Saturday, January 30, 2016

Said as a tragic hero

Aristotle defines a tragic hero as "a person who must evoke a sense of pity and fear in the audience. He is considered a man of misfortune that comes to him through error of judgment".

  • What is Said's tragic flaw? (harmatia)
Said's constant desire for revenge can be interpreted as his main tragic flaw that had later on in the novel lead to his downfall. An example from the text from chapter seven, "“To kill them both—Nabawiyya and Ilish—at the same time, would be a triumph”, his constant expressing of hate towards other characters in the play is considered as his main tragic flaw, since it lead to him getting shot at towards the end of the literary text.

  • How does he display excessive pride? (hubris)
Said throughout the novel keeps blaming Nabawiyya, Illish and Rauf for being the main reason behind all that is happening to him, never having himself to blame. He even blamed Sana for not recognizing him, when he told Rauf in chapter three "I have no faith in all her sex", the previous line shows how naive he is, blaming Sana when she hasn't seen him for the past four year. This shows how excessively his character displays pride, as he sees that he himself is flawless and never to blame to what is happening between him and the other characters in the novel.

  • When is his reversal of fortunes? (peripeteia)
Said's reversal of fortunes was at the moment when Rauf rejects for who he is, he says “If I set eyes on you again,” Rauf bellowed, “I’ll squash you like an insect.” This shows how Said is now left with no one and hopeless, due to the fact that Rauf once used to be his mentor and close friend, but now he is nothing other than another upperclass individual who Said attempted to rob. 

  • At what moments in the text does he recognize that the reversal was due to his own actions? (anagnorisis)
Because Said deliberately broke into his house during dawn when Rauf was sleeping. “Yes, I do, but please don’t.” Said says that after Rauf said, “No? Don’t you deserve it?". This shows how Said acknowledges his mistake (perhaps just to avoid going back to jail), and begs Rauf not to call the police, showing that he knows that the reversal of fortunes is due to his own actions.

  • Is his fate greater than he deserved? (nemesis)
His fate was tragic, no tragic ending is considered "greater than deserved" since all tragic endings have had some events leading up to him, contributing to a somewhat similar tragic fate. 

Friday, January 29, 2016

Passage Analysis

Passage:

The servant came in pushing a trolley laden with a bottle, two glasses, a pretty little violet-colored ice bucket, a dish of apples arranged in a pyramid, plates with hors d’oeuvres, and a silver water jug. 

Rauf gestured to the servant to withdraw, filled two glasses himself and offered one to Said, raising the other: “To freedom.” While Said emptied his glass in one gulp, Rauf took a sip then said, “And how is your daughter? Oh, I forgot to ask you—why did you spend the night at Sheikh Ali’s?” 

He doesn’t know what happened, thought Said, but he still remembers my daughter. And he gave Rauf a cold-blooded account of his misfortunes.

 “So yesterday I paid a visit to al-Sayrafi lane,” he concluded. “There I found a detective waiting for me, as I’d expected, and my daughter disowned me and screamed in my face.” He helped himself to another whisky. 

“This is a sad story. But your daughter isn’t to blame. She can’t remember you now. 

Later on she’ll grow to know and love you.” 

“I have no faith left in all her sex.”

“That’s how you feel now. But tomorrow, who knows how you’ll feel? You’ll change your opinion of your own accord. That’s the way of the world.” 

The telephone rang. Rauf rose, picked up the receiver and listened for a moment. His face began to beam and he carried the telephone outside to the verandah, while Said’s sharp eyes registered everything. It must be a woman. A smile like that, strolling into the dark, could only mean a woman. He wondered if Ilwan was still unmarried. Though they sat there cozily drinking and chatting, Said now sensed that this meeting would be exceedingly difficult to repeat. The feeling was unaccountable, like the whispered premonition of some still undiagnosed cancerous growth, but he trusted it, relying on instinct. A resident now in one of those streets that Said had only visited as a burglar, after all, this man may have felt obliged to welcome him, having actually changed so much that only a shadow of the old self remained.” 


Analysis: 

This passage reveals to the audience the different perceptions each of Rauf and Said have regarding the life that they are living. The passage includes contrast between both their characters, symbols are included to further contrast their relationship and perceptions. Also, Rauf's character has been established further than what Said's inner thoughts has shaped him as. 

The passage begins with “The servant came in pushing a trolley laden with a bottle, two glasses, a pretty little violet-colored ice bucket, a dish of apples arranged in a pyramid, plates with hors d’oeuvres, and a silver water jug". The previous lines are a internal monologue that portrays the hating character that Said holds. This can be said due to the fact that he pays close attention to details regarding the valuable things that Rauf possesses. An example would be, "pretty little violet-coloured ice bucke" and "dish of apples arranged in a pyramid", the close detail payed by him symbolizes the unattainable things that he will not enjoy independently. 

