/Half a Day Summary: “Half A Day”

“Half a Day” is a short story by Nobel Prize-winning Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz.
Published as part of Mahfouz’s 1991 collection The Time and the Place and Other Stories,
“Half a Day” departs from the social realism for which Mahfouz became famous, instead
employing elements of allegory and surrealism. All quotes in this guide refer to Denys
Johnson-Davies’s English translation of the work.
*Born in 1911, educated at Cairo University
*Wrote short stories and historical novels before WWII
*Turned to write novels of social realism after WWII
*Later works combined realism & symbolism
A prolific writer: no fewer than 30 novels, more than 100 short stories, and more than 200
articles.

Title:
The title of Mahfouz’s story provides an important clue to the work’s central theme. Ostensibly
a reference to the amount of time that passes over the course of the story, “half a day” is in fact
a statement about the relative shortness of human life; as Mahfouz depicts it, the period from
birth to death isn’t even comparable to a full 24 hours, but only to a school day.

As the story opens, the narrator is a young boy walking to his first day of school. The boy is
delighted with the new clothes he is wearing for the occasion, but is apprehensive about going to
school. As he walks along, holding onto his father's hand, he occasionally turns to ask his father
why he must go; he feels that perhaps he is being sent away from home as a punishment.

Although his father reassures him, he is not convinced that ''there really was any good to be had
in tearing me away from the intimacy of my home.'' At the gate to the school, the boy hesitates
again, and must be gently pushed by his father to enter the schoolyard. Telling him to ‘‘be a
man,’’ the father explains that ‘‘today you truly begin life.’’

Upon stepping into the yard, the boy sees the faces of the other boys and girls, but feels ''like a
stranger who had lost his way.’’ One boy approaches and asks the narrator who brought him to
school; when he replies that it was his father, the other boy states that his own father is dead.

The narrator soon becomes one of the group of children, and the narrative voice changes from
the first person singular 'T' to alternatively speaking in the third person plural ''we."

The narrator makes friends with some of the boys and falls in love with some of the girls. He
describes the school day in a manner which is meant to be interpreted as an allegory for human
life, with its ups and downs, trials and tribulations.

When the bell rings to announce the end of the day, the narrator steps outside the gate, but his
father is not waiting there for him as promised. He encounters a familiar middle-aged man; they
greet one another and shake hands before the man moves along.
The narrator finds that the street and surroundings have completely changed since the morning.
These changes are meant to be understood in allegorical terms, as representing the effect of
modernization and urbanization in radically changing the face of the city within the lifetime of
one man.

He is unable to cross the street because of heavy traffic. Finally, a ‘‘young lad’’ offers to help
him across, addressing him as "Grandpa"—the little boy has passed an entire life time in what
seemed like only half a day, and is now an old man at the end of his life.

Setting

As is the case in allegorical stories, the setting Day" is general. Mahfouz has lived in Cairo,
Egypt, all of Half of his life and nearly all of h his stories take place there - - so it can be
assumed that the story is set in Cairo. Yet it is told in such a way that it could take place in
almost any schoolyard in any city over the course of the twentieth century.

The setting, however, is more important in terms of its allegorical meaning. The schoolyard
refers to the "school of life." The events that occur there represent the experiences of an entire
human life span. The gate to the schoolyard thus represents an important stage of transition in the
life of the narrator. He first passes through the gate in order to make the transition from early
childhood into manhood and adulthood. As the narrator's father tells him while gently pushing
him through the gate, "today you truly being life."

Stepping out of the gate at the end of the "half a day" spent in school, the narrator, now and old
man, is is once again making the transition to the ending of his life, on his way to 'home," which
signifies death and the afterlife.

Characters

The Father

It is the young boy’s father who, “clutching” his hand, takes the boy to school. When the boy
asks if he is being sent away from home for being a bother, his father assures him that school is
not a punishment, but a “factory” which turns boys into men. As he enters the school the boy
hesitates, but his father gently pushes him and tells him to “be a man.”

The boy’s father is an important character in both a literal and a symbolic sense. As a coming-of-
age story, “Half a Day” concerns themes of fatherhood and the different stages of human life.
The boy’s father is seen to represent the narrator himself, at a different stage of life.

He may also symbolize God, who ushers each human being both into and out of life.

The Mother
The image of the boy’s mother appears only once, at the beginning of the story. As he sets out
for his first day of school, his mother stands at the window “watching our progress.” The boy
occasionally turns to look back at his mother, “as though appealing for help.”

