Analysis Of 'Cairo : My City, My City'

Throughout history, Americans have sought to spread the spirit of equality, which is believed to be the realization of true freedom. Before establishing this freedom, every American had only one question stuck in their head: What is freedom? Our country received it in the year of 1776 from the British through a series of difficulties and wars. African Americans defined it as an escape from slavery, while immigrants defined it as their acceptance into a new society. More yet, women of the women’s suffrage defined their freedom as their recognition into society and for their rights to be equal to that of every other man. These different perceptions of cultures/groups in America tied together to form an American view of freedom. Freedom is

A majority of people that chose to accept freedom believing it would give them better opportunities in life soon realised that life as a free person wasn’t as positive as they initially thought.

In Western culture we are born with the right of autonomy. It is believed that this right can never be taken away from us. We are born into this privilege of liberty and are given opportunities to grow and make our own choices without being oppressed or discouraged for them. We are free, or so we think we are. In the book Slave My True Story by Mende Nazer and Damien Lewis (2003), Mende a 12 year old girl, is stripped of her happiness, childhood and most of all, her freedom.

William E. Gladstone states” Justice delayed is justice denied.” Meaning when justice is not served in a timely manner, it means you receive any justice at all. In the” I have dream” speech by Martin Luther King Jr. he talks about the injustice people of color were receiving in the 1940s-60s. “Cairo: My city or Revolution” by Ahdaf Soueif tells of a family who lives under the rule of a dictator. And the story “Lolita in Tehran” by Azar Nafisi and talks about a woman in Tehran being discriminated against because of her gender. All of these texts give us instances where people were being denied freedom. I believe that freedom should be demanded rather than being given.

The definition of freedom depends entirely on how the phrase “freedom from…” ends. Perhaps a most straightforward understanding of freedom is the laissez-faire emphasis on limiting the power of government to interfere in economic and social matters. In this state of absolute freedom, however, inequalities exist between people, so that freedom from a controlling government does not imply individuals’ freedom of contract, movement, legal protection, equal rights through citizenship, or political voice. In light of the persistence of slavery in the US through the 19th century, freedom as an individual’s legal status separated people who could be citizens from people who were lifelong slaves. Even among legally free people, economic

The expansion and development on specific civil liberties and rights since the birth of America can be seen as one of the biggest evolutions in the Constitution. The original Constitution and Bill of Rights did not convey anything about equality aside from that all Americans are entitled to due process in court. The word “equality” for instance does not even appear in the Constitution. Thus the topic of equality and civil rights is a grey area that is not clearly defined or understood. Prior to the Civil War, the inequality of African Americans and women for example were easily apparent. African Americans lived as slaves and had no rights at all and were claimed by some in court cases that the Founders believed that blacks had no rights that the government had to honor. While women also suffered many inequalities such as not having the right to vote and some states went so far as to deny them right to own property or submit contracts. The exclusion of civil rights allowed for interpretation and the implementation of unequal policies throughout the states.

I would like to begin by asking the same question James A. Garfield had asked in 1865, “What is freedom”, is it a bare privilege of not being

Freedom is not a term with a simple definition or interpretation. While the basic understanding of freedom is for one to have certain rights and liberties as a citizen, the American notion and application of freedom have certainly changed since its very beginning as a nation. A crucial part of America’s history that challenged the idea of true “American freedom” for citizens was the Reconstruction Era. Although the Union troops were pulled out of the South and ended de jure segregation, the emergence of Jim Crow laws at the end of Reconstruction facilitated de facto segregation. Instead of completely achieving equal freedom, Reconstruction ultimately hindered African American’s freedom with the emergence of the black codes that resurfaced again

Now a day we bypass valuable freedom opportunities in everyday life and we see them as nothing. For example, being able to even walk in your backyard in the evening, or taking your own kids to school, matter of fact even the privilege to attend school, calling your family members in no time, being able to relax, have an easy day and working at a place of your liking. All these things are part of our freedom that we normally don’t think about or how these things would greatly impact our life. These were small things that greatly impacted a slave’s life in the 1930s, not being able to choose their own life path, always being the use of everybody else, never having the opportunity to take a deep breath of fresh air. This was my life as a slave

Freedom and the way it is seen is always changing, even in today’s time. When new presidents are elected for example, this gives significant power to whoever is elected. Their views on things like color or restrictions on people can impact everyone. Even the word itself has many meanings to it that vary. Many times, laws get passed by the government that we think is helping the nation expand, this is not always the case. From the Post-Civil War, up to the twenty-first century there has been plenty of examples that have expanded but have also limited freedom.

Blacks may have been told that they were receiving their freedom after the Civil War, but in all reality they had just as many, if not even more obstacles to face as when they were slaves. They had to deal with issues that had never

Looking back, it is astonishing to see how much people yearned for freedom. The people wanted freedom so much to the point where they were willing to turn their backs on their lives and start from

Losing something so powerful like freedom can really damage one's body physically and mentally. Freedom is important in living an everyday life, and that being taken away from a person is painful and an unpleasant feeling. When there is physical and mental freedom there is happiness. For example “Europeans settled in Africa and using them for slaves and taking them away from their homeland” (World History, 2009, p.773) The Europeans came barging into a country which did not belong to them at the time taken poor citizens of Nigeria and making them work

The Yacoubian Building, like many novels in the vein of historical fiction, contextualizes factual events through characterization and symbolism. Set in post-Nasser modern Egypt, the reader is introduced to a number of characters - a wealthy, promiscuous engineer; a young woman down on her luck; a boy turned quickly to fundamentalist attitudes just to name a few. These characters and their escapades provide more than just entertainment for the reader, however. Al-Aswany uses the characters in his novel to illuminate the psychological, social, and emotional effects of Egyptian political history. Much like liberal Egypt, Nasser’s reign and the Arab Socialist movement was filled with idealism and promise, both of which gave way to corruption and greed. One can easily find economic statistics or political articles detailing the objective inadequacies of Nasser, Sadat, and their successors. Al-Aswany brings a different, equally valuable narrative. This novel fills in the gaps of objective and factual histories, allowing the reader to understand the personal and emotional response to seminal events in Egyptian history. The personal truly is the political, and The Yacoubian Building exemplifies that statement.

In the novels Midaq Alley and The Yacoubian Building, we are shown the ongoing, daily struggles of the working-poor in both colonial and postcolonial Egypt. Both share central, overarching themes such as debauchery, desperation, and unstable political situations. The two settings are both examples of microcosms, “cities within a city”. Midaq Alley is a small, dead-end neighborhood in 1940’s Cairo that consists of various shops and apartments. Within each of these buildings are characters that live completely separate lives but all have the same aspirations, to experience the world outside and the wealth it has. The Yacoubian Building is also set in Cairo during the turbulent 1990’s. Similarly, the characters were all tenants of a large apartment building, living in cramped and decrepit spaces.