Midaq Alley by Mahfouz: A Microcosm of Egypt and the Human Existence - Book Report/Review Example

Midaq Alley by Mahfouz: A Microcosm of Egypt and the Human Existence Midaq Alley is one of the most famousnovels in Arab literature. It is a symbol of the struggles of the common Egyptian as they trudge through life. Many people say that it is quite a microcosm of the real world and it is very realistic. It won the Nobel Prize. It is set in a street called Midaq Alley and reflects the life of the various characters, giving the readers vicarious experiences from the book. Literature, or art as we know it, is a reflection of the human existence. It seeks to reproduce reality with stylistic devices known to man, and that’s the way we create art. Mahfouz won the Nobel Prize for Literature on 1988 for the novel Midaq Alley. Midaq Alley is a satirical, reflective depiction of what truly happens in Cairo. It is set on Midaq Alley itself and paints the lives of various people living on it. The story is linear but it told in various perspectives, as in various subplots representing a different character. This makes the novel a bit complicated to read. As there are a lot of people living in the alley, there are also a lot of subplots. This is where it gets a bit confusing, when there are so many characters get into the story, all wanting to be heard. However, the prose is written with such style reminiscent to that of European authors such as Balzac, meaning it can be very rhythmic and descriptive, that one forgets that reading it is such hard work. Reading it is a very easy and quite nice in a way that it can be therapeutic, as it is soothing. Now the Midaq Alley is proposed to be as a microcosm of Egyptian life, and as a portrait of the cruel human existence. However, as we’ve mentioned earlier, even if the theme is bleak, the presentation makes the story readable as it is quite funny and witty like all satires are. I. Introduction One of the major reasons why Arab literature is not as famous as other cultural genres in the realm of literature is that because it is mostly not about what we know. Arab literature is virtually unknown, unless you are an academe or a literati. Midaq Alley is actually one of the first books to put spotlight on Arab Literature, and it is done quite recently. The general lack of knowledge and sympathy of the Arab culture is quite important in its appreciation and development. This is because we see a new world every time we read piece from Arab literature. When the world misrepresents a whole culture, it becomes a new experience to people who read it with their own eyes, and breaks down the wall of ignorance. Mahfouz is very realistic in style and also quite naturalistic. It is quite European, as it reminds one of Balzac or maybe even Zola. The theme cuts through the Egyptian society, distilled so that we see the core of the Egyptian lower class. This is the focus of Midaq Alley. The story shows the tension of the characters living in poverty, and chronicles how they respond to the impending Western-influenced modernization brought about by World War Two. The story shows how the people cope with indirect colonization brought upon by defeat in war, or how people generally cope in times of war. It is a picture of how human kind can be both dark and light, all at the same time, depending on how you view the world. II. Story Analysis "Many things combine to show that Midaq Alley is one of the gems of times gone by and that it once shone forth like a flashing star in the history of Cairo. Which Cairo do I mean? That of the Fatimids, the Mamlukes or the Sultans? Only God and the archaeologists know the answer to that, but in any case, the alley is certainly an ancient relic and a precious one. How could it be otherwise with its stone-paved surface leading directly to the historic Sanadiqiya Street. And then there is its coffeeshop known as Kirshas. Its walls decorated with multicolored arabesques, now crumbling, give off strong odors from the medicines of olden times, smells which have now become the spices and folk-cures of today and tomorrow . . ."  That is the opening paragraph of the book. It reflects the miserable state of the impoverished people, but teeming with culture and history. There is a sense of foreshadowing in this paragraph, with the reader almost sensing that the history mentioned in the paragraph would not make any impact at all, merely mentioned and maybe cast aside, like how it was described: crumbling and smelling of olden times – to be replaced by spices and folk cures of today. In the next paragraphs, the reader is transported to a coffee shop, where it is to become the center of the story. It becomes the “headquarters” of the narrative, transporting us back and forth into the every time a new point of view is introduced. The coffee shop symbolizes the antiquity in the story – the idiosyncrasies in the book. We see the reality here as a harsh one, and yet we read in the story that the coffee shop is equally cruel. We get the notion that the cruel coffee shop is the place where the manifestations of the hardships of life get to be realized. We see this in the part where in a “senile old man” is being shouted at by the proprietor when he starts to play music along with a prayer. "Are you going to force your recitations on us? Thats the end -- the end! Didnt I warn you last week?"  Almost of all the characters in the book long for escape: both in strict tradition and poverty. This is exemplified by Hamida’s character. Hamida is young, beautiful and intelligent girl. She is the main character in the book, presumably symbolizing Egypt at the time. She lives with her adoptive mother, Umm Hamida. Umm Hamida is a pimp. She sneers at the men who’d prove to be obstacles to her wealth or success. For her, they are all nonentities. She admires the Jewish factory girls because these girls can wear whatever they want. But then again, we see the price of freedom here. The factory girls work under subhuman conditions in the factory, exposed to danger and the monotony of mass production work. In this scenario, we see how capitalism wins over tradition. In exchange for freedom to choose whatever their money can buy, the people detest their suffocating traditions. Money can actually provide a path to independence. When you have women that are traditionally oppressed, then you may have women that are volunteering themselves in slave work. Which is favorable to the capitalists and not for the locals in the long term. They would get to be slaves and then would be exploited. When they do, the vicious cycle of work and poverty would ensue. Now Hamida marries Abbas, the neighborhood barber. She is practically nothing in Hamida’s eyes. In fact, she thing’s he is a yokel. But he professes her undying love for her, and unexpectedly, she still does not agree to be his girl until she hears the magic words from him, which is basically: “I will join the Army.” This was during the World War II, so the army was recruiting a lot of people. Egypt was also a colony of England and France, so there was a demand for soldiers. So with Abbas going to the Army, Hamida goes to marry him with the promise of getting wealthy and escaping Midaq Alley. Now Abbas departs Egypt for his own mission, but he still works as a barber for the English and French troops. Meanwhile back in Midaq Alley, Hamida works as a prostitute servicing the troops. Ibrahim Faraj, her pimp, grooms her in the ways of prostitution to make her more attractive to clients. She agrees to be called Titi because “it will amuse the English and the Americans but it can still be pronounced by their “twisted tongues”. When she accepted this, “"She realized that he considered her name, like her old clothes, as something to be discarded and forgotten."The pimp even provided English teachers for his whores, even if the best place to learn new language is by experience. However, since the war does not go on forever, Abbas went back home. Then the painful truth came crashing to him when he found out that his wife was being a prostitute. This is basically what happened, "sorrow, disappointment and despair he had suffered in the past three days to . . . burst forth in a mad frenzy."  He got mad, threw a glass to Hamida’s face and the soldiers stomp him to death. Suffering, for the book, is basically endless. However, there you can find social justice everywhere despite the hopelessness of it all. In this book, you can say that as long as you live, there is hope. All in all, Midaq Alley is an effective book as it does represent the world, not just the Egyptians. That’s why it touched the whole audience, not only Egyptians. However complex it may be, life will still be bittersweet, as Hamida’s life is. Reference: Mahfouz, Naguib. Midaq Alley. Trans Trevor le Gassick. Anchor Books: London, 1966. Print. Read More

