Practice Paper 2 Outline

Prompt: ‘With regards to Thief and the Dogs, explain why Naguib Mahfouz may have chosen to depict events in a particular sequence or order.’

Thesis: Mahfouz aims to relay certain events in the story using the narrative technique of flashbacks with the goal of maintaining a realist viewpoint in the tale, relaying the context of the novel and developing an effective plot.

Topic Sentences: 

The genre of Psychological realism is implemented and grounded through Mahfouz's use of flashbacks and stream of consciousness narrative.

The context of the tale can be signaled through the use of Said's inner monologues, which provides Mahfouz himself with an opening towards expressing his own perspective upon Nasser's revolution.

The recurring presence of flashbacks in the novel provide the readers with a pathway towards learning more about Said's background alongside enraging Said's emotion which leads to the establishment of conflicts within the plot.

How and to what effect does Mahfouz employ stream of consciousness narration in the novel?

The Thief and the Dogs is characterized by Mahfouz through the genre of psychological realism, whereby the writer implements more realistic writing which probes deeply into the complexities of the character's thoughts and motivations. Unlike much more generalized and straightforward genre's, psychological realism doesn't aim to establish duality between characters, lacking the presence of a hero and villain. More-so, it aims to portray the inner good and evil within us human beings. 

Furthermore, he partners the genre with a unique narrative technique known as the "stream of consciousness". The purpose of this narration is to equip the reader with uncensored thoughts within a character's mind and is present in Mahfouz's writing through the consistent use of interior monologue's depicting Said's emotions, mental condition and intellectual stability towards the readers. This is also followed by a third-person omniscient narration to provide the reader with stability and ground them into the objective world. As a result, the central effects of the stream of narrative the stream of consciousness narrative is to relay specific characteristics of Said Mahran and imply how context impacts the characters and plot of the tale as well as the reader’s understanding of the text. In this response, evidence will be substantiated from chapter four of the novel.

Firstly, the narrative allows an insight into Said’s purpose and belief that vengeance need be obtained from those that he believes has betrayed him. This is evident through the indirect communication between Said and other characters through the internal monologues aimed to shape the plot, evident in the lines “Hasn’t your conscience bothered you even in the dark?”. “I wish I could penetrate your soul as easily as I’ve penetrated your house” (pg. 47). Here, the author aims to amplify conflict within the passage through the continuous use of rhetorical questions and similes throughout the excerpt, whilst said further reveals his thoughts through the continuous use of violent diction and a threatening tone in this internal battle.

Moreover, the narration also shapes Said’s antagonistic nature and characterizes Rauf as a compassionate secondary character. This is present through the moment in the text where the reader loses sympathy with the protagonist. At first, Said encourages sympathy by the reader by stating that “[Rauf] made me and now rejected me” (pg. 47). However, such diction then contrasts with his action of robbing the house, symbolizing his greatly confused emotional and mental stature and foreshadowing the extent to which his external conflicts conduct his reckless behavior in the chapter.

The context of the text is grounded towards that of Nasser’s revolution which was sought to establish a change in Egypt aiming towards benefitting all individuals yet changing the lives of only a few. Therefore, Mahfouz replicates this notion through the overturned partnership between Rauf and Said, whereby encouragement towards burglary aided Rauf’s socio-economic state whilst throwing Said into jail. This great contrast in the plot is the pinpoint towards the conflict between these tow beings and Mahfouz uses his monologues to hint his slight revulsion towards Nassar’s policies in lines such as “Rauf, your pupil is coming, to relieve you of a few worldly goods”. In addition to this, the physiognomies of the narration also suit Mahfouz’s style of writing as it is unreliable and produces a singular perspective of the tale.

Overall, the narrative style is a significant innovation and feature of the story as Mahfouz combines realism with the stream of consciousness technique to craft psychological realism and portray his viewpoint on the Egyptian revolution through the vital effects of the narration.

Texts in Translation

Translation in literature is a key process in decoding lines of text in one tongue and refurbishing it into another. In literature, translation usually occurs in books and written text, in an attempt to allow other individuals to understand the content being produced. Although this work can be simply defined, the process itself requires can be quite tough and, thus, results in various benefits as well as limitations for the world of literature.

