Fate and Free Will

Mahfouz illustrates how fate is a major determiner of one’s happiness in life as he is able to include foil characters such as Nur in order to highlight the significance of her fate as a prostitute. Also, the fact that Said ends up killing multiple of innocent character further intensifies the overarching theme of faith overriding free will within the novel. This means it is important to take into consideration the circumstance of being born into the middle class in contrast to those that are not. For example, Said’s fate of not being an intellectual unlike Rauf, further creates tension within the plot as it heightens the climax.

It is also important to understand how because of his social class, he always attempts on gaining freedom through violence and revenge. His emotional and mentality will never allow him to feel free because he always feels betrayed of which is expressed through his inner monologue uses through the stream of consciousness narrative that allows him to articulate this sense of paranoia essentially for the sake of portraying his thoughts on economic injustice. It is his fate that he is not free to write what he wants causing this to be very allegorical however, Said put himself in such a position through his free will- essentially coming back to this endless loop cycle of hatred and revenge.