Said - Tragic Hero

A tragic hero can be described as the main character facing difficulty, starting at a high point and leading towards a tragic death. A tragic hero is an archetype derived from the Greek theatre. In “The Thief & The Dogs”, Mahfouz portrays Said as a tragic hero, throughout subtly exposing him to have the certain characteristics of a tragic hero, such as hamartia, hubris, peripeteia, anagnorisis, and nemesis.

Firstly and most importantly, every tragic hero has a tragic flaw (hamartia), which is a weakness in personality which usually the reason for their downfall. With Said it is his need for revenge on all of those who have betrayed him. This is seen in the very beginning of the novel, upon finally leaving the prison in chapter one, we see a soliloquy where he addresses two of the three betrayals he has experienced, from his ex-wife, Nabbawiyya, and her new husband, Illish. “Nabbawiyya. Ilish. Your two names merge in my mind. For years you will have been thinking about this day, never imagining, all the while, that the gates would ever actually open. You’ll be watching now, but I won’t fall into the trap. At the right moment, instead,.” A
s seen within this particular quote, Said admits to planning their encounter and described how he will ‘strike like fate’, indicating that he will seek revenge on them.

A second term that is commonly used amongst the Greeks in cooperation with a tragic hero is hubris, which is defined as excessive pride, which is usually but not always, the tragic hero’s hamartia. In Said’s case it is not his tragic flaw, but it is present throughout his character. This is seen where even at the end of the novel, Said still seizes to realise his own mistakes. Even upon being arrested for a crime that he did in fact commit, he forced blame on others. An example of this is seen in chapter two, with the conversation between him and the Sheikh in whom he seeks refuge. “It wasn’t thanks to any sweat by the police that I was arrested.” Said went on, the veins in his forehead pulsing with anger. ”

Another crucial aspects of any tragic hero’s journey is the peripeteia, also a Greek word), which describes the point of the plot where there is a reversal of circumstances which begins the downfall of the hero. The turning point. In terms of Said, the peripeteia is the point where Said, aiming to kill Illish, actually murders the innocent landlord. This event is his turning point and is the beginning of Said’s major downfall.

One aspect of the tragic hero that Said does not possess is the anagnorsis. The anagnorsis is the point of the story in which the tragic hero realises that the events that have occurred are due to his own choices. Yet Said does not seem to experience this specific tragic hero trait, Even towards the end of the novel Said has yet to have that moment where he comprehends that this was his own doing, relating back to the note of fate versus freewill, which is a very recurring theme in a tragic hero’s story.

Usually with a tragic hero they are faced with a greater fate than they deserve, which the audience picks up on and tends to sympathise with the character, implementing the idea that tragic hero’s are incorporated for the sake of catharsis and pity. In terms of Said, while he was committing all the crimes he committed, in his head he thought his actions were justified, by the way he was brought up, he was taught 

Passage Analysis

Passage
“You were a true human being then, Raouf, and you were my teacher too.

Alone with you, Raouf had said quietly, “Don’t you worry. The fact is, I consider this theft perfectly justified. Only you’ll find the police watching out for you, and the judge won’t be lenient with you,” he’d added ominously with bitter sarcasm, “however convincing your motives, because he, too, will be protecting himself. Isn’t it justice,” he’d shouted, “that what is taken by theft should be retrieved by theft? Here I am studying, away from home and family, suffering daily from hunger and deprivation!”

Where have all your principles gone now, Raouf? Dead, no doubt, like my father and my mother, and like my wife’s fidelity.

You had no alternative but to leave the students’ hostel and seek a living somewhere else.

So you waited under the lone palm tree at the end of the green plot until Nabawiyya came and you sprang towards her, saying, “Don’t be afraid. I must speak to you. I’m leaving to get a better job. I love you. Don’t ever forget me. I love you and always will. And I’ll prove I can make you happy and give you a respectable home.” Yes, those had been times when sorrows could be forgotten, wounds could be healed, and hope could bring forth fruit from adversity.

All you graves out there, immersed in the gloom, don’t jeer at my memories!”

