Half A Day
“Half a Day”
By Naguib Mahfouz
Questions and activities from Glencoe collection.
Complete work on this form and save into our class folder on the Group Drive. Type answers using a different font color. Write complete sentences.
Click the following link to read the short story. “Half a Day”
Answer the following questions.
1. How does the narrator feel about going to school as he walks with his father?
2. What positive experiences does the narrator have at school? What negative experiences does he have?
3. What does the middle-aged man say to the narrator when they meet?
4. What changes does the narrator notice as he walks home?
5. What happens at the end of the story?
6. Based on the narrator’s thoughts and comments as he walks with his father, describe the kind of upbringing you think he has had.
7. What do you find unusual about the narrator’s description of his day at school?
8. How does the middle-aged man address the narrator?
9. What does the narrator’s reaction to the changes in the city suggest about him?
10. What does the boy’s remark to the narrator at the end of the story reveal to you about what has happened?
11. A symbol is an object or action that stands for something else in addition to itself. What does the narrator’s half a day at school symbolize?
12. Why do you think that Mahfouz included only unpleasant details of modern urban life in the story?
13. A story told from the first-person point of view is narrated by one of the characters in the story. Why do you think that Mahfouz chose to use a first-person narrator for “Half a Day”?
14. Describe an experience in your life when time seemed to pass more quickly than usual.
Define the following words:
Unmarred -
Throng -
Avail -
Horde -
Refuse -
Conjurer -
Setting – Cairo, Egypt
The narrator contrasts the landscape on the way to school with the school building itself. How does the narrator’s description of the land contrast with that of the school?
What do you know about
By Naguib Mahfouz
Questions and activities from Glencoe collection.
Complete work on this form and save into our class folder on the Group Drive. Type answers using a different font color. Write complete sentences.
Click the following link to read the short story. “Half a Day”
Answer the following questions.
1. How does the narrator feel about going to school as he walks with his father?
2. What positive experiences does the narrator have at school? What negative experiences does he have?
3. What does the middle-aged man say to the narrator when they meet?
4. What changes does the narrator notice as he walks home?
5. What happens at the end of the story?
6. Based on the narrator’s thoughts and comments as he walks with his father, describe the kind of upbringing you think he has had.
7. What do you find unusual about the narrator’s description of his day at school?
8. How does the middle-aged man address the narrator?
9. What does the narrator’s reaction to the changes in the city suggest about him?
10. What does the boy’s remark to the narrator at the end of the story reveal to you about what has happened?
11. A symbol is an object or action that stands for something else in addition to itself. What does the narrator’s half a day at school symbolize?
12. Why do you think that Mahfouz included only unpleasant details of modern urban life in the story?
13. A story told from the first-person point of view is narrated by one of the characters in the story. Why do you think that Mahfouz chose to use a first-person narrator for “Half a Day”?
14. Describe an experience in your life when time seemed to pass more quickly than usual.
Define the following words:
Unmarred -
Throng -
Avail -
Horde -
Refuse -
Conjurer -
Setting – Cairo, Egypt
The narrator contrasts the landscape on the way to school with the school building itself. How does the narrator’s description of the land contrast with that of the school?
What do you know about