The Norwegian RatNaguid Mahfouz

Naguib Mahfouz (1911-2006)

•Grew up in Egypt

•First Arab to win a Nobel Peace Prize

•Grew up in a middle class family, attended the University of Cairo, and became a writer

•Made short stories and novels a more popular genre in the Middle East, where poetry is more traditionally published

•Writing deals with social and political themes

Key Concepts:

• Hysteria

• Mood

• Magical Realism

• Ambiguity

Hysteria 1) Exaggerated or uncontrollable

emotion or excitement, especially among a group of people.

2) A psychological disorder whose symptoms include conversion of mental stress into physical symptoms such as volatile emotions, physical illness, unrest, and/or hallucinations

Salem Witch Trials• In June of 1692, a special

court sat in Salem, MA to hear cases of witchcraft. Thirteen women and five men from all stations of life went to the gallows

• Historians believe such a witch hunt was caused by multiple influences: sickness in the community, resentment of economic prosperity, strict religious zeal, as well as intense social magnification.

Mumbai “Sweet” Water • The 2006 Mumbai “sweet”

seawater incident was a phenomenon during which residents of Mumbai, India claimed that the water at Mahim Creek, one of the most polluted creeks in India that receives thousands of tones of raw sewage and industrial waste every day, had suddenly turned “sweet”.

• Within hours, the Pollution Control Board had warned people not to drink the water, but despite this many people had collected it in bottles, even as plastic and rubbish had drifted by on the current. By 2pm the following day, the devotees said that the water was salty again.

June Bug Epidemic • In 1962 a mysterious disease

broke out in a dressmaking department of a US textile factory. The symptoms included numbness, nausea, dizziness, and vomiting. Word of a bug in the factory that would bite its victims and develop the above symptoms quickly spread. Soon sixty two employees developed this mysterious illness, some of whom were hospitalized.

• While the researchers believed some workers were bitten by the bug, anxiety was likely the cause of the symptoms. No evidence was ever found for a bug which could cause the above flu-like symptoms, nor did all workers demonstrate bites.

http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/46022735

The Norwegian Rat• While a work of fiction,

The Norwegian Rat nonetheless depicts a subtle type of hysteria that people fall victim to— spreading rumors based up irrational fears created for them by their government.

• As you read, you will work describing the mood and plot sequence of the text to try and decipher what Mahfouz is saying about hysteria.

Mood ExerciseDescription Mood/Feeling/Sense

Emphasized Example:“Summer was our best season: it was sleeping on the back screened porch in cots, or trying to sleep in the tree house; summer was everything good to eat; it was a thousand colors in a parched landscape; but most of all summer was Dill.”  

The mood set is one of care-free happiness and excitement. Words and phrases like “best,” describing the season, “everything good” and “colors in a parched landscape” create a sense of relaxed anticipation and better times to come.

MOOD: The atmosphere that pervades a literary

work with the intention of evoking a certain emotion or feeling from the audience.

• In drama, mood may be created by sets and music as well as words; in poetry and prose, mood may be created by a combination of such elements as SETTING, TONE, and THEME.

• The moods evoked by the more popular short stories of Edgar Allen Poe, for example, tend to be gloomy, horrific, and desperate.

Mood ExerciseDescription Mood/Feeling/ Word Choice

Example:FORTUNATELY we were not alone in this affliction. Mr. A.M., being the senior householder in the building, had invited us to a meeting in his flat for an exchange of opinions. There were not more than ten people present, including Mr. A.M., who, in addition to being the oldest among us, held the most senior position and was also the most well off. No one failed to show up—and how could they, seeing that it had to do with the rats and their likely invasion of our homes and their threat to our safety? Mr. A.M. began in a voice of great gravity with “As you all know ...” and then set forth what the papers had been reiterating about the advance of the rats, their vast numbers, and the terrible destruction that would be wrought by them. Voices were raised around the room.

What are the characters feeling?What words lend to establishing that feeling?

What are other adjectives you can use to describe this mood? Write them down in your next sentence.

Claim:

Evidence:

Magical Realism:

A literary style that combines incredible events with realistic details and relates them in a matter-of-fact tone.

What aspects of our text fit this definition?

Ambiguity:

The expression of ideas in a text that suggests more than one meaning.

What aspects of our text fit this definition?

The Ending:

“I found myself standing before a middle-aged, sturdily built man with a thick mustache, his square face with his short nose and glassy stare reminding me of a cat.”

“All we glimpsed of him was his swaying back, then a swift about face as he bid us farewell with a fleeting Norwegian smile.” (pg 1036)

Period of political persecution during the 1950s, led by US senator Joe McCarthy, during which many public officials and private citizens were accused of being communists or communist sympathizers. Although McCarthy was officially censured by the Senate for misconduct in 1954 (most of his evidence was fabricated), his claims induced an atmosphere of suspicion and paranoia that destroyed many careers. The term has come to signify any type of reckless political persecution or witch-hunt.

McCarthyismDuring the late 1940s and early 1950s, when Cold War tensions were mounting, many Americans were alarmed by the spread of communism both abroad and at home. Overseas, China became communist and the USSR more militarily aggressive; at home Soviet spy cases, such as those against Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, caused great scandal. The US government began investigating federal workers and creating lists of organizations suspected of communist activity.

Senator McCarthy, meanwhile, sought publicity to revive flagging support for his re-election. In 1950, at a Republican women's meeting in Wheeling, West Virginia, he claimed to know the identities of 205 State Department officials with communist links. Although groundless, his allegations provided a fearful US public with an explanation for the spread of communism and sparked mass anti-communist hysteria.

Although the Senate Foreign Relations Committee investigated McCarthy's allegations, it did not uncover any evidence at all of communists in the Department of State. Nevertheless, McCarthy made further accusations and began a nationwide campaign to hunt down communists and communist sympathizers. Those who appeared before congressional committees were confronted with circumstantial evidence and intimidation. Many people accused others to save their own careers. Those who tried to criticize the government's methods were labeled communist sympathizers.

In 1954 a hearing on McCarthy's allegations of suspected communists in the US Army was televised nationally. In person his allegations rang hollow and seemed brutal and crude. He was further discredited when the Senate officially censured him for misconduct. The US Supreme Court made a series of decisions 1955–58 that helped to protect the civil rights of people accused of having communist links.

Theme & Purpose:The Norwegian Rat & McCarthyism

 Setting Irrational

FearThe Accuser

What is Gained by

the accuser?

 The

Norwegian Rat 

    

   

 McCarthyism

 

    

   

Response and Analysis Questions: (pg 1037)

1. How do the people prepare for the rat invasion?

2. Who inspects the narrator’s home? How do the narrator and his wife perceive this person at first? How does this perception change at the end of the story?

3. What sources of information about the rats do people in the story have access to? How reliable do you think these are? Explain.

4. What happens to people’s emotions as preparations continue but not rat attack has yet to occur? Is there psychological truth in this reaction? Do you know any examples?

5. What conclusions can you draw about the rat invasion based on the text?

6. Ambiguity is used in the final scene. How do you interpret it? Explain your opinion.

7. What does the government accomplish in the story through the rat invasion? What might Mahfouz be suggesting about government? Powerful institutions? The governed?