Parallelism In Bahaa

Bahaa’ Taher is an example of success out of the village he narrates about in his novel Aunt Safiyya and the Monastery. His mother was a storyteller and his father was an influential religious figure in the village. Taher wrote this novel after he leaving Egypt to pursue his writing career. The underlying theme of his novel is to show the power of the past and its inability to change.
Harbi and Safiyya, the two main characters of the novel, are paralleled in description throughout the novel. Safiyya is characterized as an orphan who would “turn heads with her beauty” (Taher, 34). Harbi is also an orphan who is “the most handsome of men” (Taher, 35). Parallelism helps the reader foreshadow the character’s destiny. Their characteristics made them stand out in the village which indicates that they are not like the rest. The village believed that “Safiyya was for Harbi,” (Taher, 36) and that they were destined to be with one another. This old superstition had been implemented into the village’s core and cannot be changed. When Safiyya is married to the counsel-bey under Harbi’s approval, this sparked a flame of revenge in Safiyya’s heart. Karma present in the novel keeps an equilibrium between Safiyya and Harbi. Once she seeks revenge, her husband is killed and Harbi is sent to prison where he changes as a person. Safiyya also …show more content…
Society wanted them to be together but they did not and faced their consequences. The setting of the novel shows the society’s lack of hope and development. The remains of Taher’s home symbolize the past and its inability to change and need of rebuilding or restarting. Together this forms the general theme of the lack of hope in Egypt and the power of its past on its future. Taher along with his siblings are an outcome of Egypt leaving it to only gain success elsewhere. Taher’s father’s hope in the future was fulfilled as shown by Taher and Hassan’s success in