Narration Admiration - Stream of Consciousness

The Thief and the Dogs is one of very few compulsory novels that in my 12 years of schooling, I have actually enjoyed. It could be the character of Said Mahran, or the interesting plot of a man who just longs for revenge regardless of its consequences, but I think that one of the aspects of this novel as opposed to others that made me enjoy it is the way in which it is told.

The reader follows Said in his journey, and I felt like I was one the journey with him. Naguib Mahfouz never lets the reader in on some new information that Said isn’t exposed to, and this goes towards building intense suspense.

The primary function of the stream of consciousness narrative mode seems to be its ability to get the audience into the head of the character. It allows the audience to observe how the mind of the protagonist operates to great effect, and forces the audience to see the world or a certain environment from someone else’s perspective as opposed to their own or a fairly neutral one. With this however, the author must be careful to avoid bias in creating an environment and not to paint anything in a false light, potentially offending people of a certain culture.

As The Thief and the Dogs progressed, I actually found myself rooting for Said despite his imminent flaws and almost antagonistic characteristics. I still wanted him to kill Rauf and Illish so that he could be at peace with himself before death, even after killing innocents. I think this is largely because of Mahfouz’s ability to make the reader care about this character through opening him up to the audience. Just reading the book, the reader can tell that there are no secrets being kept from them by Said, which makes for a more likeable character and allows the audience to fully embrace that character for all it is. In this way, Naguib Mahfouz was able to write a novel where the character drove the plot, and the story was not based on what happened to Said Mahran but what Said Mahran did and its consequences. Given this, being able to follow him throughout all this means the reader feels like they are at the very forefront of the plot and nothing too substantial is happening behind their back.

“Suddenly the blinding light went out, and the firing stopped; there was darkness again and quiet fell. He, too, wasn't firing any more. Slowly the silence was spreading, until all the world seemed gripped in some strange stupefaction. He wondered . . . ?” This moment in which Said was slipping into death was a powerful example of the stream of consciousness narration, especially given the use in conjunction with such imagery. The fact that at first he doesn’t even realise that he is dying (or perhaps even dead) makes the reader feel bad for him with all his naivety. Employing this technique at this point allows the reader to slip into death with him. It offers up a possibility for the process of dying and perhaps how Mahfouz believes death occurs, a process which no one has experienced and lived to tell the tale.

Both this novel and Things Fall Apart are written from a third-person perspective. The primary difference is that the narrator in this novel is selective with what is revealed to the audience, trying to keep the reader in the same position as the main character Said. On the other hand, Chinua Achebe makes use of an omniscient narrator in his novel. Both of these techniques are effective in their own ways, however I much prefer the way The Thief and the Dogs is written as I was truly invested in the plot when reading and it always felt very contained whereas Things Fall Apart felt all over the place as the narrator had so much to tell about so many different situations, added to by the need for exposition and explanation of key aspects of Igbo culture.