Sugar Street by Naguib Mahfouz
Radical Transformations and the End of Patriarchy in the Final Volume of the Trilogy
Characters: The Grandchildren’s Struggles and Kamal’s Existential Crisis
◼️ The Grandchildren: Torn Between Ideologies
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Abd al-Munim (Khadija’s son): A staunch Islamist who joins the Muslim Brotherhood. His marriage to his cousin Na’ima (Aisha’s daughter) and her death in childbirth push him from faith into fanaticism—a desperate attempt to regain control over fate.
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Ahmad (Khadija’s other son): A committed communist who writes for The New Human, a leftist journal. His marriage to Sawsan Hammad, a Jewish woman, defies both class and religious norms, symbolizing the younger generation’s break from tradition.
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Radwan (Yasin’s son): Embodies political corruption in monarchical Egypt. His swift rise to become the private secretary of a minister—via a mysterious relationship—exposes the cronyism and nepotism infecting the system.
“Radwan became the family’s symbol of success... but he paid for it with his dignity.”
◼️ Kamal: The Wandering Philosopher
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Impossible Love: Kamal rekindles his obsession with Badr, the sister of his former love Aida Shaddad. Her family has fallen from aristocratic grace, and yet he cannot let go. His abrupt decision to end the relationship reflects his fear that marriage would betray his philosophy of freedom.
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Existential Crisis: His writings on Darwin and his debates with his father about atheism lead to a series of spiritual questions: What is love? What is hatred? What is beauty? His visits to prostitutes (Atiyya, Jalila) are not for pleasure but desperate attempts to understand the body as a substitute for the soul.
Key Plot Points: Marriage, Death, and National Transformation
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Marriage and Regret: Failed proposals serve as metaphors for a future closed off. When the Abd al-Jawad family rejects Fawzi Hamzawi’s proposal to marry Na’ima because he’s from a working-class background—only to regret it when he later surpasses them socially—the hollowness of tradition is laid bare.
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Political Arrests: Ahmad and Abd al-Munim are both arrested for belonging to rival political movements, showing that the struggle is no longer just familial—it is national. Their resolve after release symbolizes a break from the past.
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Sayyid Ahmad’s Death: His death following an air raid holds deep symbolic meaning:
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Physically: The collapse of the man who once ruled his household like a god.
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Politically: The fall of the patriarchal model that once ruled Egypt.
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Marriage as Rebellion: Ahmad marries the socialist Sawsan; Abd al-Munim marries Karima (Yasin’s daughter)—both against their mothers’ wishes. These unions signify the triumph of the new generation’s will.
Core Themes: Identity, Belonging, and the Search for Meaning
◼️ Ideological Conflict as a Mirror of National Fracture
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The rivalry between Islamism and communism is reflected in the antagonism between Ahmad and Abd al-Munim. Their joint imprisonment, despite ideological differences, reflects the failure of both visions to democratize Egypt.
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Radwan’s political career underscores opportunism:
“The elections are rigged… but officially accepted!”
◼️ Women Between Victimhood and Resistance
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Aisha: From a passive beauty to a shattered woman who has lost everyone.
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Khadija: Her argument with her mother-in-law over a traditional dish (charkassiyya) represents the early cracks in the extended family’s authority.
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Sawsan: A Jewish woman entering a Muslim household, her marriage challenges religious and class taboos.
“Philosophy can be delivered through fiction.”
Narrative Techniques and Symbolism
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Fragmented Time: Events leap across the decade without linear continuity, echoing the fractured memory of Egypt in crisis.
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Interior Monologue: Dominant in Kamal’s scenes—especially his emotional confusion between Badr and the brothels:
“As if he loved to become fluent in the lexicon of pain…”
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Historical Symbolism:
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Zaghloul’s Death: The end of a ‘pure’ nationalist struggle.
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Air-Raid Sirens: The brutal confrontation of individual fate with collective history.
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Ironic Repetition: Kamal’s visits to Jalila—his father’s former lover—represent the cyclical nature of inherited decay.
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Cultural Debate and Literary Legacy
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Conservative Backlash: The novel was attacked for its open depictions of alcohol, prostitution, and atheism. Some readers even advised religious conservatives not to read it.
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Philosophical Undertones: Kamal’s intellectual evolution mirrors Mahfouz’s own: he abandoned a master’s thesis on Islamic aesthetics to write fiction instead.
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Global Recognition: The Nobel Committee described the trilogy as possessing “the narrative power of world literature.” Anton Shammas, writing in The New York Review of Books, called it “the Great Wall of China blocking younger Arab writers.”
Why Sugar Street Remains a Mirror of Modern Egypt
More than a family saga’s conclusion, Sugar Street is a profound dissection of the roots of Egypt’s modern crises:
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The Intellectual’s Dilemma: Kamal’s inner turmoil—torn between faith and science, love and marriage, art and reality—embodies the existential predicament of the Arab intellectual.
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Ideological Fragmentation: The transformation of brothers Ahmad and Abd al-Munim into political enemies, despite growing up under the same roof, reflects the ideological splintering of Arab societies.
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Women as Collateral Damage: Na’ima’s death in childbirth and Aisha’s descent into despair remind us that women often bear the unaccounted cost of historical upheaval.
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Institutionalized Corruption: Radwan’s rise through favoritism illustrates how corrupt systems replicate themselves across generations.
In the final scene—Kamal buys a necktie for his mother’s funeral while Yasin shops for a newborn—Mahfouz encapsulates life as a cycle of loss and renewal. The past is buried, the future born from pain. As Mahfouz wrote:
“I believe in life and in people… and that is the meaning of eternal revolution.”
Sugar Street tells us that the most powerful revolutions are not those that overthrow governments, but those that reshape families.
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