Naguib Mahfouz, a pioneering Arab author, expresses his frustration with government through the themes of individual freedoms in society and the ineffectiveness of government in his short story, The Norway Rat. Born on December 11, 1911, Naguib Mahfouz was the youngest of seven children in a middle-class family, raised by a strict and religious father. Mahfouz witnessed at a young age the Egyptian Revolution of 1919, which was considered the first nonviolent mass protest in the Middle East (Bisgaard-Church 18), and this inspired his resentment of the government and encouragement of socialism. Mahfouz was distrustful of his own government and mentions this often in his writings. He graduated with a degree in philosophy from King Fuad I University in 1934, renamed the American University in Cairo, and later entered the civil service just like his father. After realizing he wanted to become a writer, he published his first book in 1939 and left the workforce (Constantakis 67). He studied writers from both Arabic and English literature, influencing his short story writing style and allowing him to mix ideas of social realism with magical realism. Mahfouz received the Nobel Prize for Literature when he received “more than half the votes” (Nomination 7) in 1988 for his Cairo trilogy, and was surprised because he “thought it was a Western prize” (“The Norwegian Rat” 191). His writing became a gateway for the Western world to Arabic literature as his books gained critical acclaim and circulated around the world. His writings were considered extreme by Islamic fundamentalist circles due to their anti-government and sacrilegious views, and some of his stories were even banned in Egypt. He was eventually placed on a "kill list" and survived a stabbing in the neck by terrorists. He later died of complications from an injury after a fall. Before his death, the AUC Press created an award in his honor for his contributions to Arabic literature (Hewison 2), and he helped “discover new talents in Arabic literature” (AUC Press 1). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Mahfouz opens his work, The Norwegian Rat, in media res (in the middle of things). The conflict has just begun and concerns a rat infestation in the small town in Egypt where the nameless main character lives. The time of year is not described, but the atmosphere is tense, as the tenants fear the imminent risk of mice eating their food. When one of the characters, Mr. AM, decides to discuss this risk, “voices were raised in the room” (Mahfouz 1) adding to the growing stress of the situation. None of the tenants feel comfortable with the idea of ​​mice invading their daily lives. Rats quickly come to embody the tenant's fears and problems, further amplifying the stress in the atmosphere. The climax of the story occurs when the bureaucrat arrives to inspect the narrator's apartment. Previously, tenants had been silenced by buying cat food, using dangerous rat poison and cleaning their homes almost twice a day. The tenants had become more upset and tired, and many began to argue within their families and disagree with each other. Initially, the bureaucrat's appearance reminds the narrator of that of a cat, but later, either through the narrator's unreliable testimony or through magic, the bureaucrat's appearance changes from that of a mouse to that of a cat. This change occurs due to voraciousnessbureaucrat's appetite, and this leads him to eat all the narrator's food which is already in short supply. Mahfouz allows the audience to interpret this scene, but the conflict ultimately remains unresolved, as the bureaucrat leaves the house and offers no help to the tenants, even though they needed it the most. The resolution of the story is very open to interpretation by the audience, as it closes as the bureaucrat walks away, with "a fleeting Norwegian smile" (Mahfouz 5) intended to leave the reader confused and interested in analyzing the encounter. Mahfouz incorporates elements of magical realism into his stories, and following this trend, he describes his characters minimally and focuses more on symbolism and meaningful conversations. In fact, only one character is given a name, and the narrator refers to himself only as a singular being, rather than as part of the collective group of tenants. Mr. AM, the senior head of the family, is the leader of the tenants of the condominium. He is the eldest and therefore is held with the utmost respect compared to the other tenants. The emphasis on age difference is another trend followed by Mahfouz, as he wanted to connect readers of all ages (Teisch 39). His connections to local government agencies further solidify his role as an authority figure in the apartment complex. Mr. AM's tenants are never physically described, but one of the tenants is formally acknowledged as the narrator. The narrator is also never described physically, but his narration reflects the mental state of the collective body of the tenants: he is their spokesperson in the narration. Mr. AM manages to control the tenants through their strict religious beliefs, as he quotes the Quran to encourage the tenants to continue fighting the rats: “He resorted to the Quran for an answer. “God does not impose on a soul beyond its reach.”” (Mahfouz 1). Mahfouz strove to make his characters relatable to the Egyptian audience, as all are portrayed