Chapter One
Passage:
Analysis:
Analyze the selected passage and justify why that passage is a significant moment that contributes to the characterization of Said Mahran.
This passage reveals Said’s love for Nur in which he realizes his feelings for her after she disappeared. He is in emotional pain as Nur provided a new life, a new pathway. As Nur had vanished so has his pathway to start a new, better life with her. Nur was his ‘safe hiding place’. Said’s unwillingness to give in to this romantic connection with Nur, due to the betrayal of Nabawiya who he previously loved, turned to ignorance as he had ignored his feelings towards Nur.
He regrets his life choices, the choice of not taking a new pathway together with Nur. Through the use of the contradiction “her love and her unhappiness”, Said is shown to accept Nur’s depression and still love her. By recognizing her pain, he possibly implies that he is aware of the negative impact that his actions had on Nur. By rejecting her, he lost her.
He further characterized the character of Nur as well as himself as he sees Nur as “only a woman with no protector, adrift on a sea of waves either indifferent or hostile”. Thus, he sees her need to be taken care of as she is lost. This is significant as Said recognized Nur’s need to be saved, offering a pathway in which the two of them could start a new life.
However, Said’s tragic downfall is displayed as he has already lost her and thus the opportunity to escape with her. This can be seen in the following metaphor; “from this life of his which was in shreds and tottering on the brink of an abyss”.(Chapter 15)
Said is shown to be frustrated and angry with his situation through the syntax “growl in anger”, in which his ‘rational’ decision making had led him into this miserable position in which he lost both the pathway to a new life as well as his beloved Nur.
Passage:
not merely because he would soon lose a safe hiding place, but because he also knew he'd lost affection and companionship as well. He saw her there in the dark before him--Nur, with all her smiles and fun-making, her love and her unhappiness--and the terrible depression he felt made him aware that she had penetrated much deeper within him than he had imagined, that she had become a part of him, and that she should never have been separated from this life of his which was in shreds and tottering on the brink of an abyss. Closing his eyes in the darkness, he silently acknowledged that he did love her and that he would not hesitate to give his own life to bring her back safe. Then one thought made him growl in anger: "And yet would her destruction cause so much as a single ripple anywhere?"
No, definitely not. Not even a pretence of grief would be made for loss of Nur, who was only a woman with no protector, adrift on a sea of waves either indifferent or hostile. And Sana, too, might well find herself one day with no one who cared to look after her. These thoughts scared and angered him and he gripped his gun and pointed it in front of him in the dark, as though warning the unknown. In deep despair, delirious in the silence and dark, he began to sob; and sobbed until late in the night sleep finally overcame him. (Chapter 16)
Analyze the selected passage and justify why that passage is a significant moment that contributes to the characterization of Said Mahran.
This passage reveals Said’s love for Nur in which he realizes his feelings for her after she disappeared. He is in emotional pain as Nur provided a new life, a new pathway. As Nur had vanished so has his pathway to start a new, better life with her. Nur was his ‘safe hiding place’. Said’s unwillingness to give in to this romantic connection with Nur, due to the betrayal of Nabawiya who he previously loved, turned to ignorance as he had ignored his feelings towards Nur.
He regrets his life choices, the choice of not taking a new pathway together with Nur. Through the use of the contradiction “her love and her unhappiness”, Said is shown to accept Nur’s depression and still love her. By recognizing her pain, he possibly implies that he is aware of the negative impact that his actions had on Nur. By rejecting her, he lost her.
He further characterized the character of Nur as well as himself as he sees Nur as “only a woman with no protector, adrift on a sea of waves either indifferent or hostile”. Thus, he sees her need to be taken care of as she is lost. This is significant as Said recognized Nur’s need to be saved, offering a pathway in which the two of them could start a new life.
However, Said’s tragic downfall is displayed as he has already lost her and thus the opportunity to escape with her. This can be seen in the following metaphor; “from this life of his which was in shreds and tottering on the brink of an abyss”.(Chapter 15)
Said is shown to be frustrated and angry with his situation through the syntax “growl in anger”, in which his ‘rational’ decision making had led him into this miserable position in which he lost both the pathway to a new life as well as his beloved Nur.
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