Description
A Man of Awesome Power Analysis – A Silent Song and Other Stories Study Guide
A Man of Awesome Power by Naquib Mahfouz
About the author
A Man of Awesome Power is a story created and written by Naquib Mahfouz. Naguib Mahfouz Abdelaziz Ibrahim Ahmed Al-Basha (11 December 1911 – 30 August 2006) an Egyptian writer who won the 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Mahfouz is regarded as one of the first contemporary writers in the Arabic literature.
The short story A Man with Awesome Power appears in Naguib Mahfouz’s “The seventh Heaven of 2005, which is a series of short stories.
He published 35 novels, over 350 short stories, 26 screenplays, hundreds of op-ed columns for Egyptian newspapers, and seven plays over a 70-year career, from the 1930s until 2004.
All of his novels take place in Egypt, and always mentions the lane, which equals the world.
The Title
The title “A Man of Awesome Power” is appropriate for the story because it refers to Tayyib’s miraculous ability to make things happen simply by saying “Be!”
This power is described as being “awesome” in the sense that it is beyond human understanding and beyond the scope of what most people would consider possible.
The title also suggests that Tayyib is a man who is transformed by his power, as he becomes someone with an unusual and almost divine ability to shape reality.
The title captures the central theme of the story, which is the idea of a man who has been granted an extraordinary power and must navigate the challenges and responsibilities that come with it.
The story captures how an individual who is empowered when least expected utilises the power given to him.
His illusions of desire for a better country lead to his dream of power acquisition.
The Plot Summary
Tayyib al-Mahdi is a man who believes that he has completed his mission in life and is living a contented, retired existence in an apartment in Nasr City. His current life is peaceful and uneventful. He spends time watching television, reading newspapers or listening to the radio in the comfort of his apartment that he shares with his wife since his daughters are already married.
One night, a man of radiant appearance appears to him in a dream and tells him that he has the power to make things happen simply by saying “Be!” At first, Tayyib is skeptical of the dream, but when he tries out his new power by commanding the television to change channels and makes it happen, he realizes that the dream was real. Endowed with the newly acquired power, he sets out to reform his country and the entire planet as he had often wished.
He begins to use his power in various ways, such as making a taxi driver’s tires explode when the driver refuses to pick him up, making a television broadcaster sneeze uncontrollably, and forcing a corrupt businessman to go to the tax prosecutor’s office to repent and pay his debts.
As he uses his power more and more, Tayyib becomes more confident and ambitious, and he begins to draw up a comprehensive plan for using his power to reform his country and the world.
However, after a brief period of happiness and success with using his power, Tayyib makes a grave mistake that cause his power to be taken from him.
The start of the mistake – Tayyib falls in love with a woman at the zoo.
Culmination of the mistake – Tayyib uses his power to make the woman at the zoo fall in love with him.
Consequence of the mistake – Their (Tayyib and the woman at the zoo) intimacy costs him his incredible power. He pays this price for misusing the power that God had freely given him.
After this realization that his power has disappeared Tayyib is left feeling sad and regretful.
For though Tayyib is busy planning to effectively utilise his power for the good of all sectors in the country the forementioned unfortunate incident (THE MISTAKE) caused by his greed (which is a bad and selfish use of his power) occurs and thus he loses it all.
Tayyib not only loses the power given to him freely by God but also the comfort and contentment that he had at the begining of the story. Afterall, Tayyib experiences a tremendous sadness that
will haunt him for the rest of his life.
The plot tells a story of the ideal growth into power positions and how individuals grow from honest intentions to self-centeredness.
The short of it, “The moral man who eventually abuses his power.”
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