20th Century Themes in Midaq Alley - 1710 Words

20th century themes in Midaq Alley Cairo Egypt, as well as the rest of the world today, is going through fast changes quite often. In Midaq Alley, Naguib Mafhouz slows down the fast paced changes in Cairo during World War 2 by revealing the intimate lives of the Alley inhabitants. The roles that the characters are born into are no longer wanted by the younger generations due to the hopeful gains offered in the material world. By referring to and utilizing the four 20th century themes of, global interrelatedness, identity and difference, the rise of the mass of society, and technology versus nature while reading, the audience can better understand life in the Middle East. Midaq Alley helps make clear what the innermost workings and true†¦show more content†¦He goes into great sensual detail about how he watched her grow up from a twig into a slender and endowed 20 year old. Samir’s heart attack essentially leads Hamida to Ibrahim who believes she is, â€Å"a whore by instinct†(Mafhouz 198). Ibrahim greatly manipulated her naivety, anger, and lack of life experience. Her anger was told most presently during their first meeting when, â€Å"her blood boiled. She wanted to humiliate him with loud curses in front of the whole crowd†(Mafhouz 157). Hamidas’ youngness and lack of direction can be seen when Hamida gave into Ibrahim’s charm and entered defeated into his world of prostitution. This can be further grasped when the narrator said, â€Å"She felt that life was the only enemy she did not know how to deal with†(Mafhouz 165). The cafà © owner Kirsha brought disgrace to his family and gossip to the Alley by his lust for and evening sprees with young boys. In turn, Mrs. Kirsha turns to Radwan Hussainy as a last resort for guidance and sums up Kirsha’s struggles by telling him that, â€Å"He is completely immoral and neither his age, his wife, nor children can cure his lechery†(Mafhouz 91). More tow nspeople, such as the filthy cripple maker Zaita and the dirty and uneducated dentist Dr. Booshy, can be seen later in the story giving into their desires by robbing graves for gold teeth plates. This affected all of the townspeople greatly, more so Mrs. Afify who had been given a set of gold teeth from Dr. Booshy (Mafhouz 229).Show MoreRelatedMidaq Alley Essay1794 Words   |  8 PagesThe theme of Midaq Alley cuts to the heart of Arab society. Namely, it shows how a group of characters living in the same slum neighborhood responds to the combined promise and threat of Western-influenced modernization. Midaq Alley is about the Egyptian residents of a hustling, packed back alley in Cairo in the 1940s. The attempts of several residents to escape the alley and move up in status end with dreams broken and unfulfilled. The opening sentences of Midaq Alley points to a world bypassedRead MoreEssay on Midaq Alley1828 Words   |  8 PagesThe theme of Midaq Alley cuts to the heart of Arab society. Namely, it shows how a group of characters living in the same slum neighborhood responds to the combined promise and threat of Western-influenced modernization. Midaq Alley is about the Egyptian residents of a hustling, packed back alley in Cairo in the 1940s. The attempts of several residents to escape the alley and move up in status end with dreams broken and unfulfilled. The opening sentences of Midaq Alley points to a world bypassed

Peer- review article free essay sample

A NEW QUANTITATIVE APPROACH TO MEASURE PERCEIVED WORK-RELATED STRESS IN ITALIAN EMPLOYEES By Cevenini, G. , Fratini, I. , Gambassi, R. (2012) Cevenini, Fratini, and Gambassi (2012) goal was to give accurate quantification of what participants perceived occupational stress to be. Their study is a new quantitative approach of questionnaire data collection and analysis. They chose a statistical multivariate procedure. Their aim was to obtain a one-dimensional estimation of occupational stress which would guide psychologist through intervention strategies to protect workers’ health and safety (Cevenini, Fratini, Gambassi, 2012). Methods Cevenini, Fratini, and Gambassi (2012) shortened their questionnaire by using the principal component analysis. PCA was performed by rotating the solutions with Varimax method and Kaiser Normalization (Velicer, 1990). Cevenini, Fratini, and Gambassi (2012) provided a score for each of the six stress dimensions. This was useful to characterize the different types of stress perceived by the employees. The risk scores were gathered by multivariate statists’ procedures that sequentially combined a clustering technique with linear discriminant analysis (Krzanowski, 1988). We will write a custom essay sample on Peer- review article or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Assumption of the linear discriminant function as risk score, was expressed as a percentage of the whole score range. Cronbach’s analysis was performed by Cevenini, Fratini, and Gambassi (2012) to test their statistical consistency and reliability (Gonbach Shavelson, 2004). A one-dimensional quantitative description of each aspect was obtained using the same clustering approach as for risk scores by maximizing the discrimination level between low and high values of D, R and S, detected by empirical data through non-hierarchical cluster analysis. The solution of the associated linearized system gave: ? 0 = 120, ^ = 0. 08654 and ? 2 = 0. 00561. Under the hypothesis of equal distribution for responders and non-responders, the lack of any statistically significant differences between training and testing data for the stress index (Mann-Whitney test, ? = 0. 897) indicated good model generalization capacity. Median and interquartile values (in brackets) were 0. 133 (-1. 363-0. 853) and 0. 035 (-1. 097-0. 875), respectively. Linear discriminate was applied to the axes scores to find the two discriminant functions and F2. They provide optimal linear separation between each pairs of the three empirically-identified clusters of workers representing the three modeled stress states. In other words, fx and ^ define two discriminant dimensions that allow the best distinction between homogeneous groups of different actual perceptions about occupational stress by Italian employees. Results After receiving a refusal rate for telephone interviews Cevenini, Fratini, and Gambassi (2012) observed 72%, making that a total of 8639 telephone contacts needed to complete the stratified sample of 2419 Italian employees. This process took two months. Their study had a 95% confidence interval of sampling error, of less than 2% of the whole variation range of stress index. In using the PCA to reduce the questionnaire items calculated about 81% expanded variance of the whole phenomenon. Cronbach analysis proved to be most reliable for the model axes, which confirmed the good selection of Delphi group.