Passage Analysis (Chapter 14)

The Thief and the Dogs is a novel written by Naguib Mahfouz, which interprets the story of Said Mahran, a thief who is betrayed by his wife Nabawiyya and friend Illish which then leads to him going to jail and losing his daughter. Throughout the novel Said has a desirable thirst to kill them both as well as his ex mentor,  Rauf Ilwan. As the story progresses we see how Said starts to  develop in to a complex character who struggles to deal with himself and the outside world. The complexity of Said’s character and his ego is intriguing and makes the novel an interesting read.

In this passage from chapter 14 of The Thief and dogs, we see how Said , who at this point in time is a broken man incapable of controlling his impetuous emotions. He tries to escape from Rauf’s compound at which point he comes to a realization that the time is nearing when he has to enter ‘one last battle’ which foreshadows a tragic death for the protagonist. Said then hails a cab which he describes as a safe haven. Mahfouz employed this style of writing where he compares Said’s pain from the wound being nothing compared to the relief of being safe again. This could indicate that Said might have been going through the same thought process as the reader that the metaphorical wound in his heart is nothing compared to the peaceful life he could have led.

Later when he gets to Nur’s flat he feels the wound on his leg and identifies it as a possibly caused by a bullet grazing him without penetrating. This draws the attention of the readers to the fact that Said had escaped death so many times before just as he did right now but as all cycles have it there is a peak and a trough and the reader might foreshadow a trough where Said won’t be so lucky. The text catches a glimpse irony when Said says “You’ll get away all right.” The style of writing then shifts to indirect internal monologue where Said questions whether he might have killed Rauf Ilwan. Mahfouz integrates the possibility that another innocent person might die to foreshadow the fate of Said’s wasted life.

Said ponders over the thought of how the bullet that killed Rauf Ilwan would destroy his sense of loss but little does he know that he has committed a grave mistake again of killing an innocent man. His actions will eventually lead to his death that has no meaning to it which is something he did not want to happen to him. “A world without morals is like a universe without gravity”