Sheikh Ali Al-Junaydi

What does Sheikh Ali Al-Junaydi represent in the Thief and the Dogs? How is he significant to the characterization of Said Mahran? How does he contribute to the theme of the text?

After Said is released from prison, Mahfouz portrays Said as a man desperate to find meaning in the world he feels is completely corrupt, Said believes the guilty prosper while the innocent fall. He seeks the company of his late father's spiritual advisor.

Al-Junaydi is significant to the development of the plot and the enhancement of the Fate vs Free Will theme. Naguib implements Al Junaydi in order to provide the protagonist Said with a second choice, which is to pursue his religion and avoid leaning towards the darker side which was what eventually led to his downfall. The sheikh provided Said with an alternative getaway choice, but he failed in doing so and Said eventually assassinated two innocent people.

Sheikk Al-Junaydi acts as Said's final desperate resort . During the beginning of the novel, Said seeks refuge in the sheikh's house, after his failed attempt at killing Ilish he re-visits the Sheikh once again, and finally during the last chapters of the novel, Said revisits his father's spiritual advisor for the final time before his inevitable downfall. It was during his last visit to the sheikh in which he commented: "I am alone with my freedom, or rather i am in the company of the sheikh who is lost in heaven." Said conveys signs of regret through contrasting both his and the sheikh's abstractness in the world, one is in heaven and the other in reality.

Last but not least, Sheikh Al-Junaydi acts as a foil to the protagonist Said Mahran and helps progress the characterization of Said. Firstly, Said's recollection of memories portrays the sheikh to be an old friend of the family and is not intending to turn his back on Said despite his vigorous actions, instead he helps him and provides Said with a glimmer of hope and kindness to counteract the distress that Said is currently in. The sheikh acts as Said's guardian angel providing him with ways of escaping his fate and bitter feelings towards those he feels betrayed him, however Said decided to choose against this (turning to the dark side) which led to his imminent downfall. This further illustrates the apparent contrast between the characters, allowing for better understanding of the protagonist and his contradicting thoughts.

Choose Your Fate: Analytical

Naguib conveys Said to be at the lowest point in his life as a result of his unfortunate fate, all the tides were turning against him as he feels he was betrayed by the very own people he used to trust (His best-friend, His wife, and his daughter). Throughout the entirety of the novel, Said's character was diffused with hatred and anger towards those he feels were traitors, having said that, Said constantly refers to these traitors as dogs and uses harsh words and depressing tones, one instance is the grave scene, Naguib implements this  dull scene to show that a man can not control his happiness with a pre-determined fate. Knowing that the "traitors" are on the loose, Said doesn't witness a glimpse of happiness throughout the novel. Said can't control what is happening to the people who betrayed him As a result, Naguib portrays fate to be the biggest determiner of one's happiness. 

Practicing Thesis Statements

Thesis Statement: Through the implementation of recurring instances from his past through the stream of consciousness technique, Naguib is able to communicate how the ideas of Said's past control the present and how Said's actions are provoked through his past experiences in which he feels them to be a burden he must carry on.

Said Tragic Hero

1) What is Said's tragic flaw?

The Chief flaw that led to the novel’s tragic ending was Said’s lust for revenge. Throughout the entirety of the novel, Said’s actions are fueled by his desire to get revenge upon those who he feels betrayed him.  As a result of this hunger, Said accidentally assassinated two-men in cold blood which eventually led to the departure of his companion (Nur) and his death at the end of the novel.

2) How does he display excessive pride?

Said displays excessive pride through his enforcement of blame on other characters, for instance he blames Ilish for going to prison, he blames Rauf for changing his personality which led Said to believe that he betrayed him, he also blames Sana for her rejecting him.

3) When is his reversal of fortunes?

His reversal of fortunes begins when Said figures out that he killed an innocent man instead of Ilish, this is then later enhanced when he goes to kill Rauf and winds up killing Rauf’s doorkeeper, this also provoked Nur into leaving Said.

