The Thief and the Dogs Literary Elements

Novel

Egypt after the 1952 revolution

There is both third-person omniscient narration, and Said's first-person narration in a stream-of-consciousness style.

Tone: enraged, cynical, gloomy, holier-than-thou, scornful, tense

Mood: anxious, desolate, hostile, moody

Said is the protagonist; the antagonists in his mind are Ilish, Nabawiyya, and Rauf Ilwan

Will Said be able to take revenge on those who wronged him—Nabawiyya, Ilish, and Rauf?

The climax comes at the very end of the novel when Said finds himself cornered by police and dogs in a graveyard, and comes out firing at them in one last stand before he is killed.

1. Nur accurately foreshadows Said's fate when she tells him, "You won't kill them [Ilish and Nabawiyya]. But you will bring about your own destruction" (128)
2. When Said thinks to himself that "he would never see Nur again" (140) he is unwittingly giving the truth of the matter
3. Said constantly looking out at the cemetery near Nur's house foreshadows his own death.

N/A

1. When Said notices how simple the Sheikh's house is, he is says it is no different than "Adam's day" (25), which is an allusion to Adam from the Biblical story of Genesis
2. Said describes Rauf's eyebrows as "Mephistophelean" (43), an allusion to the Devil, especially in Faust

There is a great deal of animal imagery that the narrator uses to describe characters: Nabawiyya as a dog, Sana as a mouse, Rauf with a cow-like face. There is also positive animal imagery with Said's description of himself as a hawk, fish, tiger, etc. Finally, a lot of the imagery surrounding Said at the end is of barrenness, darkness, isolation, and death; all of this foreshadows his eventual fate.

1. The Sheikh comments, "Because I hear much I can hardly hear anything" (27)
2. "You used to take precious goods—now you take worthless lives!" (72)

N/A

"The rope would be after him now" (81) is an example of metonymy, which "rope" standing in for "police"

1. "Confused cries seem to seep from the curbside garbage" (15)
2. "...windows beckoning even when eyeless, walls scowling" (15)
3. "...treachery dozed in a fine unmerited tranquility" (49)
4. "All you graves out there, immersed in the gloom, don't jeer at my memories!" (105)
5. "His life had made its last utterance, saying it had all been in vain" (156)