Literature in translation is somewhat beneficial in the sense that it can expose certain texts to a wide range of audiences, usually those who would, nonetheless, be unable to gain access to such literature or would be required to actually learn the perceived language itself before reading the specific text or texts. This also allows the readers to study and understand varying cultures, religions and histories of other civilizations and develop a form of awareness for certain societies that were, nevertheless, ignored or stereotyped in the past. Readers can also use this knowledge to understand the contexts of nations or regions in the past as well as present and observe how people were impacted by such styles of living. Furthermore, translation is also beneficial towards promoting economic growth as greater understanding towards cultural differences or misunderstandings can lead to greater employment levels and fairer wage or income distribution.

On the other hand, translated literature can have adverse impacts upon numerous principles. Firstly, translation is a very tough art, making it almost impossible to replicate a text precisely. This establish great ambiguity when presenting significant topics or conveying important messages as one word in English may have several supplementary meanings in another tongue. As a result, this can create greater misunderstandings to foreign readers whilst aiming to learn about a specific subject. In addition to this, translated texts may also compromise of bias from the interpreters themselves. This may derail the original aims of the piece of literature and, once more, feed the public with falsifications or stereotypical portrayals of societies.

Bias Blog Post

Taboos are topics which are rarely touched upon or prohibited usually due to social customs. This is a significant symbol in Britain’s economic standpoint and one of the integral factors that could lead to another 2008 financial crisis. The British government wants the public to believe that their economic growth is sustainable, and that budgetary surplus will fix all their economic problems. But these are dangerous myths.

This can be centrally presented through the simple saying, “the less the government is in debt, the more everybody else is.”. This can be centrally portrayed through the following diagram which represents Britain’s balance between the public and private sectors, where each rise and fall on the positive axis is reflected on the negative. Now if the British Government declares that it must pay back all national debt through the implementation of a budget surplus, then the public sector (e.g. the Government as shown through the negative axis in the diagram) is taking more money out of the private sector than investing into them. Furthermore, this leads to absolute mayhem for individuals such as ourselves as the Government knows the private sector will go into deficit once they’re able to balance their books, leaving the rest of us in debt, as they reply with the statement “We’re just trying to behave responsibly!”.

This is utter foolishness and personal greed. You may be asking me why everyone can’t everyone balance their budgets including Governments, households and corporations. Well, to that I say, “then money wouldn’t really be money”. Money in itself is a debt, just look at the banknotes printed every day, they’re just promises and trusts circulating everywhere. They’re even created by banks through making loans. Thus, if nobody really took out loans, there would be no such thing as money.

This leads me to my standpoint in this text. It’s preposterous how we should pay to balance the governments checkbooks. The rich can easily wriggle their ways out of such issues through misuse of Power. What about the rest of us? Why should we ever take part in such an act and how can one apply so much burden to those who even struggle to fulfill their basic necessities?

All in all, something along these lines has to happen when the government runs a surplus. Everyone will just keep pushing the debt on to those least able to pay it, until the whole thing collapses like a house of cards: just like it did in 2008.

Rational: The following text was a re implementation of the bias used within the article “Britain is heading for another 2008 crash: here’s why” by David Graeber. This text was centrally focused upon the recent infringement of taxes upon the British private sector in aims to pay off Government national debt, focusing upon the cruelty of the rich to avoid following these legal acts and the burden transferred upon the poor and middle class to deal with the running elite’s issues. The author aimed to regularly emphasize his argument and viewpoint upon this economic situation through the lens of rhetorical questions to directly communicate with the audience alongside negative connotations and diction as well as various uses of hyperbole and a clear, logical tone to relay his ideas.  

Student Led Tutorials Passage Analysis of Moons of Jupiter

The following link will direct you towards an audio recording of my analysed Passage:

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This is Water

Through our exploration of emotional intelligence and its significance in the modern-day era, David Foster Wallace and Alice Munro both seem to implement this tactic through various parts of their works, focusing centrally upon the extent of empathy and emotion in their writing whilst crafting delicate literary masterpieces in the making.


