The idea of the grotesque is presented in both Naguib Mahfouz’s novel <i>Midaq Alley</i> and Flannery O’Connor’s short story “Good Country People.” Although the settings, plots, and characters differ, both works present an underlying...

Naguib Mahfouz and Franz Kafka both use setting as an important literary feature in their respective works, <i>Midaq Alley</i> and <i>The Metamorphosis</i>. Mahfouz’s <i>Midaq Alley</i> takes place in the back...

In the novel Midaq Alley, author Naguib Mahfouz depicts a poorer middle eastern alley. This measly Alley doesn't act only as a physical barrier, but a societal one as well. Midaq Alley is shielded from the rest of the world, and has little outside...

Throughout Naguib Mahfouz’s 1947 masterpiece Midaq Alley, the alley’s microcosmic nature turns its powerfully crafted characters into living renditions of sin. More specifically, Mahfouz creates characters to represent the Christian church’s Seven...

Naguib Mahfouz’s novel, Midaq Alley, is a story about a group of people living in an alley in Egypt in the 1940’s. Already, from that description, the reader can see that the women of this tale have a significant disadvantage in equality....

With the rise of individualism in the 20th century, people had become distant and detached, while worrying about trying to communicate, and dreading being misunderstood. The Egyptian society itself at the time was on a brink of an abrupt state of...

Throughout Midaq Alley, the jealousy of the characters is their constant companion and their undoing. The themes of the novel work alongside the jealousy of the characters and ultimately the tragedy of the ending is caused by the jealousy that is...

In Naguib Mahfouz’s The Thief and the Dogs Albert Camus’ The Stranger, we are exposed to two very different characters, Said Mahran and Meursault. Both these characters are alienated from their societies, and change drastically as a result of this...

Death has been a prevalent theme in literature of all cultures throughout the centuries. In The Thief and the Dogs, the author Naguib Mahfouz explores the realm of death and its interconnections with life. Witnessing the turmoil of the Egyptian...

The Thief and The Dogs, an intriguing narrative by Naguib Mahfouz, is the story of a man named Said Mahran who had just got out of prison. He was convicted as a thief and feels betrayed by all whom he was close to. One of his ex-colleagues, Ilish...

Time is the scarcest resource and it affects society and people by causing extremely major changes either positive or negative; time is as well indefinite and continuous. In “A Streetcar Named Desire”, the readers face and observe the considerable...

In the Arab World, women’s rights, gender equality, and feminism have always been a concept that is challenging to the authorities of the society and the social norms established under the Islam and the Arab culture. Although there has been the...