The mother Is a significant part of the coming-of-age process. The father initiates this process by
taking his son out of the home and away from his mother, “tearing me away from the intimacy of
my home.” Although he occasionally looks to his mother for comfort, the boy must separate
from his mother in order to become an adult. (It is interesting to note that Mahfouz lived with his
own mother until the mature age of forty-three, when he married for the first time.)

The Narrator

As the story opens, the narrator is a young boy going to his first day of school. Apprehensive
about being away from home, he soon begins to fit in and enjoy his time as a member of the
class.

When the bell rings to announce the end of the day, the narrator steps outside the gate. His father
is not waiting there for him, and he starts to walk home by himself. He finds that the street and
surroundings have completely changed, a sight that leaves him overwhelmed and disoriented.

He attempts to cross the street, but the traffic is heavy and he hesitates. Finally, a “young lad,”
offers to help him across, addressing him as “Grandpa” – the little boy has passed an entire life
time in what seemed like only half a day, and is now an old man at the end of his life.

The Middle-Aged Man

When the narrator leaves the school, he encounters a familiar middle-aged man. This man
approaches the narrator, greeting him and shaking his hand. When the narrator an old man now
asks how he is doing, the middle-aged man replies, “As you can see, not all that good, the
Almighty be praised!” The man then shakes the narrator’s hand again and continues along his
way.

The Other Children

Although he at first feels like a “stranger,” the narrator soon becomes a member of the class. His
identification with the other children is indicated in the narrative by the fluctuation between first-
person singular narrative voice (“I”), and first-person plural (“We”). The children represent
humanity, and their experiences are meant to be interpreted as symbolic of the human experience
of life.

The Teachers

The primary teacher introduces the children to some of the wonders of life; she is also a harsh
disciplinarian who frequently “would resort to physical punishment.” On an allegorical level, the
teacher is not an individual person, but life itself, which offers many wonders and many
punishments.
The Young Lad

The “young lad” appears in the closing lines of the story. He extends his arm to the narrator,
addressing him as “Grandpa.”

Narrative Voice

The narrative voice of a story refers to who tells the story. In “Half a Day,” the narrative voice is
that of the main character, who, at the beginning, is a young boy; by the end, the narrator is an
old man.

In the beginning, the story is told in the “first person singular, perspective of an individual “I.”
However, this voice alters once he has entered the schoolyard, at which point it slides into a first
person plural voice from a group perspective of ”We.” The narrator thus describes school as a
group experience, whereby he speaks from the perspective of the common experience of all of
the children.

This change in perspective is significant to the allegorical implications of the story. The story
describes the experience of the human condition; therefore, the narrator’s experiences in
understood in school are meant to bell terms of the ways in which “we,” humans, experience life,
time and memory.

Coming-Of-Age

“Half a Day” is a “coming-of-age” story, meaning that one of its central themes is the transition
from childhood to adulthood.

The narrator, a young boy, is at first reluctant to be “torn” away from “the intimacy of my
home.” As his father leads him by the hand toward school, he looks back “as though appealing
for help” to his mother, who stands in the window, “watching our progress.” This scenario
suggests the early stages of life.

As he matures and moves farther away from the security and intimacy of home and family,
however, he symbolically looks to his mother for comfort and reassurance. When the young boy
protests that he does not want to be sent away from home, his father describes the school as a
place in which boys become men. At the gates of the schoolyard, the boy is still reluctant to take
the first step in the transition from childhood into adulthood, but his father instructs him to “be a
man,” telling him “Today you truly begin life.”

Style

Allegory

An allegory is a story with events and characters not meant to be interpreted at a literal level but
at a symbolic one. Menahem Milson, in his book Naguib Mahfouz: The Novelist-Philosopher of
Cairo, maintains that in the work of Mahfouz, "allegory is an extremely important literary
mode," "Half a Day" is an allegory for life and the human condition. The story is clearly not
meant to be interpreted literally, since the use of time in the narrative is completely unrealistic.
The narrator enters the schoolyard a young boy and leaves it "half a day" later, only to discover
that the world outside has been completely transformed and he is now the age of a grandfather.
The "half a day" spent in school is thus an allegory for the way in which an entire lifetime can
seem to last only "half a day.

