in the last two weeks has been a major site of public campaign urging the return of many Palestinian bodies, that have yet to be returned.