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The Thematic links between "Broken April' by Ishmael Kadare and "The Thief And The Dogs" by Naguib Mahfouz

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The thematic links between Ismail Kadare’s “Broken April” and Naguib Mahfouz’s “The Thief and the Dogs”. In these two books, the authors have managed to focus on the sombre and dark emotions felt by the protagonists as they go through a time of trial and hardship. In “Broken April”, Gjorg is part of a village in the Albanian mountains that follows a centuries old protocol called the Kunan that requires him to kill his brother’s murderer in honour of his family. However this killing that Gjorg has to do permits the family of the man he kills to avenge the death, and ultimately do the same to him. [Kadare]writes about the last month that the protagonist (Gjorg) has left to live before he is killed by the man’s family and the feelings and thoughts that he has as a result of his predicament. In “The Thief and the Dogs”, the story is a bit different in the sense that the protagonist (Said) has been betrayed by his fellow thieves and was thrown in prison as a result of this. While in prison, the people who betrayed him flourished in society and one of his closest friends went on to marry his wife and make his daughter his own. When he was released, Said had only one thing in mind and that was revenge, he wanted to confront and kill all his betrayers, his wife and best friend. However Said still wanted to be with his daughter because she knew no better and was taken away from him at a very young age so she never knew him as her father.[Mahfouz] takes us through Said’s path of revenge and the multiple dark and cold emotions that he felt towards his former compatriots and also the contrast of love that he had for his daughter. The most apparent and recurring theme in both the novels is that of death. It is not just the physical aspect of death that is shown but also the emotional and mental implications of it as well. Death is usually explained with repeated reference to graves and cemeteries as these are the most prominent motifsin explaining the feelings of the main characters. Another thematic link is the place of refuge. In the "Broken April",kadare used the kulla of Orosh as a place of refuge and the description of the nature of the tower of refuge is that of gloomy atmosphere where people who are not killed within the time limit specified by the bessa are kept until they die. Kadare also linked darkness with security and this is evident in the fact that the tower has no light and people kept here are considered safe. This is a similar trend in the "thief and the dog" where Nur's house serve as a place of refuge for Said and from the description of Nur's house we realize that it also has no traces of light. In broken april darkness reflects Gjorg fear of death. This is because anytime Gjorg come across darkness he's mind begin to conjure up images of a person hiding nearby and ready to take him down. In the "thief and the dog",Said also dread death but realize that death was inevitable. Said was even scared of walking on the road alone because he was scared he's enemies might attack him. The place of refuge also depicts an act of isolation from the world. In "Broken April",people kept in the tower of refuge are isolated from the world because no one is allowed to go into the tower aside the priest and they are allowed little or no movement because of the nature of the concealment. This same idea of loneliness is portrayed "the thief and the dog" where Said stays alone in Nur's room and is afraid to go out just for the mere fact that he's enemies might attack him in an ambush.