The school represents what one might call the "school of life," as all of the events that take place
there are allegorical for the human condition and the human experience of life. Because the story
is an allegory, none of the characters, including the main character, are given names; they are
meant to represent humanity in general, and their experiences are that of the t human condition,
rather than of individuals. The meaning in this story is thus derived from re-examining it in terms
of its allegorical, rather than literal, implications.

Symbols

In Mahfouz’s short story, “Half a Day,” the short time mentioned in the title is itself a symbol for
an entire life. Such time-related symbolism occurs several times in the story. As the story begins,
the narrator is dressed in new clothes, which are a symbol of a beginning, a fresh start. Likewise,
the road with its constant stream of cars at the end of the story can be seen as a symbol of death,
whichh is often represented in literature as a crossing. The changed landscape which greets the
narrator outside the school symbolizes the passage of time and the pace of change, while the
conjurers and snake charmers represent the tricks time plays on the mind.

The most substantial and multi-faceted symbol in the story, however, is the school itself, which
represents life. People often refer to having been educated in "the university of life" or "the
school of hard knocks," and the symbolism here reverses these metaphors. The building, in
particular, which is described as a "huge, high-walled fortress, exceedingly stern and grim,"
symbolizes the type of institutions in which we spend our lives. The narrator's father even
describes it as a "factory," though the narrator is the raw material—and finally the product—
rather than one of the workers.

Another important symbol in the story is the snake, which is traditionally associated with evil,
trickery, and deceit. The boy—who's become an old man over the course of "half a day"—
notices the snake-charmers when he comes out of the school gates at home time. He also notices
magicians conjuring up snakes out of baskets, and then making them suddenly disappear.

The snake is a particularly appropriate symbol here as it appears that the old man has been
tricked. He's completely disoriented by the unfamiliar sights and sounds of the streets outside the
school gates. As we saw earlier, the snake is often associated with trickery and deceit, and it is
therefore a particularly apt symbol for the state of confusion which the old man feels on leaving
the school grounds. It's as if life has played a cruel trick on him, or some expert conjuror has
made the old world he knew so well vanish into thin air.
Naguib Mahfouz purposely uses symbols in "Half a Day" to pass his intended message to the
reader. The concept of time in "Half a Day" is unrealistic and thus symbolic. The narrator spends
only half of his day in school. However, by the time he retires from school, he is an old man. The
world has drastically evolved, and he is dismayed by some significant changes. On the way, the
narrator makes out cars and tall buildings which he had never seen before. As such, “half a day”
spent in school represents the entire human life, which is deemed short.

Further, the school which the narrator attends is another significant symbol used by Naguib
Mahfouz. The school reflects stages of development, lessons, and experiences encountered by
people on their journey of life. In the text, the narrator is adamant that he does not want to leave
his home to go to school. He continually asks his father why he deserves such a punishment.
However, when the narrator comes out of school, he is mature and has a sense of transformation.

It is clear that Naguib Mahfouz’s "Half a Day" is not meant for literal interpretation and can only
be comprehended through its symbolism.
The major symbol in Naguib Mahfouz's short story "Half a Day" is the school which the narrator
attends. The school is symbolic of the narrator's life from childhood to old age. At first it is a
foreboding place. His father calls it a factory and its structure described as a "high-walled
fortress, exceedingly stern and grim." The narrator is loath to leave behind his comfortable home
and the "gardens" and "extensive fields" which line the street as he travels to the school

The gardens and fields are symbolic of the narrator's childhood which spreads out in front of him
full of promise and anticipation.

At school the narrator eventually overcomes his tears and begins to "face life joyfully." The word
"life" spoken by the woman at the school is foreshadowing of the fact that the school is the
narrator's life. He would grow and learn, make friends, fall in love and, through trials and
tribulations, enjoy much of his experience. The school, however, just like life, had its ups and
downs, its joys and sorrows. Once an adult, the narrator lives a life of "exertion, struggle and
perseverance." Some of his classmates (and probably the narrator) even took advantage of
opportunities and became successful and happy.

At the end of "half a day" of school the narrator goes back on the same street from which he
arrived. The street is much changed. Instead of the wonders of the far reaching fields which
originally greeted the narrator, he now faces a claustrophobic modern city full of traffic,
"disturbing noises" and "hills of refuse," symbolizing the reality that his life has passed him by
with a myriad of developments and changes which he never even realized were taking place
around him as he busied himself with the details of his life.