Post revolution egypt - Essay Example

It was a time when a woman in the society could not be allowed to lead, and women education was not encouraged by the Egyptian (Mahfouz 111). Zohra is a maid to Mariana at the pension. She escaped from her home and became a maid after her family members wanted her to marry an elderly man; a thing that she did not want (Mahfouz 156). Zohra is a woman with a lot of dynamism in her thinking and strives a lot to go by the modern trend of things. She tries so hard to go by her own terms and defies following other peoples plans for her life.

She is illiterate and thus hires a teacher to teach her. She continues to learn despite people’s discouragements that it was not worthy of time. She is a strict and pragmatic lady, but powerless because of her lack of family ties, gender, and illiteracy. Her arrival to the pension created tension among three young men who had an interest in her affection and love. The young men are Hosny Allam a country squire, Mansour Bahy, a radio announcer and Sarhan al-Beheiry who is a deputy accountant at the Alexandria textile mills (Mahfouz 196).

Amer Wagdi a retired journalist is also at the pension trying to enjoy his retirement benefits. Amer is the first narrator of the book and shows a lot of concern for Zohra even when Mariana wants to chase her away due to the belief that she brought bad luck to the Miramar. Amer Wagdi is the only one that showed support towards Zohra’s learning activities. When she was chased from the pension due to the believed bad luck, she remains with Amer who advises her to set her strategies right and will help her to find a good man worthy of her.

Amer is symbolized as the parent to Zohra as she had no parental support at the pension. They maintain a parent and child relationship throughout the book. This is symbolism to the post-revolutionary Egypt and shows how girls can be very productive, and achievers provided they be offered with support as required. The three highlighted men are full of lust, cruelty, hunger for power and use of women without care. Zohra is not interested in having an affair with Hosny and Mansour, but she is attracted physically to Sarhan.

This creates an extensive amount of tension among the three individuals. Hosny and Sarhan, however, have many differences and even engage in a fight when Hosny was drunk. The fight caused Sarhan to be expelled from the pension and ends up dead the following morning. On the other hand, Mansour is in a mixed up state; he has to concentrate on both politics and love at the same time. This makes him lose close connections with Zohra (Mahfouz 73). Zohra shows many things that depict the ideals of the modern Egypt.

She has strong a belief in education and independence. Her independence is shown when she decides to go away from her family members because of the pressure to have her married to a man whom she does not like. She is very decisive and selective, and only choses to have a relationship with Sarhan other than the other two individuals (Mahfouz 125). Considering Hosny’s encounter with Zohra, Hosny is physically attracted to Zohra at first sight. His desire to be in love with her, however, starts to dwindle when she shows to be very serious when making the bed at the pension.

When Hosny’s ex-girlfriend denies having sex with him, he decides to go to the pension and tries to convince Zohra to have sex with him. When she refuses, he forces himself on her but Zohra fights him off. The fight continues until Sarhan