Yep, that’s School…No, Wait
Of course, in reality, the entire story of “Half a Day” is a metaphor for the existence of life. A life is lived in half a day from first day of school to old age. But a nice little individual metaphor is provide early on that seems to be ironically applied, though it is difficult to tell from context:
“School’s not a punishment. It’s the factory that makes useful men out of boys.”
Character Description
The author is not just talented at using metaphor to create stylistic image of the educational process. He also reveals a highly polished flair for applying that talent to delineating character in efficiently striking ways. A character in the story “Zaabalawi” offers a perfect demonstration:
“A small, insignificant fellow, a mere prologue to a man, was using the covered entrance as a place for the sale of old books on theology and mysticism.”
The Bureau-rat
The poor, put-upon protagonist of the story “The Norwegian Rat” has invested all his hope of having his rental complaints addressed and attended to by a bureaucrat specifically sent out to calls investigating infestation of vermin. His hopes are soon dashed however when the bureaucrat reveals himself to be perfectly suited for his mission:
“He sat down as though in his own home and began gobbling up the food without any restraint or shyness…I gave him another helping, and while doing so I became aware of a dramatic change in his appearance. It seemed that his face reminded me no longer of a cat but of a rat, in fact of the Norwegian rat itself.”
“The Happy Man”
“The Happy Man” is all about the irony that most really can’t enjoy being happy on those rare occasions when it is visited upon them. In those moments when joy lands upon you, mere declarative imagery simply will not do. Metaphorical imagery is required:
“Nothing could touch his happiness. The memories of grief floated softly like gentle waves touching the sands of the shore.”
Science
Such is the talent of Mahfouz for constructing a solid metaphor that he can even take the cold hard facts of science and transform it into poetry. That is figurative, of course: it is prose, but some imagery could be extricated and placed into a poem without changing a syllable:
“Disease is a sneak attack on the refuge of well-being. Those others care only about its symptoms. I have examined this very carefully, and discovered that the stomach is the basis of the malaise in this region.”
