Half A Day Naguib Mahfouz Analysis

Half a Day

Half a Day by Naguib Mahfouz is an allegory, which is defined as “a complete narrative which involves characters, and events that stand for an abstract idea or an event.” However the story Half a Day uses symbolism which is defined as a “specific word, idea, or objects that stand for ideas, values, persons or ways of life”. The short story is a focus on the pace of life from childhood to adulthood and how quickly life can pass you by.

As the story goes on it reflects a greater meaning of what was previously read and to understand what is actually occurring the reader must be able to pick up on what the narrator is actually saying. This short story is one that has to be read several times and every time it is read the reader will

The descriptions of the plants and gardens on the travels of the first day of school that later changed to the high buildings, fields and plants were gone and the streets where no longer quiet and had become noisy and busy with growth. The narrator used a man passing by as a description of aging, the length of time since spoke as a description of time passing and with a comment of how he was as a description of how the end of life was near.

The plot of the short story is simple and at the end of the story you find out what happened next; time quickly pasted by and only the first day of school was a memory. By the end of the day when the bell rings and he is unable to locate his dad by the gate of the school as was promised to him, so he began to walk home, which can be considered as a lesson as life it rough and the day goes on.

The narrator is always the person in the story, but at the school begins to identify as a group with the use of we, and then with the ring of the bell becomes the individual grown up boy. With the mentioning of falling in love, rivalries, pain and the description of what lays ahead are all signs of growing up from a boy to a man nevertheless are also reflects of ups in downs of