Said Mahran Passage Analysis

Passage:

_And then your mother died. You almost died yourself during your mother's illness, as Rauf Ilwan must surely remember, from that unforgettable day when she had hemorrhaged and you had rushed her to the nearest hospital, the Sabir hospital, standing like a castle amidst beautiful grounds, where you found yourself and your mother in a reception hall at an entrance more luxurious than anything you could ever have imagined possible. The entire place seemed forbidding, even hostile, but you were in the direst need of help, immediate help._

_As the famous doctor was coming out of a room, they mentioned his name and you raced towards him in your gallabeya and sandals, shouting, "My mother! The blood!"_ _The man had fixed you in a glassy, disapproving stare and had glanced where your mother was lying, stretched out in her filthy dress on a soft couch, a foreign nurse standing nearby, observing the scene. Then the doctor had simply disappeared, saying nothing. The nurse jabbered something in a language you did not understand, though you sensed she was expressing sympathy for your tragedy. At that point, for all your youth, you flew into a real adult's rage, screaming and cursing in protest, smashing a chair to the floor with a crash, so the veneer wood on its back broke to pieces. A horde of servants had appeared and you'd soon found yourself and your mother alone in the tree-lined road outside. A month later your mother had died in Kasr al-Aini hospital._

All the time she lay close to death she never released your hand, refusing to take her eyes off you. It was during that long month of illness, however, that you stole for the first time--from the country boy resident in the hostel, who'd accused you without any investigation and was beating you vigorously when Rauf Ilwan turned up and freed you, settling the matter without any further complications. You were a true human being then, Rauf, and you were my teacher too._

Analysis:

This passage extracted from chapter 11 of the novel The Thief and the Dogs is important as it can be used to analyze specific traits of Said that we don’t see often in other instances within the novel. Moreover, it also shows Said’s view towards Rauf Ilwan before being betrayed. This allows us to understand Said’s new attitude and justifies his hate for Rauf.

First of all we can notice Said’s love for his mother, a feeling which he does not have towards many others in the novel. He is presented as trying his best to convince the doctors to help his mother despite their hostility and “disapproving stare[s]”. Throughout the novel we can see that Said demonstrates this kind of love only towards Sana, and only very late in the novel towards Nur, being worried when she disappears without a trace. We can notice that Said tends to do anything in order to help those whom he loves. He argues with the doctors when he is trying to save his mother, he tries to get revenge from Nabawiyya and Ilish yet he is constantly thinking about the life of Sana if both of them would be killed, but he is tempted to take that risk for her better good. Similarly, when Nur disappears he goes looking for her despite having the police looking for him.

A common theme within the novel can be the one of deceiving appearances, and this can be noticed as well within this passage, when Said describes the “famous doctor” who in the end turns out not doing anything for his mother, and just leaving her to die. Moreover, the hospital is presented as “forbidding, even hostile, but [he was] in the direst need of help, immediate help”, an idea that persists throughout the novel, Said needing help but finding the person he considers “the most important thing [he has] in this insecure world”, Rauf, hostile. The author could be using this idea to make a link to the context of the novel, emphasizing his confusion about the new government through Said’s confusion about Rauf’s change of principles.  Therefore we can see that Rauf who is presented here as extremely involved and helpful towards Said, is in fact symbolic for the government who has changed after the revolution. After Said’s betrayal, Rauf becomes as mentioned extremely hostile and denies his initial principles and his role in Said’s life, being his “teacher”, being “a true human being”. This is in fact what Said is most angered by in what regards the character of Rauf. He is now considering him a dog and wishes to kill him as a result of his betrayal and drastic change in attitude. By presenting Rauf this way, Mahfuz makes the reader empathize with Said and as a result, his aggressive behavior and attempt to murder Rauf are to some extent justified in from of us, the readers.