Love Between Abbas and Hamida - Essay Example

Mahfouz observes that despite her limited experience in life, she was aware of the great gulf between this humble young man and her greedy ambitions which could ignite her natural aggressiveness and turn it into uncontrollable savagery and violence. She would be wildly happy if she saw a look of defiance or self-confidence in anyone’s eyes, but this look of simple humility in Abbas’ eyes left her emotionless.

Abbas departs Midaq Alley to join other residents as modern-day equivalents of camp followers of the medieval past, who made livings sharpening swords, cutting hair, or slaking the lust of soldiers. Indeed, while Abbas is off cutting hair for the colonizers, Hamida becomes a prostitute servicing the needs of the British and American troops in the waning months of WWII. Eventually, when Abbas discovers Hamida in the company of British troops at a local tavern, he allows all the “sorrow, disappointment and despair he had suffered in the past three days to . . . burst forth in a mad frenzy. After he throws empty beer glasses into her face, the troops beat and stomp him to death. Read More