II. Story Analysis "Many things combine to show that Midaq Alley is one of the gems of times gone by and that it once shone forth like a flashing star in the history of Cairo. Which Cairo do I mean? That of the Fatimids, the Mamlukes or the Sultans? Only God and the archaeologists know the answer to that, but in any case, the alley is certainly an ancient relic and a precious one. How could it be otherwise with its stone-paved surface leading directly to the historic Sanadiqiya Street. And then there is its coffeeshop known as Kirshas.

Its walls decorated with multicolored arabesques, now crumbling, give off strong odors from the medicines of olden times, smells which have now become the spices and folk-cures of today and tomorrow . . ."  That is the opening paragraph of the book. It reflects the miserable state of the impoverished people, but teeming with culture and history. There is a sense of foreshadowing in this paragraph, with the reader almost sensing that the history mentioned in the paragraph would not make any impact at all, merely mentioned and maybe cast aside, like how it was described: crumbling and smelling of olden times – to be replaced by spices and folk cures of today.

In the next paragraphs, the reader is transported to a coffee shop, where it is to become the center of the story. It becomes the “headquarters” of the narrative, transporting us back and forth into the every time a new point of view is introduced. The coffee shop symbolizes the antiquity in the story – the idiosyncrasies in the book. We see the reality here as a harsh one, and yet we read in the story that the coffee shop is equally cruel. We get the notion that the cruel coffee shop is the place where the manifestations of the hardships of life get to be realized.

We see this in the part where in a “senile old man” is being shouted at by the proprietor when he starts to play music along with a prayer. "Are you going to force your recitations on us? Thats the end -- the end! Didnt I warn you last week?"  Almost of all the characters in the book long for escape: both in strict tradition and poverty. This is exemplified by Hamida’s character. Hamida is young, beautiful and intelligent girl. She is the main character in the book, presumably symbolizing Egypt at the time.

She lives with her adoptive mother, Umm Hamida. Umm Hamida is a pimp. She sneers at the men who’d prove to be obstacles to her wealth or success. For her, they are all nonentities. She admires the Jewish factory girls because these girls can wear whatever they want. But then again, we see the price of freedom here. The factory girls work under subhuman conditions in the factory, exposed to danger and the monotony of mass production work. In this scenario, we see how capitalism wins over tradition.

In exchange for freedom to choose whatever their money can buy, the people detest their suffocating traditions. Money can actually provide a path to independence. When you have women that are traditionally oppressed, then you may have women that are volunteering themselves in slave work. Which is favorable to the capitalists and not for the locals in the long term. They would get to be slaves and then would be exploited. When they do, the vicious cycle of work and poverty would ensue. Now Hamida marries Abbas, the neighborhood barber.

She is practically nothing in Hamida’s eyes. In fact, she thing’s he is a yokel. But he professes her undying love for her, and unexpectedly, she still does not agree to be his girl until she hears the magic words from him, which is basically: “I will join the Army.” This was during the World War II, so the army was recruiting a lot of people. Egypt was also a colony of England and France, so there was a demand for soldiers. So with Abbas going to the Army, Hamida goes to marry him with the promise of getting wealthy and escaping Midaq Alley.

Now Abbas departs Egypt for his own mission, but he still works as a barber for the English and French troops.

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