 4)At what time in the text does he recognize that the reversal was due to his own actions?

He recognizes that while staring and contemplating his past at Nur’s house, he also reminisces his upbringing while at the Shaikh’s house and was led to believe that he chose his own path, and finally during the last chapter while he was being hunted down by the police, he contemplates about his past and how it all led to this.

5) Is his fate greater than he deserved?

His fate was not greater than what he deserved, his actions throughout the entirety of the novel ultimately led to his death.

Thieves and the Dogs Passage Analysis

The Passage:

The servant came in pushing a trolley laden with a bottle, two glasses, a pretty little violet-colored ice bucket, a dish of apples arranged in a pyramid, plates with hors d’oeuvres, and a silver water jug. 

Rauf gestured to the servant to withdraw, filled two glasses himself and offered one to Said, raising the other: “To freedom.” While Said emptied his glass in one gulp, Rauf took a sip then said, “And how is your daughter? Oh, I forgot to ask you—why did you spend the night at Sheikh Ali’s?”

He doesn’t know what happened, thought Said, but he still remembers my daughter. And he gave Rauf a cold-blooded account of his misfortunes.

 “So yesterday I paid a visit to al-Sayrafi lane,” he concluded. “There I found a detective waiting for me, as I’d expected, and my daughter disowned me and screamed in my face.” He helped himself to another whisky.

“This is a sad story. But your daughter isn’t to blame. She can’t remember you now.

Later on she’ll grow to know and love you.”

“I have no faith left in all her sex.”

“That’s how you feel now. But tomorrow, who knows how you’ll feel? You’ll change your opinion of your own accord. That’s the way of the world.”

The telephone rang. Rauf rose, picked up the receiver and listened for a moment. His face began to beam and he carried the telephone outside to the verandah, while Said’s sharp eyes registered everything. It must be a woman. A smile like that, strolling into the dark, could only mean a woman. He wondered if Ilwan was still unmarried. Though they sat there cozily drinking and chatting, Said now sensed that this meeting would be exceedingly difficult to repeat. The feeling was unaccountable, like the whispered premonition of some still undiagnosed cancerous growth, but he trusted it, relying on instinct. A resident now in one of those streets that Said had only visited as a burglar, after all, this man may have felt obliged to welcome him, having actually changed so much that only a shadow of the old self remained.” 

The Analysis:

With the introduction of such a statement “The servant came in pushing a trolley laden with a bottle, two glasses, a pretty little violet-colored ice bucket, a dish of apples arranged in a pyramid, plates with hors d’oeuvres, and a silver water jug". Naguib, through the use of internal monologue, is able to successfully convey the hatred and distrust within the protagonist Said. This is implied as Naguib portrays the inner thoughts of the protagonist Said with great detail towards the valuable things that Rauf owns. This detail is symbolic (and perhaps foreshadowing) of Said's true-self (being a thief), mainly because of how well these objects were described within Said's self-consciousness. As for symbolism it demonstrates the contrast in social classes between Said and Raud, and how Said aspires to become like Rauf, and how highly valued Rauf is in Egyptian society.  

After that Rauf's butler has served them with wine, Rauf says "To freedom". This line demonstrates the different perception of life varying between both characters. For Said, he feels that life has turned against him. After losing the last four years of his life, losing his daughter and his wife committing audeltry with his betraying friend. While on the other hand, Rauf, during the four years that Said spent in prison, has managed to crawl his way up to the upper-class, hence viewing the world he lives is as a world that is filled with freedom.

Moving along the lines in the passage, Said mentions his daughter disowning him the day he came out of jail, after four years of imagining his daughters smile. Rauf then starts to comfort him by saying "But your daughter isn’t to blame. She can’t remember you now. Later on she’ll grow to know and love you". This is ironic because Rauf used to be Saids mentor, as time passed by (relates to "grow to know you") they have become detached and each with their own perception of life.

