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Theme Of Order In The Tale Of Sinuhe

Decent Essays

In the ‘Tale of Sinuhe’, the path of Sinuhe’s flight or more aptly put, his journey of self, is one that is indubitably complex – it resonates with the concept of uprooting oneself from a semblance of normality (‘order’) into a state of unfamiliarity (‘chaos’). This paradigm shift, due to an irrational response to fear on Sinhue’s part, leads to an existential crisis whereby the course of his trajectory and social identity is questioned extensively. Subsequently, throughout the tale the themes of rational and irrational thought, self vs. other and order vs. chaos are explored and as a result contribute to Sinuhe’s journey of self and restoration of his true identity as an Egyptian.
In the beginning of the tale, the virtues of Sinuhe’s character and loyalty are called into question. As a royal courtier belonging to the virtues of Egypt, fleeing his home was in effect, an unwitting renunciation of all his culture’s values. (Parkinson, 1997:22) Thus, Sinuhe’s flight, an …show more content…

other are contrasted. The ‘order’ of the Egyptian life is contrasted to the ‘chaos’ of foreign Syria. There is even an implication that Egypt is ‘superior’ to that of Syria – this is implied through the use of ‘Other” to refer to Syria and indicates inferiority. However, despite this implication, Sinuhe benefits from those he views as the ‘other’ as they essentially rescued him both literally and figuratively. Literally, in the sense that they rescued him from his impending death and the figurative rescuing of himself, essentially from himself. This flight or journey of self enabled Sinuhe to gain an acute awareness and understanding of other cultures as well as the differences between self vs. ‘other’. These said differences, in combination with Sinuhe struggling to establish a social identity within Syria (B 92 – 177), further substantiates that he does not

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