A painting of a dynastic succession of rulers in India in the time of Islamic rule. This painting was made about 1680. It was commissioned by the ruler at the time; he sits on the far right side of the semi-circle. The others in the circle are his ancestors. Notice that the picture is about males having power, and the importance of the relationship between father and son and the passing on of power. Can you think of a connection with Palace Walk? But that's not the question for this evening's blog. This is:
On the one hand, there is Ahmad, the father's harshness with his family, which he demonstrates once again in this reading. On the other hand, there is the deep affection and love the other family members have for each and for their father, too. Any thoughts on how these two things--the harshness and the affection--can co-exist? Or how one feeds the other, or counteracts the other?
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Although a book could be written on the dynamics in Amina's family, I'll try to condense my thoughts. Ahmad acts as a dictator in Palace Walk, yet the family generates so much love for each other. How does the family's context, living under the often abusive father, impact the rest of the family's culture? Because they live under their father's tight rule, they are forced to get closer with each other. They have to be able to have some method of processing their father, and they appear to find this in spending coffee hour together, talking with each other. In terms of sibling relationships though, Kamal seems to be the odd one out. Although he is "loved" by his siblings, he doesn't seem to be as close to them, not like Khaidja and Aisha, who bicker, but seem to genuinely enjoy each other. Now, this could easily be explained by his age, but is there more behind this? Kamal is also the scapegoat for his fathers anger, and I wonder if this has something to do with his more distant relationship with his family.
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testing again... this had better work.
Ahmad needed to vent his anger out on Amina when he first heard about her excursion. He didn't feel he could as she was so badly injured, and so his anger was bottled up inside of him and he was forced to come up with a worse punishment for her for when she finally got better. Ahmad clearly can't just let something go, lest he feel it is undermining his authority and personal stature.
The rest of the family seems to get along fine. They live in the fear of their father's wrath, but this prevents them from getting to lax about their tasks and gives them something to be pleased about when he is away. The family all have the maturity and self control not to upset their hard to please father when he is around.
In response to what Jake said about Kamal being the odd one out, I think this is purely to do with age. He gets desperate for the family members to be interested in what he has to say, but when he acually has something interesting to bring to them, they all listen to him. A 10 year old can't always come up with interesting information, and he sometimes has trouble following the general adult's conversation, so this is why he feels left out.
This is Rosamund, and just for the record my last blog post ways WAAAYYYYY better than this one and im really really mad that it got deleted!! hmph.
thankyouverymuch.
I think that the reason the family is so close is because they are all experiencing the same thing and going through it together. In this case it is not that one kid has affection poured over him and another one is abused. The differnce in how people are treated can completley change how the rest of the family connects. This is not the case for this family. Since they are all being held under tight rule, sticking together and loving one another is a good way for them to cope with the love they do not recieve from their father. Loving one another also may help to ease the pain of not being loved by Ahmad.
there are a lot of strange relationships between characters. it seems like the best relationships are between amina and her kids. she is very affectionate to them which would spoil them if was not for the fathers extreme harshness. it seem like ahmad is almost a common enemy for the kids, and that is a great thing for a relationship. i do think that deep down the kids love thier father but im not really sure if ahmad loves amina or the kids. i also think that ahmad would seem less harsh if amina was not so nice, so i think that thier parents compliment each other. i think khadija contributes to the family relationships a lot because at times she is like a secound mother. unlike amina she is harsh, so she is almost like her dad and mother.
Rocco says:
I think that as it is with most families, no matter what you love them. He also does support his family. Also, they have to be close, because as a family they need to stick together throught the rough times, and going through rough times, makes people know one another better, and makes them that much tighter. Amina loves her children and shows them great affection. This makes them love her and them closer, and because Amina is so nice, it must bring the family together.
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I remeber very distinctly a wuote from the book (although I can not find where) that went something along the line of "like a dog which boths fears and loves its master". I think this is exactly what the realionship in this family is like. I think the dog is the family and the owner is the father. The father gets incredibly angry and upset with his childern an wfe just like a dog owner would. The family obviously feels scared and shkaen every tie this happens just like a dog would.....HOWEVER, they still ave a connection...the father (dog owner) stills loves (well maybe...cares would be a better word) his chidren and wife and the wife and children obviously respect (they really have no chioce) and lov their father. Dog and Owner....its a strange and cruel world!!!!
This is Hunter.
I really agree with what some people said about the fact that they fear the father, Ahmad, so they get comfort out of loving each other. Also, I think the father really does love his family, he just thinks he has to impose a harsh rule so that they all listen to him. Perhaps he thinks they will slack off on their chores and religion if he loves them? That is my personal opinion. I really think that if he loved them, the family would not be so loving.
