TATD Narrative Style Analysis

Naguib Mahfouz utilizes the stream of consciousness to provide a foundation for the events in Said's life after prison. It means a literary style in which a character's thoughts, feelings, and reactions are depicted in a continuous flow uninterrupted by objective description or conventional dialogue. Furthermore through Said's consciousness we are given glimpses of his past, most of which comes in the form of evoked reminiscences in order to humanize Said and allow the readers of the novel to be able to at least understand the reason behind the actions that Said has decided to fulfil in order to repay his "debts". These reminiscences and flashbacks are not arranged chronologically. Moreover the narrative style that Mahfouz used in the Thief and the Dogs was more modernized in terms of character, theme and structure. His narrative was seen as breaking away from the more panoramic narration and old meticulous details. In addition through Said's stream of consciousness. Mahfouz at that time was suffering from a everlasting sense that he was being pursued, and in addition that he believed that under the political order after the Egyptian Revolution their lives were forfeit and had no meaning, For that reason when Mahfouz wrote the Thief and the Dogs, he was putting some of his own life story in the novel. The stream of consciousness is used in flashbacks of Said's life in order to show more about his past and to build up the conflict and tension while also to slow down the very fast development of the novel. For example, Mahfouz used the Stream of Consciousness in Chapter 10 where Said reminisces about Sana who is his daughter rejecting him after his release from prison as well as the faces in his ex-wife Nabiwiyya and Ilish which makes the reader sympathetic to the cause of revenge that Said has embarked on. This flashback humanizes Said and shows how hurt he feels from the betrayals of Ilish, Nabiwiyya and Rauf who for Said personally was considered and older brother and an idol. Overall Naguib Mahfouz by introducing the stream of consciousness portrays how Said as a protagonist is thinking about the people whom he loves and he hated while also most importantly giving the reader an understanding about how Said thinks and manages his inner and outer conflicts which are his demons.

Extension.


Naguib Mahfouz novel the thief and the dogs shares similarities with Chinua Achebe novel Things fall apart such as the protagonists feeling entraped and that everyone is against them. Also the plot and the significance of both novels culturally are extremely important not only to respective cultures but are recognized worldwide. Differences include the Stream of Consciousness used by Mahfouz in order to show the thought process of Said while Achebe uses a third omniscient narrator to show the full image of the novel.