The Thief And The Dogs: An Analysis

For the past 5 years, the amount of revolutions that arose in the Middle East proved nothing but the despair and struggles that exist. Amongst these revolutions was one of the greatest revolt that resulted in the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, whose family was in reign for over 30 years in Egypt. As Morsi, a member of the Muslim brotherhood, was elected, he focused more on the values of the community that he belongs to. The Egyptians were asking for a democratic government, but instead, he wanted to control it. Again, the Egyptian people did not settle for another authoritarian president that wanted to take advantage of the current weak conditions of the country, so they carried out another uprising to overthrow his rule. That is when Sisi, the
Just like the struggles found in the novel The Thief and the Dogs, the Egyptian revolution of 2011, marked by poverty and corruption, resulted in an imbalance in social class despite the fact that their chosen president was
The revolution forced Said to steal, but once he got out of jail his friends gave up their loyalty to gain power in the social system. When Said sees Rauf after his release from jail, he explains, “You pushed me into jail, while you leapt free, into that palace of lights and mirrors” (Mahfouz, 48). Said was put in jail for believing in Rauf’s beliefs of the right to steal from the rich. While Said spent time behind bars, Rauf suddenly became rich and powerful to an unknown cause. This shows how there was a lot of poverty and inequality prior to the revolution, but after the revolution the imbalance in social class became worse. People like Rauf just became richer and others like Said could not even get money to eat or sleep anywhere. This lead Said to steal more and to seek revenge from the people who he thinks betrayed him. This shows how political corruption leads people to do things such as theft, thus creating a greater imbalance in social class. The novel is a mirror of the revolution in Egypt in 2011 since people were in poor conditions before the change but afterwards there was still inequality. Even though the story of Said is fiction, it can have essential connections to real life stories such as the Egyptian revolution of