Short Stories of Arabic Group 2

The Lawsuit seemed a bit odd to me. This story of a man whose father was married with children marries again and then dies. The second wife makes off with the money and then years later wants maintenance because she no longer can afford the lifestyle she had grown accustomed to. This seems entirely her fault and I have no sympathy for her at all. I would have liked to see what the verdict would have been in the case that would have made the story of much more interest to me. The thing I do not understand in the slightest is how people can live like this. Being a family and then introducing another wife into the household did this other wife cook and clean and take care of the household chores or was she simply a trophy for the old man. That is where arrogance and ignorance collide head-on, in the heart of an old man. He thinks that because he has money and wealth that this young woman would love him, but in turn she only ever loved his money. The family knew this, but the old man was oblivious and up until the very end of the story it is believed by the family that she was simply putting on a rouse.
Naguib Mahfouz tells an interesting story in A Long-Term Plan. The main character Isam al-Baqli is a very rugged, good-for-nothing man who mooches off of everyone he knows, especially his mother. When his mother dies he is left with nothing and no one so he begins a downward spiral into poverty and eventually is on the brink of starvation when a company offers him a grand sum of money for his house. He accepts the offer at the age of seventy and believes that everything is turning around for him. He gets new clothes, a new place to stay and gets completely cleaned up; however this is his last night alive. He dies directly after this happens and I do not think it was out of place. He had, his entire life, been no good to anyone, not even himself so in the end it made no difference that he finally had money and wealth because he did not get to enjoy it, and I do not think he should have had that opportunity.

Origins

My group is the Arabic Literature group and I decided that it would be interesting to know some of the facts of Arabic literature and cinema.
Firstly Arabic literature originated in the medieval age of golden lyric poetry, from the 4th to 7th centuries. The poems were mainly personal odes with themes of love, fighting, courage and the chase. The most well-known of these poets are Amru al-Kais, Antara, and Zuhair. Arabic literature is mainly comprised of works by Arabic speaking Turks, Persians, Syrians, Egyptians, Indians, Jews, and other Africans and Asians, as well as the Arabs themselves. At the end of the 8th century a new group of poets emerged and created a new genre of poetry, the court poems. India and Persia were a great influence to the romantic styles of Arabic poetry. Printing began in the 19th century in earnest, centered in Cairo, Beirut, and Damascus. In this time period Arab writers tired to express themselves and their place in the modern world. One of the most notable 20th-century-early writers in Arabic is the novelists Naguib Mahfouz who won the 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature.


Within the Arab world Egyptian cinema has always dominated the scene. By 1917 there were 80 cinemas in Egypt alone, but what historians consider the first film did not debut until 1925. With the introduction of sound in 1930 the cinema really began to take off and appeal to the masses. During the 1930s, the Misr Bank financed production by sending technicians abroad for training and setting up the Misr Studio in 1935. Arab cinema continued to expand and grow throughout the century. Cinema was a way for people to express themselves and have it appeal to the masses. More often than not a film would be played that would have some great effect of people throughout the surrounding nations and a ripple would fan out calling all attention to the times and crises. I imagine this to be the same as what happens in American cinema, though possibly more governmentally controlled.
Everything has an origin and just like American literature and cinema, Arabic literature and cinema can give us a perfect view into a world we never really knew existed.