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Naguib Mahfouz's "Half a Day": A Metaphor for Life

The story "Half a Day" by Naguib Mahfouz is told from the perspective of a narrator reflecting on his first day of school as a young boy. Through descriptive language, Mahfouz vividly depicts the boy's experiences and surroundings on this important day. As the story progresses, the narrator's perspective shifts from first person singular to first person plural, representing how school is a collective experience. Mahfouz also uses the story as an allegory for the human condition and how "we" perceive life, time, and memory. The narrator continues reflecting on how his environment changed over the years due to industrialization, with nature vanishing and being replaced by large buildings, traffic,

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Byy Taba
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129 views2 pages

Naguib Mahfouz's "Half a Day": A Metaphor for Life

The story "Half a Day" by Naguib Mahfouz is told from the perspective of a narrator reflecting on his first day of school as a young boy. Through descriptive language, Mahfouz vividly depicts the boy's experiences and surroundings on this important day. As the story progresses, the narrator's perspective shifts from first person singular to first person plural, representing how school is a collective experience. Mahfouz also uses the story as an allegory for the human condition and how "we" perceive life, time, and memory. The narrator continues reflecting on how his environment changed over the years due to industrialization, with nature vanishing and being replaced by large buildings, traffic,

Uploaded by

Byy Taba
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Half a Day

Naguib Mahfouz

Naguib Mahfouz's story "Half a Day" is a mystical tale that cannot be taken literally
because the use of time in the narrative is entirely impractical, but which, in my opinion, has a
very powerful message. It's a metaphor for life and the human experience. To completely
comprehend, the reader must be able to recognize that each component has a higher meaning
than the one that came before it.

The story's narrator is not a child when it begins, as evidenced by the opening sentence,
which reads, "I proceeded alongside my father." Children do not speak in this manner, and by
using such an expressive, fluid tone, Mahfouz is implying to the reader that he is an older man
describing the story of his life, beginning with his first day of school.

Furthermore, Mahfouz employs complex metaphorical and descriptive language,


creating a vivid image and allowing the reader to be fully immersed in the story. In this short,
economical novella, he uses language deftly. To depict the worry of the young kid on his first
day of school, Mahfouz uses both descriptive and figurative language.

The pleasant aspects of the little boy's experience on this historic day are described using
descriptive language. "All my clothes were new: the black shoes, the green uniform, the red
tarboosh," he says, with a child's attention to color. His surroundings are depicted as a beautiful
and rich paradise when he initially sets out with his father: "We walked along a street lined with
gardens; on both sides were extensive fields planted with crops, prickly pears, henna trees, and
a few date palms." The boy's account of his school day is written in grammatical tenses that
depict the passage of time and the accumulation of many years' worth of observations.

The story is told in the first person singular at first, which means the narrator is speaking
from the perspective of an individual "I." However, after he enters the playground, his voice
shifts to a first person plural voice from the perspective of a group called "We." As a result, the
narrator presents school as a collective experience, speaking from the perspective of all of the
pupils. This shift of perspective is significant in terms of the story's allegorical implications. The
story is about a person's experience with the human condition. As a result, the narrator's school
experiences are meant to be interpreted in terms of how "we," all humans, perceive life, time,
and memory.
I also think it’s cool how Mahfouz tells the story of environmental industrialization and
how the narrator grows up and ages along with his setting. “Where was the street lined with
gardens? Where had it disappeared to? When did all of these vehicles invade it? And when did
all these hordes of humanity come to rest upon its surface? How did these hills refuse to cover
its sides? And where were the fields that bordered it? High buildings had taken over, the street
surged with children, and disturbing noises shook the air.” Although Mahfouz may not be
telling the story of your exact environment, it certainly is a tale familiar with anyone who has
been in and out of a big city. Mahfouz expertly records the point at which nature begins to vanish
and big buildings, smoke, and smog begin to take over in these major cities. I also like how it is
age-related. He wrote the story in the way that every reader can picture the situation.

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