Naguib Mahfouz Summary

Being the first egyptian to ever win a Nobel Prize in literature, Naguib Mahfouz revamped the world’s view of Arabian life throughout many on his stories. Mahfouz uses a surplus of allegories and symbols the represent what some of the corruption Egypt and its dictatorship have endured. Born in 1911, Mahfouz was a witness to the revolution against Britain and the revolts against the unfair and corrupt King Faruq. Both of these had a long lasting effect on Mahfouz and his views towards life. Being a civil servant of the government force at the time, fabricated a greater meaning to Mahfouz because he was trapped in a working environment controlled by a ruthless dictator. This newfound point of view influenced many of Mahfouz’s works about basic Egyptian life and the politics behind it. Moreover, Mahfouz grew up and spent much of his childhood in a Muslim household in an Islamic state. The witnessing of how women in his life were treated, along with his religious views, allowed many of his writings to coincide with and emphasize on religion and

He used many literary devices to convey these ideas that he strongly believed in with all of his heart, and deserved the Nobel Prize that he was awarded. Because of people like him, many other writers are learning to write in similar ways, and while the reader may not always know what subtle messages that they are picking up on, they are all the same. Many other Egyptian writers have emerged since Mahfouz won the Nobel Prize, such as Nawal El Saadawi, and Farouk El-Baz, each of whom have their own ways of tell the story of Egypt. Mahfouz was a truly insightful writer of the 20th century and deserves much more credit and celebration for the ideas that he