Outline

• Introduction

• People around Said and their effect on life and death of Said

• Questions and Discussions

• Conclusion

   

• A list of important questions which you can ask yourself while reading this book (both for people who are new to this book, and who are not)

The ending of “The Thief and The Dogs”

Effect of world on Said's life and death

     Introduction

     The ending of “The Thief and The Dogs”, written by Egyptian writer Maguib Mahfous, was a very puzzling and covered several elements which we met before in this book. It also left us with several unanswered questions, which left us with something to think about and create our conclution and opinion of what happened in the end. Many characters incorporated into the death of the Said, by their presence or absence at the end of the book. Here I will focus on the effect of characters and things around Said that effected his end. I will also pose some questions for future readers of this book, so that they can think about them whenever they have the chance to read this novel. I will not go deeply into my opinion on this novel since I believe that everyone should have their own understanding of this novel. However I hope my discussions and questions will help other people who will show interest in "The Thief and The Dogs" or maybe even promote that interest in first place.

     People around Said and their effect on life and death of Said

     The death of main character could have come, somewhat, too fast in this novel. But if one think, why should it, the death, be something that can truly predictable? No one know when it will come, and the author of this novel made it very unexpected and surprising. I even personally believed in the hopes of Nur, and was thinking it will be this way in the end, however the author made it otherwise. Of course the reason for death of main character probably wasn’t a total surprise, and it was very visible, with progression of the book, that it might happen. It was very clear that Said's anger was consuming him, and would case something to happen to him eventually, we just didn't expected for it to happen so soon. Of course its also possible that author wanted us to believe that everything will be ok with Said, maybe he wanted the ending to be somewhat unexpected. But if we take a closer look at Said life (his life after release from prison), he was living it only by use of that anger and the knowledge that his enemies are still alive and that it is possible for him to make his revenge on them and make them pay for all him misfortunes. He was existing with the single knowledge that there were still someone who can be punished, it was almost like his daily bread, and he failed to see any other reasons for existence in his life, “Does your ruined life have any meaning at all unless it is to kill your enemies...What meaning will there have been to your life if you fail to teach your enemies a lesson?”. However, everyone was trying to put him on the right way. Nur and Sheikh were the main characters that were trying to bring him to a reason. Nur was living her life with hope that he will change. But besides Nur and Sheikh, even his enemies were trying to set him on right way. For example Rauf, his old tutor, was giving him good advices about finding a good job and starting his life anew and fresh, in this newly changed world, which Said would not accept. Said expected the world to remain how it was, before his time in prison, or during the time of revolution. He could not accept the changed world or changed people. He could not accept the change in his enemies, or actually, they are his enemies because they have changed, their values have been changed, their opinion of Said himself have been changed; and as for Said, he was viewing it as a treason and weakness in his eyes. But in reality, they are just peacefully living their lives, going along with change and using that change to their own advantage, like Rauf. After all, “Said” is not their life, why should they revolve around him? What exactly was Said to them? He was no one to them, just a ex-prisoner, a part of old and forgotted history, person who have not been exposed to real life in several year (which is not revolution, but a peace and governed society). However Said probably view things a little different, maybe he was setting all attention on himself, and expected everyone to respect him. But why should they do it? Why should they even remember him? He, himself, never changed or tried to change. Even Nur, without who he will later be hopeless, failed to change him. If we read the Sheikh’s words, “The world is unaware of him who is unaware of it”, we can see that he was describing Said, a wretch person that could not came to acceptance with this new world or anything new around him, he was going against the world, against the flow of the that current reality. Can one, single, miserable person withstand such force? Said or anyone else would be powerless against the world, or against majority. Additionally, with every enemy disappearing from Said’s reach, he felt like there was less and less purpose for his life. He almost felt that he lost more and more reasons or motivations to go on, while those people were living and enjoying their lives without his wrath. One examples of this can be when he learns that his wife and Ilish are gone from his reach. He felt very disappointed, but still, one last man remained for him, one last hope in his mind, his old tutor Rauf, and even him, he fairs to kill, and he kills another innocent man. He feels lost and almost like a failure. But why is Said always missed? Why did author of this book made him a failure? Then later, in the book, the Nur, the only light and hope in his life, a hope that was constantly trying to revert him to a normal life, in hope to enjoy it with him, is disappears from his life. He gets very fond of her with a progression of the book, and when she is gone, disappears in unknown, he is lost and left in complete dissolution. Nur and Sheikh were the only people that made him to think a little bit about his actions, only people that stood strong again his madness and anger, which was eating away all his soul. Nur was supporting him with love, care and devotion; and Sheikh with religion, spirituality and reason. There is also a question why Said was so blind to the advises of Sheikh? He was a devoted believer in his youth, what have changed in him now? Or maybe he interprets the things wrong? Why does he fails to listen to Sheikh in almost every instance of this book. They the Nur disappeared. And her death or disappearance (a subject of personal opinion) is the beginning of the ending. When one of those supporting columns collapsed, Said was nothing. It was a place in the book, which started a drastic decline of our hero. Without her support, or her presence, Said doesn’t know what to do, he makes fatal misstates, and doesn’t know where to go. He is completely lost without that guiding light and hope.

