Midaq Alley in History Versus Midaq Alley

The wo custody of the affectionateness eastern would continue to aid their traditional image, even though in their heart of hearts galore(postnominal) of them may be yearning for plain liberty. The chief character of Naguib Mahfouzs Midaq highroad (1992) is a womanhood by the name of Hamida, who must dumbfound up acts to stay true to her traditions, at the same time as she yearns for something beyond the ordinary. Yet, her passage into a world where men and women must be considered equal is a narrow one.As a matter of fact, her animation is the Midaq Alley, which resembles a trap, with w alone tolds on three sides, making darkness one of its permeative features (Deeb). What is more, there is a very narrow entrance and an equally narrow exit to the small alley away from the big, outside world that the warmness eastern woman has come to represent in Mahfouzs new(a) (Deeb).All the same, Marius Deeb, in her literary reprimand of Midaq Alley, considers the saucy in its d iachronic scope alone. Hers is historical literary condemnation of Midaq Alley, promiseing that she describes the difference amongst the alley and the outside world as the incision amid traditions and modernism in the Eygpt of 1940s. According to the author, the signifi peckce of the alley may only be justifyed in terms of the socio- heathenish environment of the time that the novel is about.The difference between the alley and the outside world, in the authors opinion, is similar to the division between the eastern United States and the westernmost. Even so, the most heavy character in the novel remains Hamida. She is entirely different from the rest of the characters, and therefore demands the ratifiers attention similar nobody else in the novel. Being the midsection of attention, she teaches a very important lesson about the perceived differences between men and women in the ticker East. In essence, her story does non merely take in to the historical context of th e novel. Rather, it is the story of the perceived differences between place eastern men and women even in our times.Hamida is the Midaq Alley, although Deeb does non mention her thus. Not the salmagundi to give up easily, she sneers at her husbands-to-be simply because she wants something better than them, most in spades a life that is more prosperous, and outright superior, that is, the big, outside world. She considers her husbands-to-be as nonentities because she thinks she can achieve well for herself without them. At the same time, she is bounded by Middle east customs and culture to choose one prospect and contract married kindred ordinary girls.Even if Hamida represents the East in the East and West division of the world the novel is mainly about the amicable differences between men and women. These differences may be explained in terms of the interval between the heaven and the earth as well. However, Deebs literary criticism does not describe the separation or di fferences beyond the historical context of the novel. The author describes her version of the novel thus We discern in this novel the division between the traditional world and the modern world in Egypt during the 1940, that is, to some extent, a re-enactment of the East-West dichotomy and the values, whether aesthetic or moral, which accompany those worlds (Deeb).Hamida admires the women who m new(prenominal) escaped their marital bonds. She is especially inspired by the factory girls she knows who all happen to be Jewish. She informs her bring forth about the same, If you had seen the factory girls You should just see those Jewish girls who go to work. They all go about in small clothes. Well, what is the point of life then if we cant wear what we want (Mahfouz)? According to Middle Eastern customs for women, Hamida must control her true desires before the cultural expectations that are attached to all women. All the same, Mahfouz brings to the minds center field the picture of Middle Eastern women that are longing to free themselves from the bonds of patriarchy, and all the rules of society that are connected to the same.Apparently, the Middle Eastern women would also like to free themselves from the difficult clothing they are forced to wear. Perhaps they would like breaks from such clothing. While women such as Hamida may genuinely search a problem with restrictive customs, Mahfouz also describes the proper girls that are not expected to show their desires anyway. Boys of the Middle East, on the contrary, are allowed various other facilities, also according to the author. Boys are permitted, among other things, access to sex, nightlife, and friendships outside the family.If Deebs criticism is correct, the East must want to totally blend into the West instead of guarding its culture as it does. Even though Deebs interpretation of the differences between the alley and the outside world may be correct, it is fractional and inconclusive seeing that it does not truly explain the striking differences between men and women in the novel.When Hamida gets married to Abbas, she only does so to escape her mothers home. Escape seems to be her only wish. She turns into a prostitute as soon as her husband leaves home for an indefinite period of time. But, does she visualise her eventual escape route through this act? It appears that while galore(postnominal) Middle Eastern women may be searching for escape routes from traditions, at once and for all, it was only Hamida who actually managed to escape.Whether she had dreamt of reaching a brothel or not is not the point of Mahfouzs tale. The fact remains that Hamida had no preference to live a liberated life as a Middle Eastern woman, except as a prostitute. Most Middle Eastern women would shun the idea of prostitution altogether, calling it a major sin. However, Hamida was so desperate to escape that she defied the common image of the Middle Eastern woman to truly escape her cultural con straints, once and for all. Whether she also found happiness is not the concern of the author either. Hamidas chemise, on the other hand, is an important message of Midaq Alley.Hamida was the kind who merely upheld the traditional image of the Middle Eastern woman, just as many other Middle Eastern women plausibly do. At the same time, she was desperate enough to express her suppressed desires of liberation that she chose the career of prostitution so as to escape all associations with the patricentric traditions. Perhaps, therefore, Mahfouzs writing is a warning for the extremely strict movements that switch off people to suppressed desperation, which eventually bursts into crimes and various other problems. Deeb does not explain this lesson. Moreover, her writing compels the reader to search for the truth behind the novel, seeing that her criticism is only partly true. After all, Hamida found the opportunity to escape, while the East and traditions if they represent the Mida q Alley could not blend into the West and modernity.Works CitedDeeb, Marius. Najib Mahfuzs Midaq Alley A Socio-Cultural Analysis. Bulletin (BritishSociety for Middle Eastern Studies), Vol. 10, No. 2 (1983), pp. 121-130.Mahfouz, Naguib. Midaq Alley. Reprint edition. New York Anchor, 1992.