¶ … Hamida Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz is given credit as the author who was first to bring the narrative art of novel writing to the world of Arabic literature. He is also the literary genius who wrote Midaq Alley - and numerous other highly acclaimed works - about the fascinating real people from a slum in Cairo who were caught in between old Arabic traditions and emerging modern behaviors and materialism from the world of the West. Among his many interesting personalities in this novel is one of the central characters, and a compelling protagonist, Hamida. She is an orphan; she yearns, dreams, and pines for a way to escape the bitter realities of the poverty her life is saturated with.

Hamida is a very interesting and unique character. Her passion to attempt to escape the dregs of an impoverished lifestyle through the seamy world of prostitution is a behavior which is probably not unlike the actions of scores of young girls in third world countries all over the planet. And on the surface, when a woman tries to escape poverty by turning to street walking, she is really trading one evil for another. But because of her particular Arab cultural and physical environment, Hamida was inclined to do some radical, daring and even dangerous things, all of which helps author Mahfouz weave his web of dramatic and colorful events for her and her interacting characters.

The description the author gives readers of Hamida (26), in a scene where her foster mother is talking about the upcoming marriage of an unlikely character, is of a twenty-something woman with "bronze-colored" skin and "black, beautiful eyes." The contrast...

She very much envies the Jewish factory girls she sees: "If you had only seen the factory girls!" she tells her foster mom (27). "They all go about in nice clothes. Well, what is the point of life then if we can't wear what we want?"
Her greed - a constant yearning for new clothes - and a lusting for respectability is such a strong theme for Hamida, she even suggests that death would be better than being without a new dress (27): "Don't you think it would be better for a girl to have been buried alive rather than have no nice clothes to make herself look pretty?" She had "fantasies of wealth" (40) and she allowed "envy" to nibble away at her; and in addition, she possessed a "frigid heart" (84), plus she had a "rebellious" and "unmanageable" disposition (86) to boot.

Readers will notice that the author begins…