An Analysis Of God Die By The Nile

876 Words2 Pages

Nawal El Saadawi is an activist, a physician, a psychiatrist, and most importantly she is an Egyptian feminist writer. She has written many books about the women of Islam, all of them focusing on the mistreatment and abuse of women. God Die by the Nile is one of her works originally published in 1985. Women in God dies by the Nile are victims to a patriarchal society and class system, that is controlled though religion, politics, and social customs. Saadawi dismantles the system by showing the crooked side; where the women are raped and beaten for being a women and men are put to death because they fail to support the ones in charge and the system itself. When reading into the title God Dies by the Nile it can almost be considered a metaphor Sex is used as an instrument of power, a way to gain things, physical and religious from women. The Mayor’s affair with the daughters of Kafrawi, Nefissa and Zeinab. His hold on them reflects the material power of the ruling class, it serves as a source of the sexual exploitation of women. When considering the Mayor’s sexual exploitations of women, “He’s got strange tastes where women are concerned, and if he likes a woman he can’t forget her. You know he’s pretty obstinate of himself. Once he gets his eyes set on a woman he must have her, come what may” (88-89). When Nefissa is in the Mayor’s eye, Sheikh Zaharan tries to persuade her to accept the Mayor’s offer. “Our Mayor is a generous man… You will be paid twenty piasters a day. You’re a stupid girl with no brains. How can you throw away all the good that is coming to you? Do you prefer hunger and poverty rather than doing a bit of work?” (37). Nefissa doesn’t want to work for the Mayor because his reputation with females is well known. She is forced against her will to work in the Mayor’s house by her father. Later the Mayor rapes Nefissa. She becomes pregnant, births the child, throws it away, and

Show More
Related

  • Comparing Gilgamesh Epic, Nile-Documents, And Hymn

    1771 Words  | 4 Pages

    Creation stories have profound effects on humans. Those associated with ancient cultures/civilizations aim to ensure the successful survival or well-being of themselves and that particular culture/civilization of their association, but not all are beneficial, prosperous, or fortunate. Mesopotamia’s “The Gilgamesh Epic”, Egypt’s “Hymn to the Nile-Documents”, and Mesoamerica’s Mayan and Aztec creation stories/religion are influential to establishing significant relationships within society, whether that is between humans and nature or humans and their “god(s).”

    Read More

  • Analysis of Writing Women's Worlds by Lia Adu-Lughod

    932 Words  | 2 Pages

    Writing Women's Worlds is some stories on the Bedouin Egyptian people. In this book, thwe writer Lia Adu-Lughod's stories differ from the conventional ones. While reading, we discover the customs and values of the Bedouin people.

    Read More

  • Cherifa’s Story in Assia Djebar’s Novel, Children of the New World

    799 Words  | 2 Pages

    The first chapter of Assia Djebar’s novel, Children of the New World, is split into two parts. The first part is a background into the setting of the novel. The novel is based on the time period when the Algerians were at war with the French in the 1950’s in what is now called the Algerian War. The narrator first describes what it is like for women when neighboring villages were under attack. They try to stay safe by hiding in the backrooms of their house. There they try to hide what is going on outside from the children while at the same time watch what is happening. They would dream of a time when the war was over. The narrator quotes a woman whispering, “’The end,’ someone whispers, and then recites verses from the Koran to ward off bad luck. ‘That will be a marvelous awakening, a deliverance.’” They could be stuck there for days depending on how long the attack is. Even in their houses though, they were not safe. Occasionally, bomb fragments could end up on the terrace and destroy parts of their home. They also were not safe because if the attack was on their own village, the military would set every house on fire until the village was burnt to the ground and there was no way to find refugee from this.

    Read More

  • The Decline of Chivalry Explored in Araby and A&P

    1205 Words  | 3 Pages

    Joyce, James. “Araby.” The Norton Introduction to Literature, Shorter Eighth Edition. Eds. Jerome Beaty, Alison Booth, J. Paul Hunter, and Kelly J. Mays. New York: W.W.Norton.

    Read More

  • Another Evening At The Club By Alifa Rifaat Summary

    728 Words  | 2 Pages

    It revolves around the issues of gender oppression, sexual assault, and importance of social status. Alifa Rifaat manages to express her opinions towards these themes by writing about a typical Egyptian marriage. She puts in focus the strong influence that a patriarchal society has. She also manages to prove how important social status is in society. The uses of literally elements such as theme and irony help express this view. It shows that in a typical Egyptian society women are commonly oppressed by all males in society

    Read More

  • Religion in The Chronicle of a Death Foretold

    1140 Words  | 3 Pages

    In The Chronicle of a Death Foretold, religion acts as a foremost determinant of the meaning of Santiago’s murder and parallels biblical passages. Gabriel García Márquez employs religious symbolism throughout his novella which alludes to Christ, his familiars, and his death on the cross. There are many representations throughout the novella that portray these biblical references, such as the murder of Santiago, the Divine Face, the cock’s crowing and the characters, Bayardo San Roman, Maria Cervantes, Divina Flor, and the Vicario children.