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i disagree with rocco. i dont think that every one loves their family. i dont think that ahmad loves his family, they are just their to do his laundry and the sons are there to inherit his wealth and connect him with other fmilys when they get married. i also think that ahmad is a typical wealthy man in this society so a lot of people dont love their family.
I kinda of agree with Grete. I don't think that in life everyone likes their family. One the subject of Amhad- I think that he does like his family...I think that is why he keeps his other life a secret because he doesn't want to let them down.
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I agree with everyone about the fact that the family members fear there father. The father doesn’t not want to show affection because then like we said when we first started reading Palace Walk, that the Ahmad doesn’t want to get close to his family because he might have to tell them were he goes every night when he drinks and has affairs. Also I was sad to find out that the fact that he was nice to Amina was because she had a really bad injury and was holding up a bigger punishment for when she got better! I thought that he could be kinder to his wife and children but I think he does what he does so he can show how high his authority is in the family.
amina is so affectionet to everyone...and ahmad is just so harsh, it seems they could not live together. yet, they do it easily. I believe this is because the other family members rely on ahmad to survive. He is a prominent figure in the city and makes quite a bit of money. He also is not afraid to (and will) beat them if they do wrong or disobey him.
I agree with Rocco, family is family ya know what i mean. even though the dad is realy harsh there is multiple specail moments that probably all the family members share with him. After all even though hes really mean hes still their dad and amina is still his wife.
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On Ahmad's anger and his family's love: In a brief passage from the reading, Mahfouz tells that seeing his wife's hurt releases a reservoir of caring feeling from Ahmad. I think this refers to the fact that Ahmad is indeed a patient, kind person, but so embroils himself in the preservation of his name, his honor, that he can't let the reservoir loose; "he couldn't live with his new self..." the narrator says. The rest of the family don't have those patriarchal weights over their backs, so worry less about their honor, name etc. They thus let forth their happiness/care readily. This, as mentioned, sets up an odd dynamic, I feel the rest of Ahmad's family must love and respect him as he is their patriarch, their leader and protector. We can see, all members of the family readily excuse Ahmad's temper and odd habits. This relationship is also built on fear. The relationship is similar to that between the Muslim people and their god. Muslims are generally considered "God-fearing". Maybe we should consider Ahmad's family "Father-fearing", just as much as they are "God-fearing". I think the presence of this relationship based on patriarchal fear can be detected all over Islamic societies (eg Egypt) and is directly related to those area's harsh geographical context, just as that influenced their religion.
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I think that since Ahmad takes care so much of the discipline of the family, any other kind of anger or contention is discouraged...having Ahmad is enough. I almost think that because Ahmad is so much of a dictator that is one of the bigger reasons that family loves each other so much.Also, Mr. Durning has also said before in class that the mother loves her children, her animals,her plants, her cooking because that is all she has. Because she isn't allowed to go out in the world all her love and energy is put into her family. And often people say that the mother is the heart of the home, because if the mother is happy the family is, and if she isn't the family isn't (etc). Maybe the love, hard-working energy and exuberance that the mother has, rubs off on the kids and creates this very loving, non-contentious family.
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I think that they are able to exist together because the father also loves the family even though he is being harsh and also because the rest of the family follows what their father says. This was the first time ever for Amina to break or go against what the father Ahmad said which is why Amina was told to leave the family. This has never happened before because Amina has never broken the rules and has been honest with her husband. The children have also never gone against their father because they were afraid about what was going to happen.
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This is Sofia...
Although this may sound a little strange (and feel free to disagree with me on this one) I feel that Ahmad's harshness with his family is actually what makes them love and respect him so much. It's true that his severity makes him feared in the family, but I think that that fear turns into a kind of respect, which in turn becomes love for Ahmad. I also would definitely agree with Jake on how, because the family has to be so extremely careful with not offending Ahmad and living in his harsh household, they are almost forced to be close to each other. They all share the same fear of Ahmad but also respect him.
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Honestly, I don't think that the harshness of the father and the erratic showings of love can coexist. Although, they obviously do coexist to a certain degree, the father's rule definitely dilutes the loving atmosphere. But, to contradict myself and for the sake of conversation, the father's harshness promotes love indirectly to that the other members of the family don't take it for granted. Now, I'm not saying that love should or shouldn't be taken for granted, but the tight squeeze the father has seems to push out love when he's not around. I have trouble explaining the love/hate situation in the family mainly because of how convoluted the characters are in relation to each other (as well as the way I order my sentences, haha). But in all simplicity I would say that love will always find a way out of someone be it coerced or manifested by the person completely.
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