Stream of
consciousness style of narration explores the inner workings of a person’s
beliefs, thoughts, motives and desires. It tries to follow the natural
progression of thought in a person’s brain by being often nonsensical and
random. The thoughts aren’t always in perfect order, nor are they objective by
any means.
Naguib Mahfouz uses
this type of style in order to show Said’s inner thoughts, since the novel is a
psychological thriller and that is one of the most
important parts of the novel. Mahfouz achieves this firstly by making the distinction
between Said’s inner thoughts vs the narrator’s voice by italicizing Said’s
inner thoughts and using more figurative and expressive language as opposed to
his third-person narration.
This is first
seen in chapter 1, where the reader first meets Said and his inner thoughts. The
way that the italicized, stream of consciousness narration is so jarringly different
from Said’s actions, where he calls Ilish a dog and a coward in his thought
while behaving civil to him in reality, characterizes Said as a complex and
human character. Using animalistic imagery to describe a character that the reader
themselves haven’t even met, already gives insight to not only Said’s
perspective on Ilish, but also some background on his past relationship with Ilish.
Since the purpose of stream of consciousness narration is to provide an insight
into his mental condition and thoughts, while also giving background
information and context into a character’s motives. The third-person panoramic narrator
that Mahfouz uses in conjunction with Said’s thoughts is meant to provide a
more objective description of the actions that occur.
In chapter 4,
the nonsensical aspects of stream of consciousness narration is more present, since
after meeting Rauf, Said is shocked to find that he had changed his morals and
had abandoned his previous ideals. There is evidence of his thoughts jumping
from one idea to another, as he imagines Rauf as Nabawiyyah, and Nabawiyyah as
Rauf, the images blur. He also remembers and imagines the day he was arrested and
how Rauf’s betrayal is akin to that. This characterizes Said as a very prideful
and stubborn man, since afterwards he decides to enact revenge on Rauf by
robbing him. He isn’t able to let go and forgive, as his thoughts are portrayed
to be violent and how they escalated to revenge. The random associations and
the unordered thought process is also seen in chapter 7, where Said deliberates
killing Ilish and Nabawiyyah.
The stream of
consciousness narration style that Mahfouz used was never before seen in Arabic
literature. By using this style Mahfouz was able to include criticism of Nasser’s
regime in Egypt through metaphor and Said’s own beliefs and character. In comparison
with Achebe’s style of narration which was more omniscient and grounded in
reality that going into Okonkwo’s inner thoughts, both were able to express the
protagonist’s thoughts and motives although they did it in different ways. Achebe
also provided insight into other character’s and their thoughts, this gave the
novel a more wholistic perspective, since the whole story wasn’t just seen from
Okonkwo’s eyes. This helps to give importance to the other characters so the
reader views them as more realistic and dynamic as opposed to just being one
dimensional. The secondary characters in The Thief and the Dogs, aren’t dynamic
and complex as compared to Said, they each have one role in the story that they
fit and this isn’t helped by the stream of consciousness narration style that
just focuses on Said’s twisted perspective.
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