     Questions and Discussions

     The ending of “The Thief and The Dogs” contains several very interesting elements which left us with few puzzling questions. One of the main and interesting elements in the ending, which also existed throughout the book, is cemetery. Why was it referenced so many times before? Was there some connection between it and Said? Once, Said told Nur that he will stay with her until he will move over to the neighbors, and it did happen in the end. Then, our main character, while waiting for Nur, was spending countless hours by himself with the company of this cemetery, it was mentioned few times how Said was speaking and thinking about the graveyard, below his window, “A city of silence and truth, where success and failure, murderer and victim, come together, where thieves and policemen lie side by side in peace for the first and last time”. So this cemetery, almost always, existed around Said in this book. He also questioned himself if the first innocent man, whom he killed, would be buried there. He thought that this place wasn't a right for such pure and innocent person like the innocent man, who haven't don't anything to come to such end. If Said met his end there, was Said not pure and innocent then? How and what did he think of himself before the end? Another most interesting question is disappearance of Nur in the end of the novel. What happened to her? Did she die? Or was she actually the one that sold Said to authorities? Could be the Said’s doubts about her, in the end of the book, be right? Or was those doubts another fruit of his anger? However, we can see that Said is very lost without her, and her absence for us, the readers, is also very questionable, thought provoking and very turbulent for our minds. Another interesting element of the ending of this book was the last time spent at the Sheikh’s place. It was Said's last refuge, last place where he could rest in peace. Although Sheikh was, indirectly, trying to support Said with good advices throughout the book, Said was too blind to see their meaning. Did author tried to link religion as our last refuge, as our last confessor? The last question is who was speaking to him, in his final moments in this book? ““Give yourself up, Said,” the voice said firmly”, whose voice was it, was it Rauf? If it was Rauf, was Said able to recognize that voice? If he did, what was going though his head? Or was it his delusional mind that was creating those voices around him? Nonetheless, no matter whom it was, his inner mind or Rauf, the voice seemed to know Said very well.

    Conclusion

     “The Thief and The Dogs” is very complex book with a lot of different meanings between the lines. It has political, religious, family relationship themes, and many others. The second reading of this book really helped me to understand this book much better. I was able to see small details, which I failed to see before. Some of those small details opened up a lot of extra information about the meaning of this novel.  This novel has several very interesting questions, some of which I covered above, basing on my own understanding of this novel. For the new and future readers of this book, it will be useful to take a closer look at important characters like Nur, Sheikh, Rauf and many other. They shaped the Said's life in this novel.The new reader of this book should focus on his own, personal, interpretation of this book. Its also important to not ignore small and seemingly unimportant details and objects. For example cemetery, for my first reading it was not very interesting object of the book for me, but it turned out to be a major, imagery in this book, by my second reading. There many other things which I didn't cover in this essay, however I think different people can interpret the meaning of the novel differently. So it’s only up to the reader to truly understand the meaning of this novel.

   A list of important questions

     Here are some useful questions which you can use while reading this novel. What do you think about them? How would you answer them?

Cemetery

• Why was the cemetery referenced so many times in this novel?

• Was there any connections between Said and this landmark?

• Any connections between Nur and cemetery?

• Any other thoughts about the cemetery?

• Why do you think Said met his end there?

Nur

• What happened to her? Did she die or not?

• Did she sold Said to authorities? Or Were Said's doubts about her correct?

• “Nur's influence on the main character” - What are your thoughts on this subject?

• Do you think Nur feelings or opinion about Said changed for the worth with progression of this book?

Sheikh

• What was his attitude to Said in your mind?

• Did his teaching completely by passed Said?

• How did Sheikh influenced Said, if he influenced him at all?

• Any meaning to last refuge of Said?

Others

• Whose voice was calling out for Said? Was it his madness or someone real? Do you have some ideas about who it could be?

• Why did Said always missed? Just bad luck or maybe something else?

• What is the meaning of two innocent people killed by Said?

• What made Said to ignore Rauf's advice? Is there something more than just a jealousy?

• Why do you think Said failed to change with influence of both Nur and Sheikh?

If you have already finished this novel, please feel free to leave comments with your own answers, discussion, thoughts or anything else.

For people who did second reading of the novel, did you opinion, on any of those questions, changed from the time of the first reading? If it did, how?