Society In The 1940's Of Cairo

The notion that people want pureness existing within their societies occurs in everyone’s daily lives. This concept is relevant in the 1940’s in Cairo, Egypt and 1950’s in Columbia. Both societies are highly traditional and are reluctant to change. The society in the 1940’s of Cairo is depicted by Naguib Mahfouz in the novel Midaq Alley which is about society’s adherence to change in things similar to typical tradition. Gabriel Marquez portrays the Colombian society in the 1950’s in the novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold by illustrating the death of Santiago Nasar, the protagonist of the story, with descriptions of how Santiago himself and others are seen as outliers. Both novels describe a main plot and then go into further description
In both novels, a man’s honor is highly valued and those that fight for their honor are seen as aliens. Examples are Abbas from Midaq Alley and the Vicario brothers from Chronicle of a Death Foretold who do things that are not in their best interest and are always fighting for society’s expectations. Both characters are alienated from society in similar ways because they both do things to maintain their reputation and hopefully accomplish their goal. Santiago Nasar, a character from Chronicle Of A Death Foretold, apparently has an affair with Angela Vicario who is the Vicario brothers sister. In their society, a woman losing her virginity is seen as a sin and because of this the Vicario Brothers kill Santiago Nasar to maintain their family’s honor. When questioned by the priest, Pedro Vicario says “ we killed him openly” and mentions he did it “ before God and before men;” “ It was a matter of honor”(3.2). The author’s usage of the word “ God” symbolizes how the Vicario Brother commit this crime in the
Even in today’s society people that are from other cultures or have diverse backgrounds that are not common are alienated. This is one method that both authors use to present alienated characters. In Midaq Alley, Naguib Mahfouz alienates Hamida by not only showing how she breaks tradition but because of her background as an orphan. Compared to all other characters in Midaq Alley, she is the only orphan. In a conversation between Hamida and Saniya Afify, Saniya Afify says “Of course…..of course, you street orphan, you daughter of an unknown father”(Mahfouz 147). The purpose of the author’s repetition of the word “of course” emphasizes the obviousness to the situation that Hamida is not highly respected in society because she does not have a father. Being the independent women she is, “ Hamida went on laughing . Unknown, that’s right!Unknown! But many fathers are not worth that”(147)! Hamida recognizes that she does not have a father and this separates her as an outsider and builds to her persona that she is a catalyst for change because she was able to accomplish what no other women in her society has appeared to have done. Conversely, In Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Santiago Nasar is seen in the same light as Hamida as it appears that very few people respect him. Santiago Nasar is from an arabic culture and that is why he feels excluded in a sense. The older generation