After that Rauf's butler has served them with wine, Rauf says "To freedom". This line demonstrates the different perception of life varying between both characters. For Said, he feels that life has turned against him. After losing the last four years of his life, losing his daughter and his wife committing audeltry with his betraying friend. While on the other hand, Rauf, during the four years that Said spent in prison, has managed to crawl his way up to the upper-class, hence viewing the world he lives is as a world that is filled with freedom. 

Moving along the lines in the passage, Said mentions his daughter disowning him the day he came out of jail, after four years of imagining his daughters smile. Rauf then starts to comfort him by saying "But your daughter isn’t to blame. She can’t remember you now. Later on she’ll grow to know and love you". This is ironic because Rauf used to be Saids mentor, as time passed by (relates to "grow to know you") they have become detached and each with their own perception of life.

 Said then says, “I have no faith left in all her sex". The reason behind him not having faith is due to his wife committing adultery, then having a divorce while he is in prison and marrying his "once-was" friend. This further portrays how the whole situation deeply impacted his inner views towards women as a whole, contributing to his character being further developed in the text.

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Why does Mahfouz employ stream of consciousness narration in the novel and to what effect?

In chapter 1, Naguib first introduces us to the protagonist Said, who is in jail during the very early stages of the novel. In the first chapter specifically, Mahfouz manages to constantly switch and redirect his style of writing, whether it being from first person to second person, or by implementing stream of consciousness narration, including a soliloquy, interior and exterior monologues. The employment of such writing styles in the text, allowed Naguib to achieve a number of significant intended character traits that are to be developed and built upon in the upcoming events of the novel. 


As we are first introduced to Said, we are given insight regarding his expressed hatred towards both Nabawiyyah and Ilish, his wife and former friend respectively. The hatred has been expressed when he says "I swear I hate you all", he also describes his ex wife by saying "that woman who sprang from filth, from vermin, from treachery and infidelity.”(p.152) and “one of the secrets of hell!". After reading these previous lines, readers as audience view Said's character to be filled with hatred. However, Naguib provides contrast to the hating nature of Said's character, where his feelings for his daughter are shown to be filled with love, seen in the line "As the thought of her crossed his mind. The heat and the dust, the hatred and the pain all disappeared, leaving only love to glow across a soul as clear as a rain-washed sky", portraying Said's nature further. This shows how Naguib managed to provide us as audience, with deep insight regarding Said's character, only by providing us with slight detail regarding his feelings and thoughts, achieved by implementing quotes and direct monologues. 


Furthermore, we were firstly introduced to Illish's character through Said's inner thoughts and feelings, which gave a rather negative impression regarding his 'yet to be introduced' character. However, as the audience are given the chance to view Illish's character further in the first chapter, they are provided with Indirect characterization, also mainly achieved by the style of writing that Naguib uses. Later in the first chapter, the first time the audience are encountered with Ilish is when he invites Said to his house, then as the scene progresses, we as audience, manage to see somewhat valid reasoning behind his argument with Said, that we do not have a lot of insight about, other than the fact that Said's inner thoughts and feelings are neglecting it based on Said's point of view solely.

Monday, January 18, 2016

Value of Literature in Translation

"Translation is a journey over a sea from one shore to the other"

Translated literary texts have been separated all along than those referred to as "original texts". What makes a literary text original, is being published and read in the language it was written in. However, one may argue that the originality of a text relies on its content and worth. On the other hand, translated texts are those that are written in another language, yet attempting to communicate and deliver the same intended meaning and content within the original piece of text.

When a text is to be translated, the translator is to have an appreciation of both the content and context of the original piece, with the events taking place. The translator is also confronted with moments where he or she has to preserve some elements of the text and sacrifice some others. Every piece that is translated has came from an "original" individual, hence translators tend to give it an individual based treatment. This is when understanding the context of the work is important, as translators tend to "retain the ambience of the original culture, rather than the language, as it is reflected in the text". 

When people read translated literary works, they tend to hate to have something challenging their historical views of things, corrupting them, and display their idols in a undermined manner. As a result, it is safe to say that in order to enjoy translated literary texts, the reader should be 'open-minded' and have an interpretation suitable to what the author aims to deliver with translating an original piece of text.


"Translation is two things: it’s very close and careful and thoughtful reading. Then, it’s precise and careful and thoughtful writing"


Sunday, November 22, 2015

Why fight for Russia -Paper 1

The following text is in the form of a leaflet, a type of propaganda against Russia in Britain during the early stages of the first world war, this can be said as the bottom of the page states, “Leaflet by British Pacifist Norman Angell, 1914”. It discusses the once was ongoing conflict from Britain’s perspective; hence we can safely say that it is a propaganda. The piece of text targets the English audience in order to serve its own purpose. This was done by using some factual information, appealing to the audience also by using literary features, all resulting in triggering the mood of the audience in order to enhance the leaflet’s purpose.