as Muslims and the large majority belong to the lower working class, where more than half of Egypt's current population is found (Bisgaard-Church 1). The last main character is an extension of the Egyptian government, the bureaucrat, and is the only character that Mahfouz takes the time to describe on the surface: "His square face with his short, snub nose and glassy gaze makes me resembles a cat" (Mahfouz 3) . This conglomeration of human and animal attributes demonstrates how the characters are more metaphysical rather than concrete or defined (Naguib Mahfouz - Facts 8). The bureaucrat's changing appearance plays into this metaphysical sense because the bureaucrat later transforms and begins to look like a mouse, specifically a Norway mouse. The strong connection between the mouse and bureaucracy serves to portray government in a negative light and defines bureaucracy as a cumbersome system intended to benefit the rich. The narrator of The Norway Mouse, as mentioned before, is never given a name or physically described. Adhering to Mahfouz's love of magical realism, the narrator remains a part of the collective tenants, mirroring their stresses, desires, and fears. The narrator shifts from third-person limited to third-person omniscient. When the story begins, the narrator is reliable and narrates from a third-person omniscient point of view. The narrator is part of the collective and is influenced by the same events. “We returned to our home in good spirits and with sincere determination” (Mahfouz 1). His storytelling emphasizes the collective and demonstrates a sense of community. Mahfouz was influenced to write the main character as part of a collective because of his need to address the common person, especially the classeveryday Egyptian worker. This collective narrative was partly influenced by his leave from a government job and bureaucracy (Naguib Mahfouz - Biography 2). The change in narrative occurs about halfway through the novel, when the tenants begin to become more stressed as they anticipate the impending invasion of mice. The narrative becomes unreliable and the narrator essentially separates himself from the collective. He refers to himself as “I” for the first time when he imagines his worst fears: “I imagined the earth filled with hordes of rats as far as the eye could see” (Mahfouz 2) emphasizing how stress has divided the community. The constant threat of mice weighs on the tenants, causing them to lose sleep, become separated from each other, and argue over trivial matters. The loss of sleep makes the narrator's comment unreliable, as he associates the bureaucrat's appearance with a cat, only to then see the bureaucrat himself as a mouse. This change can be interpreted in two ways: either the stress and lack of sleep caused the narrator to hallucinate, or the change from cat to mouse symbolically represents how the government cannot be trusted as it always changes to one's advantage. The view may be influenced by Mahfouz's view of the Egyptian revolution of 1919, in which the government conscripted workers and reduced wages (Bisgaard-Church 14), thus driving many into poverty. The money was used to build the Aswan High Dam causing an influx of pests, particularly rats. These fears of parasites and one's family's safety are exaggerated by the narrator in an attempt to get the point across; The government is untrustworthy and only serves itself. Mahfouz uses symbolism rampantly in The Norwegian Rat. The symbolism personifies the hardships the tenants face and sheds light on the government's blatant disregard for the needs and well-being of Egypt's lower-class workers. The prominent symbol of the Norway rat is mentioned several times and its main purpose is to convey the fear felt by the tenants. The Norway rat is representative of the problems that tenants face; famine, loneliness, and a sense of unpreparedness (Constantakis 78). The famine is a symptom of government oppression, as tenants are encouraged to purchase cat food and “new poison” (Mahfouz 2) that was called more dangerous than anything they had previously used. The allocation of resources does not reflect the needs of tenants who gradually spend their money to defend a non-existent problem. The Norway rat and the fear associated with the situation closely mirrors the uncertainty of the situation in the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflicts. In both cases, civilians are disconcerted by social change and fear imminent conflict, which they are ill-equipped to deal with. The other relevant symbol is the cat. Cats in the apartment complex are meant to negate the mouse problem, but the expense of feeding and housing them soon outweighs their benefits. Mr. AM pushes the continued use of cats, “An evil is not averted by something worse” (Mahfouz 1), arguing that if cats were no worse than mice, they would be ineffective. He ultimately alludes to the fact that the cats weren't the problem, the mice were. The two fixed symbols of the cat and mouse serve as a deeper meaning to the narrative in The Norwegian Rape and embody the fears of the tenants of history and the tenants of modern Egypt. Mahfouz's focus on dialogue rather than significant plot development compliments his focus on magical realism. He chooses to write abstractly, but also uses metaphors to connect other relevant topics, such as government and.