Excerpt From: Naguib Mahfouz. “The Thief & the Dogs.” Chapter 11, page 104.

Analysis

Stream of Consciousness

In his famous novel “The Thief and the Dogs”, Naguib Mahfouz illustrates many distinctive writing techniques new to the Arabic literature. Being the first Arabic author to use stream of consciousness, Mahfouz creates an illusion that the reader is aware to sensations and uncensored thoughts within a characters mind before the character has ordered them into any rational form or shape.

There are three shifts of narration used by Mahfouz, direct and indirect internal monologue, third person narration, and soliloquy. Mahfouz shifts through these narration techniques heavily throughout the novel, and throughout these shifts he is able to control and speed of the plot, and develop characters, as well as providing readers with all the necessary background information.

The first narrative technique commonly used throughout the novel is interior monologue, which expressed the characters feelings and thought in the form of a narrative. An example of this can be found in chapter one:

“No one smiled or seemed happy. But who of these people could have suffered more than he had, with four years lost, taken from him by betrayal?”.

Indirect internal monologue is usually harder to identify, because it is not directly the characters thoughts yet it cannot be described as a third person narration, which it is usually confused as.

Next is the direct interior monologue. This is where the characters thoughts are presented directly, and we are presented with all of what goes on in the characters mind. For example

“And Sana? What about Sana?

…..

I wonder how much the little one even knows ”.

Here the protagonist appears talking to himself. This is done in order for the readers to understand the character’s process of thought and get an insight into how the character thinks and feels.

Direct interior monologue may sometimes be confused with a soliloquy. A soliloquy is a commonly used literary device in order to find out how one character perceives another. Most of the soliloquys within the novel are italicized. As seen in the first chapter as Said is exposed to freedom he says to himself “Nabbawiyya. Ilish. Your two names merge in my mind. For years you will have been thinking about this day, never imagining, all the while, that the gates would ever actually open. You’ll be watching now, but I won’t fall into the trap. At the right moment, instead, I’ll strike like Fate.” Here he is addressing two characters who are not even there, this gives insight into how he feels towards them, an appropriate example of a soliloquy.

With Mahfouz’s technique, although there are many advantages to these narrative styles as discussed above, there are also many limitations of this technique. Firstly the plot of the novel is negatively impacted. The plot is not linear, for we begin the story with Said’s rebirth as he leaves the prison. Throughout this narration on the other hand, Mahfouz moves back and forth throughout events thus neglecting the value of time within the novel, therefore diminishing the value of the plot of the story. 

In addition to the impact on the plot, this narrative technique also negatively impacts the characters, for modern day writers tend to focus more on the psychological description of the characters, as opposed to a normal 1^st or 3^rd person narration, we would get insight into how people feel about the characters through what they say, as well as physical descriptions. Both of which we don’t see throughout this narration.

The Value of Literature in Translation

Being a bilingual person, I always find it difficult to express myself in both languages equally. Often when I am asked to translate something from arabic to english or english to arabic, the translation doesn't always express the same idea in both languages respectively.

This is the same issue faced within literature and translation. When a translator decides to translate a text to another language, he/she must read over it several times, understand the context and content as well as basic text characteristics such as characters or plot. The translator must also understand the writers intentions and writing techniques, in order to really understand the text and translate it as accurately as possible in the translated texts. Although this does provide many issues.

Some argue that the value of literature is greatly diminished through the translation, since some translators cannot accurately perceive the writers original intentions. An example of this is the incident that occurred with best-selling Chinese author Feng Tang, when he attempted to translate an indian novel and in the process managed to offend the original author and was described as "vulgar". Although it might not have been his intention, translating a literary work can never be 100% accurate, as no one can mimic the authors thought process and technique.

On the other hand translating literary texts  has proven to be extremely beneficial. Many of the famous novels we all know are not originally written in english, but translated from their original language. In fact in areas like Slovenia, 70% of their literary works are translated texts from other languages originally. Therefore translation has proven to provide many reading and learning opportunities overall.

