Egyptian life and culture
The use of Egyptian imagery in this novel does more than provide the setting. It also clues the reader into the unique cultural assumptions that shape Egyptian life. In this case, the imagery points to the aspects of Samya's life that she loves and enjoys, like the women in town and their various gifts, and also to the aspects of Samya's life that afflict her. Her husband is abusive, and the reader knows from the use of cultural imagery that the problem is systemic; abuse against women is tolerated in the culture.
Gender roles
Because of hatred, Samya begins to experience a horror unfolding. The horror isn't supernatural and ghostly; instead the horror lies in the assumptions about gender that Samya's husband brought into the marriage. For one thing, Samya is a slave for the home. Her husband's domineering attitude clearly indicates that he doesn't view her as a life partner, and he doesn't cede any authority to her in the home. Instead, she is treated however he feels like. The horror amplifies when he starts beating her just to get his aggressive energy out; he uses her as an object to vent his negative emotions.
Pregnancy and life
The idea of pregnancy shapes Samya's abstract experience of life. She is required by cultural assumptions to become pregnant, but the imagery is plainly anti-scientific! Instead of going to doctors to see what the causes of infertility might be, the men shame her as if Boutros were obviously not the problem. In other words, the husband could be the impotent one, but he beats her (which often prevents fertility by the way), and then blames her for being barren (as if that were something in her control). When life is conceived, it is a daughter, so the husband doesn't like it, and then the child dies, a blatant symbol for Samya's hopeless relationship to her marriage.
Death
The imagery of death is an important part of the novel's climax. The rising action reaches a peak when Samya realizes that her family men are not going to save her, and the law will not allow her to divorce, and the culture will not allow her to support herself without a man. She is truly trapped. This ultimate containment drives her to a new imagery, the imagery of death. The peak moment begins with the death of her daughter, a sign of absolute loss and hopelessness, and ends with her murdering her husband in cold blood.
