The Thief and the Dogs

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1961

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Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-9

Chapters 10-13

Chapters 14-18

Character Analysis

Themes

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Themes

Existentialism and Individual Identity

Critics describe The Thief and the Dogs as an existentialist novel. Existentialism in literature is a theme which explores the questions and problems of human existence, describing the difficulty of individuals who feel a sense of dread, angst, or confusion when facing a meaningless and absurd world. Said Mahran encapsulates this sense of existentialist dread. After being released from prison, he does not understand the world. His former friend and wife have betrayed him and his former revolutionary mentor has betrayed his ideals. The world Said once knew has been replaced by a bizarre inversion and Said cannot determine his place within it. His desire for revenge is a manifestation of his existentialist dread: because Said no longer understands the absurd society, he wants to punish the people he believes have changed the most. He wants to understand his place in society but struggles to find any meaning in his actions.

Said's existentialist struggles evolve over the course of the novel as he is presented with and rejects several systems of meaning he might choose to define his life. Said rejects religion outright, is unconvinced by Ilish’s relativistic morality, cannot acknowledge the friendship of Nur and Tarzan, and has no education or wealth to facilitate his reintegration to Egyptian society. After the first murder, however, he becomes famous in Cairo. The newspapers describe his crimes and give Said the justification he needs to view himself as a folk hero by claiming social value. Through the sensationalist media and Said's own delusions, Said decides that his life has a new meaning. He views himself as a political agent, fighting against the rich and the powerful on behalf of the poor and disenfranchised. This agenda gives Said a purpose and helps to sooth his existentialist angst, but Mahfouz ensures that the reader is aware that the reasoning is hollow, having established Said as an unreliable narrator. Said has no greater political purpose beyond his own narcissism, allowing the audience to understand the absurdity of his solution. Said's proposed response to existentialism is vapid, absurd, and doomed to fail. Ironically, his response suits the vapid and absurd society. Said's struggles with existentialism eventually reflect the flaws in an unequal society which does not support self-actualization. Said's death is an embrace of true nihilism, the idea that all existence is inherently meaningless. Said stops caring about the world and surrenders himself to death. Said's last moments are an embrace of the meaningless nature of the world, showing that the only way to extinguish existentialist dread is to accept the futility of life. When Said finally stops seeking revenge and abandons his only motivation, he can calmly accept his fate.

Paranoia as Narcissism

Said's paranoia affects every part of the novel. As the narrator of the stream-of-consciousness style novel, Said’s delusions define Mahfouz’s presentation of Cairo and soon plots against Said begin emerge more frequently and outlandishly. Said's paranoid mind believes that the entire world is against him, more content to be antagonized by all than to reconcile with his own insignificance. After the betrayals of Ilish, Ilwan, and Nabawiyya, Said cannot bring himself to trust anyone. As such, even sincere affection from people like Nur is turned into a conspiracy against Said, who reminds himself not to trust anyone. Nur, the Sheikh, and Tarzan are Said's closest allies, but his delusional mind is so corrupted that even the smallest, most well-intentioned gesture is seen as an attempt to destroy him. Said's paranoia overwhelms him and exacerbates his social isolation, even as he craves notoriety and reintegration to society. Mahfouz portrays paranoia as essentially narcissistic, as Said prioritizes his personal fears and vendetta above opportunities for connection, compassion, and new friendships which might otherwise create meaning in his life post-incarceration.

Said is inconsequential. He is a smalltime thief who has spent years in prison. He has no job and no money; he lacks or destroys any social connections which might raise his importance. Nevertheless, he begins to view himself as a totalizing figure. After his first murder, he begins to view himself as the most important person in Cairo and he believes that he is waging a class war on behalf of the downtrodden people of the city. Rather than increasing his confidence, this delusion deepens his paranoia. This paranoia is an extension of Said's insecurities, as his delusional belief in his own importance becomes a delusional belief that the world views him as important enough to target. Said's paranoid thoughts suggest that he is the worth the effort of a conspiracy against him, while the truth is that he is a petty criminal whose relevance is inherently limited.

At the end of the novel, Said's paranoia becomes justified. He is the target of a police operation which chases him down and leads to his death. However, Said’s paranoia does nothing to help him avoid his fate. Said's paranoia becomes another expression of the futility of modern existence, having no effect on his fate and only leading to a great deal of anxiety and dread. Through this paranoia, Mahfouz explores how Said, torn from every other sense of meaning, attempts to define a new system of meaning from perceived threats.

The Benefits and Limitations of Religious Meaning

Mahfouz’s cryptic presentation of spirituality in the novel reflects its lack of significance in Said's life. On the first night of his release from prison, Said stays with the Sheikh, a local holy man who preaches the mystical Sufi interpretation of Islam to a group of dedicated followers. These followers once included Said's father, who is now deceased. While Said's father was a true believer in religion, Said has turned religion into a vague nostalgia. He remembers the sensory experiences of his visits to the Sheikh, but he remembers nothing of the man's teaching. Whenever he talks to the Sheikh, he is frustrated by the man's cryptic responses. Said does not pray or adhere to the moral code taught by the Sheikh. Instead, he uses the man's hospitality to his advantage and ignores any spiritual insight the Sheikh might have to offer. To Said, religion is an inaccessible and unhelpful bit of nostalgia which exists in the background of his own experiences. The Sheikh’s mystic sayings only leave Said more alienated and confused.

Though Said rejects religion as a defining moral code of, the character of the Sheikh allows Mahfouz to explore the benefits and limitations of spiritual learning in defining a meaningful life. Said rejects the belief system of his father because it contravenes his own narcissistic drive and is incompatible with his criminal urges. At first, Said replaces religion with Ilwan's revolutionary ideology which provides him with a justification for his crimes and appeals to his desire to transcend poverty and lack of education. Crucially, the Sheikh is a Sufi mystic, indicating a similar rejection of traditional Islam. One aspect of Sufism is asceticism, the denial of sensory pleasure for the benefit of spiritual growth. While Said seeks to reclaim his sense of purpose by determining his place in society, the Sheikh has rejected society entirely in favor of spiritual meaning. The Sheikh offers Said an alternative system of meaning in which Said could define himself differently, yet this alternate system of meaning holds no appeal for Said, who is unwilling to give up his individualism and abandon the values of the material world. Said prefers to cast himself in opposition to all of society, simultaneously the hero of Cairo and Cairo’s most wanted man, rather than to embrace the Sheikh’s religion. Mahfouz questions whether religion is a sufficient or appropriate system of belief to define the meaning of life, especially when religious doctrine requires a separation from society.