 Said then says, “I have no faith left in all her sex". The reason behind him not having faith is due to his wife committing adultery, then having a divorce while he is in prison and marrying his "once-was" friend. This further portrays how the whole situation deeply impacted his inner views towards women as a whole, contributing to his character being further developed in the text.

Thieves and the Dogs Narrative Structure

Stream of consciousness is a form of interior monologue which depicts the thoughts and emotions of characters in a text. The stream of consciousness technique was regularly grounded in innumerable western texts. Naguib Mahfouz was the first Arab author to utilize this technique in his 1961 novel "The Thieves and the Dogs". Stream of consciousness dominates the entire novel and plays an imperative role in the unfolding of the plot and the characterization of the protagonist Said.

Through the use of the stream of consciousness technique, Naguib was able to create the illusion that the readers are aware of the emotions and thoughts within the character's mind before the character transitions these thoughts into any rational form or shape. In "The Thieves and the Dogs",  Naguib alternates between third person narration and Said's interior monologue  in order to provide the readers with a closer connection with the protagonist (Said) than if it were solely third person.

Chapter 1 is momentous in the unfolding of the plot. Naguib Mafouz uses direct and indirect narration as well as soliloquy in order to set the tone for the entire novel. Also, this type of narration establishes the direction of the novel and provides a form of foreshadowing. One instance of this can be seen

 "Nabbawiyya. Ilish. Your two names merge in my mind. For years you will have been thinking about this day, never imagining, all the while, that the gates would ever actually open. You’ll be watching now, but I won’t fall into the trap. At the right moment, instead, I’ll strike like Fate." 

 Through the implementation of this soliloquy, Naguib was able to successfully portray Said's internal struggles and his lust for revenge towards his ex wife and his former friend.

The advantages of using this technique include the fact that through the constant transition between third person and internal monologue the readers are able to witness both aspects of the story (the protagonist's thoughts and reality), Also, the narration allows for further characterization of the protagonist, for instance we as the audience can witness Said's two-faced personality through what is occurring in reality (conversation between him and his guests) and what is happening internally in his thoughts. One disadvantage is that only one character's thoughts are portrayed which negates other characters depiction of things, which would have otherwise potentially been be completely different,

Value of Literature in Translation

Russian poet Boris Pasternak once described literature to be  "the art of discovering something extraordinary about ordinary people, and saying ordinary words something extraordinary" There are best-selling novels created by authors from all over with different ethnicities, backgrounds, and cultures. The fact that we were able to read some of these novels as a result of translation is truly a gift.  However the chief issue with translating Literature is the presence of language barriers which restricts our appreciation and understanding of these translated works.

The main advantage that translated literature brings to the table, is that we (The world) as a multi-cultural society are able to read each other's works and gain the ability to better understand the world we live in through gaining appreciation of other people's cultures and values.It's a wonder how words that once meant gibberish to us are now world-renowned texts translated into our very own languages that we are now able to read and gain life-lessons from. One example of such a text is "O Alquimista' written by Portuguese author Paulo Coelho. The book sold over 65 million copies world-wide and was translated to 67 languages.

One issue with translation is that each one of us was brought up differently and perceive different things through our unique life-experiences and then attempt to relate them to literature and other sources of knowledge. If one translator perceives something differently, then the text is altered, which could ruin the entire message behind the original text. A Chinese author "Feng" translated a collection of poems and out of the 326 verses, only three were criticized as the meaning of the official poems was slightly altered. This was because Feng perceived the poems in a more sexual form than what the author meant, thus he received countless amounts of criticism and death threats .

With that being said, i believe that despite the potential of a loss of meaning through translation, the fact that we are now able to comprehend literature from other cultures is intriguing. All credit solely goes to translation. All in all, some say that you would never understand the true meaning of life without reading certain texts. This statement alone, puts great emphasis on the importance of literature and why language barriers should not be a major issue.