Sheik - Character Analysis

With the use of existentialism and the stream of consciousness, Naguib Mahfouz describes the story of a tragic hero, Said Mahran and his progress throughout things fall apart, as he expresses his desire for vengeance towards Ilish, Nabaweeyah and Rauf. The struggles faced in The Thief and The Dogs, reflect the ongoing struggles in Egypt, dealing with oppression in an uprising revolution, as the validity of Said’s actions can directly be held against the validity of the Egyptian rule at the current time.

This idea, that The Theif and The Dogs represents the social struggles faced in Egypt at the time can be associated with the characters, being used to illustrate the unjust Egyptian rule and important struggles faced amongst them. 

In my opinion, Sheik represents peace in the text. This character can be seen as the moral voice of the novel, overflowing with wisdom. This is mainly due to the fact that he is extremely religious.

Sheik constantly provides religious advice to Said, to support his religious beliefs. He also found out about Said's intentions of carrying out his vengeance towards his former friends. Upon finding out this information, Sheik advices Said against violence, as he promotes peace. When he met Said for the first time, his words were "Peace be upon you". This is an immediate evidence of his peaceful perspective in the text. "Take a copy of the Quran and read....also repeat the words 'love is acceptance', which means obey his commands and refraining from what he prohibited and contentment with what he decrease and or day".

The Thief and The Dogs - Thesis Statement

With the use of existentialism and the stream of consciousness, Naguib Mahfouz describes the story of a tragic hero, Said Mahran and his progress throughout things fall apart, as he expresses his desire for vengeance towards Ilish, Nabaweeyah and Rauf. The struggles faced in The Thief and The Dogs, reflect the ongoing struggles in Egypt, dealing with oppression in an uprising revolution, as the validity of Said’s actions can directly be held against the validity of the Egyptian rule at the current time.

Stream Of Consciousness

The term "writing with substance" involves the utmost engagement of the reader. This is done through a plethora of writing techniques. Ultimately, if the content carries enough dimensions, upon which the reader immerses themselves in, the text is considered good. Often, these dimensions involve the reader gathering information about the characters in various ways. This information is usually discovered through reading conversations between characters and through first-person narration. In some cases, the level of immersion used in discovering new information involves reading the character's internal thought processes and line of thinking. 

This level of immersion is called the stream of consciousness. It is a method of narration that describes the flow of thoughts in the minds of the characters, in words. The stream of consciousness is often referred to as "interior monologue". The "narration" provides the readers with the sensation of being inside the characters minds. It provides a personal connection between character and reader, as characters, within the stream of consciousness, often mentally address the audience or other characters. Usually, the stream of consciousness is used as a revealing element in literature, as it is a clear method of communicating the idea of the plot. This is mainly done informally (generally lacking "proper" punctuation), as inner-thoughts are often thought in continuous sequences.

This example is the introductory (opening)  paragraph, in the literary text, The Door by E.B. White.

"Everything (he kept saying) is something it isn't. And everybody is always somewhere else. Maybe it was the city, being in the city, that made him feel how queer everything was and that it was something else. Maybe (he kept thinking) it was the names of the things. The names were tex and frequently koid. Or they were flex and oid or they were duroid (sani) or flexsan (duro), but everything was glass (but not quite glass) and the thing that you touched (the surface, washable, crease-resistant) was rubber, only it wasn't quite rubber and you didn't quite touch it but almost. The wall, which was glass but turned out on being approached not to be a wall, it was something else, it was an opening or doorway--and the doorway (through which he saw himself approaching) turned out to be something else, it was a wall. And what he had eaten not having agreed with him."

As demonstrated here, this paragraph is a stream of thoughts that carry out in sequence. This shows the difference between a typical narration and an internal monologue. The author clarifies himself with the use of words in brackets. This is done to further achieve a sense of personal engagement between the character and the reader. 

Lost In Translation

Culture. Culture is an elemental dictation of one's behavior. This accounts for personalities, ideas, beliefs and attitudes. The exchange of behavior within culture is done so through language. Language is a form of human communication. Language is used to exchange information. Literature is a form of expression. Literature is a tool for the communication of new ideas and old beliefs. Since different cultures have different perspectives and deal with different problems, the language used within the particular region is heavily influenced by the culture. This introduces the perspectives of the culture within the language.

When ideas are shared across regions through literature, the text must be translated to allow the foreign audience to grasp the message in a more relatable fashion. However, in this translation process, certain perspectives or ideas can not be accounted for in the foreign language, due to the lack of vocabulary used to perfectly describe the original message (perspective of the author). This in turn leaves the new translated message to appear as a text that comparatively lacks detail to the original. In some cases, vital sections from the original text are completely altered or even taken out to better suit foreign audiences. Based on the significance of the text, this starts to become a problem that affects foreign audiences. More importantly, the translated text could ignite some dispute between foreign audiences and audiences of the original text.