The target audience that this extract aims to reach out for is the British people, more specifically unemployed and uneducated people. The leaflet aims to inform the people of England, of avoidable actions that are to be taken by them as a whole nation. While simultaneously educating them of the consequences that would result if they proceed with the actions that the author is trying to warn them from.  The leaflet’s first line states, “If England goes to war, it will be on the side of Russia”, the line informs the English people of what is about to take place if their nation joins the war. The British Pacifist who wrote this text, approached the audience through establishing a sympathetic connection, as in lines three and four, he informs the audience of how Russia payed a tremendous amount of money, which will seem to successfully attract audience to read the text while engaging with it more thoroughly, as money was even more valuable a century ago. The reason money was said to be more valuable, is due to the fact that a lot of money was used up for buying equipment suitable for wars, as well as it was a period of time before the inflation that we know about took place, also the fact that the author decided to include that in the text, portrays its significance and importance.

The leaflet starts off with a title written in bold and caps, “WHY FIGHT RUSSIA” which attracts audience to make more than just a glance with the piece of text. Then the write starts to inform the readers (British Population) of the role that Great Britain will lay, as well as the side they will take, this can be seen in line 1, “If England goes to war, it will be on the side of Russia”, moving along the lines, the English writer further asks a rhetorical question, “What is Russia?” (2). This then allowed the writer to take advantage of historical events and facts, such as, “Russia is the country … designs on our Indian Empire” (10) and “It is the Russian … St. Petersburg” (14). These previous statements did not only intend to educate the audience, as the main purpose was to cultivate the negative sight that the English people are to view Russia with. As the readers start to read more through the text, they will start to notice that the sole purpose of the text is to avoid going to war, in order to avoid fighting on the side of Russia and next to them, since allies are meant to help one another, here Britain sees no gain in being any form of help for Russia. The main theme is the theme of liberty and independence, showed through how Britain doesn’t believe in fighting a war along side with their enemies, “A war for Russia is a war against civilization” (17).

The tone used in the text is critical, as all we see is the criticism of Great Britain Russia. Which allows them to enhance the purpose of the text, allowing it to be grasped by the audience easily as they will start to believe in it too. The tone of criticism resulted in creating a thrilled mood for the British audience. As during a time period before joining a war, the people would have felt as if they are hopeless and have nothing to do but see their country join the war. However, this piece of leaflet the people of Great Britain that their nation will not participate in the war, creating somewhat the thrill that was mentioned previously in this paragraph.

Literary devices were present throughout the text. At the very top of the leaflet, we see bias by headline, stating, “why fight for Russia?” the statement appealed to the audience allowing them to have their attention taken from the start, as it’s appealing. Ethos, Pathos and Logos were all present as well, as they help dictate the sole purpose of a given extract, which is done by providing factual information (appealing to the audience as knowledgeable and informing them), “which we spent 50,000,000” (3). This previous quote is an example of Logos. In line (20) the writer asks the audience a guiding question, “which is the greater peril to this country”, this metaphor also the audience to compare the benefits of another country to their own as a peril that they are to cherish, admire and support. Then also it says, “the slaves of a corrupt autocracy” (25), here instead of referring to them as “citizens of a corrupt autocracy”, the world slaves is to be used instead. This allows the audience to form a negative idea about Russians, which is in fact, the mean purpose of this given extract. Then another sentence in bold states, “ A war for Russia is a war against civilization”, this metaphor portrays what it will be like if they fight with Russia, it explain how civilization can be so vulnerable, hence unethical to fight for such cause, and also not really required as far as how bad Russia is to be concern.


Wednesday, November 4, 2015

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/17/world/middleeast/palestinian-driver-suspected-of-deliberately-hitting-jerusalem-bus-stop.html


Palestinian Driver accidentally Hitting Jerusalem Bus Stop


The 37 year old Palestinian Khaled Koutineh accidentally drove his car into two people who happened to be waiting at a bus-stop. In response to all the accusations made against him that he has a grudge against Israeli Jews, it was confirmed earlier on that he does not have any previous criminal records or anti-Zionist connections with any group which would cause him to commit such a terrible act.

Palestinian police chief made a statement after the incident stating that there was a large amount of traffic due to celebrations of Israel's annual holocaust remembrance day which eventually led to the incident.

Also, Nasser Messis (Khaled's driver) said that the crash could also be a result of the weather, as Juraselam was under heavy rain the past couple days

Despite recent increase in deliberate attacks between the two communities that have been taking place for the past three months, Palestinian authorities assured the Israelis that the attack was not deliberate