    Read More

  • Female Gender Roles in Haggard’s She and Haddawy’s The Arabian Nights

    1317 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the novel She and in the stories of The Arabian Nights, both Haggard and Haddawy explore the expanding gender roles of women within the nineteenth century. At a time that focused on the New Woman Question, traditional gender roles were shifted to produce greater rights and responsibilities for women. Both Ayesha, from Haggard’s novel She, and Shahrazad, from Haddawy’s translation of The Arabian Nights, transgress the traditional roles of women as they are being portrayed as strong and educated females, unwilling to yield to men’s commands. While She (Ayesha) takes her power to the extreme (i.e. embodying the femme fatale), Shahrazad offers a counterpart to She (i.e. she is strong yet selfless and concerned with the welfare of others). Thus, from the two characters emerge the idea of a woman who does not abide by the constraints of nineteenth century gender roles and, instead, symbolizes the New Woman.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Ruined By Lynn Nottage

    958 Words  | 2 Pages

    War ravaged the land and tore people apart emotionally and physically. One recurrence that came about during the war was the raping and “ruining” of women. To be ruined meant that a woman was raped and/or tortured so severely that she would no longer be capable of having sex. In a culture that values the fertility of its women, this lead to the breakdown of many communities. A perfect example of this breakdown would be in the case of Salima and Fortune. Salima was taken into the bush and raped for 5 months and when she returned home her husband, Fortune, turned her away. This violence committed against Salima caused her to be forced from her community, and it also forced her to take up work at Mama Nadi’s. Here she has to endure a change of identity in order to do the work required of her and to come to terms with her past. At the end of the play, Salima dies and states the haunting words; “You will not fight your battles on my body anymore”(94). These last words sum up just how intrusive the war has become in the lives of everyone in its path and also represents a clear shift in Salima as an individual. Instead of the woman who just wanted her husband back at the end of the play, we are left to contemplate a

    Read More

  • The Nile River In Ancient Civilizations

    582 Words  | 2 Pages

    Water was essential to all people of ancient civilizations. It was something they would depend on year in and year out. This was a big development because people learned how to use their surroundings (water) to their advantage. The reason that farming grew is because of the fertile soil. Rivers were the biggest part in how early people lived. Further into the paper I will explain the agriculture, water source, and the transportation within the Nile River, the Huang He (Yellow) River, and the Indus River.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Trial Of God By Elie Wiesel

    443 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the book The Trial of God, the author Elie Wiesel tells the story of the aftermath in Shamgorod, Ukraine following a pogrom on the Jewish community. An innkeeper named Berish and his daughter Hanna are the last two remaining Jews in the village. During Purim the following year of the pogrom 3 Jewish minstrels find themselves in Shamgorod looking for a place to celebrate. Though they offend Berish deeply for unknowingly coming to Shamgorod for Purim, he agrees to let them stay if they perform for him and his Christian waitress Maria. While being unable to find a topic to perform that they all agreed upon they decide to hold a trial instead. Berish wishes to put God on trial for allowing his people to be murdered, raped and hated continuously

    Read More

  • Comparing The Egyptian Book Of The Dead

    233 Words  | 1 Pages

    The Egyptian Book of the Dead is a term coined in the nineteenth century CE for a body of texts known to the Ancient Egyptians as the Spells for Going Forth by Day. After the Book of the Dead was first translated by Egyptologists, it gained a place in the popular imagination as the Bible of the Ancient Egyptians. The comparison is very inappropriate. The Book of the Dead was not the central holy book of Egyptian religion. It was just one of a series of manuals composed to assist the spirits of the elite dead to achieve and maintain a full afterlife (26).

    Read More

  • Death In The Flood Story

    214 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the story, “The Flood,” the passage is about how Death can have a cold presence instead of having a presence that is more welcoming. A family is hit by a flood, and the grandfather describes everything that occurs as his family members are starting to perish away from the water. Death does not care about someone’s age, color, gender, occupation, or reputation. Death has one job, and its job is collecting souls and move to the next destruction. During a destruction, a person can sense death because their fight for survival fades slowly. Each of the grandfather’s family members decides to let death consume them without a fight. When it comes to death, a person can choose to fight to tell their story or they can just give. Most times, a person

    Read More

  • The Bible: The Story Of God In The Bible

    1032 Words  | 3 Pages

    The biblical narrative is one that is still going on to this day. The biblical narrative tells the story of God and how he reveals himself to us. Rhodes points out that “God comes to each through a historical event or series of events” (2). It is in this way that God reveals himself to us and this maintains the relevance of the biblical narrative in our lives. God reveals himself through formative stories in the bible such as Creation, Adam and Eve, the Fall of Man, The Flood, God’s Covenant with Noah, and the Tower of Babel. From the very beginning of the biblical narrative we see that God relates to us on a personal level. He created us, he formed us, he created the world in which we live, and he has been an active participant in the narrative since before it began.

    Read More

  • Jasu Loss Of Giving Away Her Daughter Gender Analysis

    349 Words  | 1 Pages

    Firstly, the novel manifests the desperate desire many individuals have to birth a male offspring in a country with a pervasive preference for sons. When Kavita gives birth to her second daughter, her husband has a strong disincentive to raise her. This notion is explored when Jasu says, “She will become a burden to us, a drain on our family,” (Gowda, 16). Unfortunately, Kavita has to suffer the loss of giving away her daughter as a consequence of the traditional gender discrimination that is deeply embedded in the patriarchal society she lives in. Jasu’s attitudes and behaviour are vitally influenced by the economic, social, and emotional norms of his culture. He sees no reason to raise a daughter who is incapable of bringing his family prosperity,

    Read More

  • God Dies by the Nile, a Review and Summary

    849 Words  | 2 Pages

    God Dies by the Nile, Gives the reader and interesting look at a time and place that seems to have no equality between men and women. The Middle east has many very interesting features and aspects about it such as the way their economy is organized, the type of religion that they practice, the various geographical aspects of the land, and the way that society is in general. Because the economy is so poor, many people live in mud huts along rivers, and have very few material possessions. The main source of income comes from working in the fields. What little money they earn from the hard labor goes toward food for the family. Although this is not how everyone in lives. Strong political figures are those who live in luxury. This is the way it is in Kafr El Teen, where the characters of God Dies by the Nile, live.

    Read More

More about An Analysis Of God Die By The Nile

Open Document