To begin with, the two authors relate to one another in several ways; Wallace and Munro submerge their central themes using topics of realism and true events in order to provide the reader with a practical reading and one that may, although not be as thrilling as a popular fictional novel, yet provides a trend of emotions and intellect for the reader to understand as well as proper knowledge and learning upon a specific genre in a literary style, attempting to enable and drive the reader’s thoughts into their direction. In addition to this, both deeply develop the plot and context of their texts, with Wallace concentrating completely on a specific theme he aims to speak of, whilst Munro explores her central ideas through characters and conflicts to develop them, proving to be more vivid in presenting content in terms of real-life situations and personal encounters in contrast to Wallace.


This can be further supported through the difference in context of the two writers, with Munro being born and brought up in early Canada, influencing where most of her stories are set and progress, as Wallace features towards a slightly more modern perspective, alongside a somewhat shift in character and personality type, through his encounters with depression, portraying a rather unique and different viewpoint in his writing unlike Munro. Furthermore, this leads to the great difference in writing styles of the two authors, whereby Wallace tends to devise his writing through a more frank and informal tone, enlisting that he is teaching or instructing his endeavors to a somewhat younger audience as a form of advice or guidance of avoiding dark paths of distress and dismay. Munro, on the other hand, composes her texts with a major application of innovation, along with a tranquil tone, allowing the tale to settle and advance gradually towards her central themes included.


As a result, the writers tend to establish meaning within their text through emotional intelligence, confirming that the reader continues to think of the tale, or feel emotionally impacted even far after the text has concluded. These factors, also, are not only of competence between the two, yet also establish and enlists the basis of their accomplishments and achievements, signifying the distinction between these two individuals and their tales to success within the literary world.

Summer Blog Post 1: A Memorable Champions Trophy Victory

After completing our Mock Exams and watching the last few days of school pass by, everybody was craving for a summer break, and mine was already packed with some excitement as Pakistan had qualified for the final of cricket's veteran tournament, the Champions Trophy. Perhaps the most exciting bit was that they were set to face arch-rivals India at The Oval in London for the trophy and a victory would not only set up a huge triumph for the nation, but would signify the perfect start to my summer break, being a die-hard cricket fan.


The only unfortunate bit was that the odds were low for a Pakistan victory, as seen by the following statistics, displaying Pakistan's clashes with India in ICC tournaments, lacking any success in the World cup or World T20. Furthermore, Pakistan had previously faced India in this very edition of the tournament, during their opening match, whereby they lost by quite a large margin, another factor supporting India's chances to clinch their second consecutive Champions Trophy win. Overall, Pakistan's chances in general were low, and India were the true favorites in this nail biting contest, but did the numbers dictate the true story?

The day had finally come, it was the 18th of June, with 4 more days left till summer, I returned back from school just after the toss as India had won (the toss) and chosen to bowl first, an element of surprise on a historically well known batting ground. Nevertheless, a good sign for Pakistan due to the fact that batting was their central weakness. Pakistan batted, putting up a competitive score of 338, the highest in the tournament, with Fakhar Zaman scoring a belter 120 runs and Hafeez chipping in at the end with a useful 54, symbolizing a huge spark of hope for Pakistan and their possible trail to victory (as bowling has been their strength for many generations).

Mohammed Amir confirmed this, by picking up 3-16 in his 6 overs, including taking the wicket of India's top batsmen, and the number one batsmen in the world, Virat Kohli, as well as the top run scorer of the tournament, Shikhar Dhawan, early in the game to set up a comfortable Pakistan victory as India were bowled out for 158, Pakistan lifted the trophy, coming into the tournament as the 8th ranked side in the world (the tournament itself is between the top 8 sides globally), and finishing at the top of the table, proving to be one of the most memorable wins in Pakistan Cricket's history.

The following Link leads to the Full Match Highlights of the CT17 Final (5:04 minutes): https://www.icc-cricket.com/champions-trophy/video/420969