Language & Mass Commincation

I’ve selected the second prompt to further analyse. “It is acceptable for a government to try to shape public opinion through information campaigns”. When asked this question in class I moved to the agree corner, arguing that the government should have the right to shape their opinion, in order not to worry the public. Thinking that the governments deception could be justifiable.

After watching “The Control Room” documentary discussing the Iraq’s situation and the news about it, I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t particularly agree with my previous decision. If I watched this documentary prior to being asked that question, I would stand in the “Strongly disagree”.

Throughout the video we’re objected to several different opinions and judgments of the famous news channel “Al Jazeera” due to their completely unbias news coverage. Al Jazeera’s message is “Wake up, look at what’s happening around you in the world”. Al Jazeera provides information in the news completely as it is with no bias or hidden agenda, they do this so appropriately that the two opposite sides of the spectrum have accused them of being bias, within the documentary we hear two different government officials/reports saying “Al Jazeera stop your American propaganda” and at the same time have been accused of being bias completely against the us. Although in reality they do not provide any bias opinions and try to remain partial towards the situation at hand.

Due to this many governments and countries have opposed. As stated within the documentary “Several Arab countries banned their channel for going against their regimes”. This shows that many governments do not want their community to be objected to Al Jazeera unbiased news, this means that the governments within those certain countries fear the truth being known by their people, which is unfair an creates a wrong perception of what the world should be.

As well as watching the documentary we looked at two different stories, that of Jessica Lynch & Pat Tillman, in the Tillman story we see that the mother of the soldier who was discussing the story, was more devastated than ever by the fact that she was lied to about the accurate events that occurred with her sons death. And within the Jessica Lynch story they lied about injuries she had, untruly stating that she’d been shot and stabbed, when that was proven to not be the case.

In conclusion all people have the right to the truth and should not be subjected to untrue versions of the events occurring as it is unfair to everyone involved.

Pat Tillman Article

Jessica Lynch Article

Abortion Bias Article

Article

• use of bold texts to highlight negative aspects of abortion -> "bias by headline"
• very religious ideology
• does not consider people who need it
• use of picture of a sad child with the comment saying "When will abortion stop?", this is an attempt to appeal to peoples pathos and make them sympathize with the children and make people feel bad for the people supportive of abortion
• negative tone
• bias through selection and omission,  the entire article only portrays the negative aspecs of the topic, it does not provide an insight into the lives of certain families/people that cannot provide for the child or cannot endure childbirth, or have whatever reason to abort the unborn child. since it should be the woman's choice 
• religious ideology 
• "bias by source control" : throughout the text many statistics and facts are provided in order for the reader to feel like the article is more valid

Rewrite:

Reasons Why Abortion Should be Pro-Choice
Since the legalization of abortion in 1973, over 56 million unborn fetuses have been aborted, for reasons we may not understand.

By the time you finish reading this article, a few more families/parents may decide that they cannot handle a childbirth and will abort it. which is okay.

is it anyone else's business whether another family does not want to have a child? NO.
so please read the top few reasons why abortion is okay and no one else's business besides the own family.

1. Money
Abortion should be heavily funded, if a woman cannot afford her own abortion she definitely cannot afford to support herself and raise a child with that certain income. Many of the women who accidentally get pregnant may need help eliminating the child, for getting an abortion is infact very expensive for the family, and would most likely not have the support of her family.

2. Abuse
Many women may have been sexually abused or unconsentually been impregenated. In cases like these the government sometimes may allow an abortion, but many other instances they do not, and the mother is forced to raise a child representing a difficult time in her life.

3. Safety concerns
Many people opposing abortion argue of its unsafety, but do they consider the danger of actual childbirth? and pregnancy? a simple short surgery would be less painful than the suffering for 9 months followed by a natural childbirth, or a sea-section, which carries far more risks.

In conclusion abortion should be a woman's choice and no one else besides the mother herself should be able to determine whether she wants a child or not, it is her body, and she will face the consequences. Although abortion is not ideal, many people should at least be given the choice.

Munro Madness - practice IOC

IOC Recording here