World Literature

“As a matter of fact, my whole life seemed to be threatened with failure. My self-confidance began to be badly shaken, and I went through difficult moments. It looked to me as though this woman, who had killed a human being, was a much better person than I. Compared to her, I was nothing but a small insect crawling upon the land amidst millions of others insects.”

These passage shares the personal thoughts of protagonist and the author- Naval El Saadawi.  “It looked to me as though this woman, who had killed a human being, was a much better person than I.”  Naval admires Firdaus for taking the death sentence with humility and bravery. Relatively she founds herself insecure and miserable and possibly in some way even jealous to strength of the character.

“As a matter of fact, my whole life seemed to be threatened with failure.”  The author obsessive desire in pursuing Firdaus to gain the unique story reveals to itself her dependency towards her selfish ambitions. In contrast with Firdaus who does not look for glory or proving her innocense to no one.

“Compared to her, I was nothing but a small insect crawling upon the land amidst millions of others insects.”   Symbolically author draws an analogy between the insects and people in order to represent people as very small weak creatures. Likewise incests often survive within their own kind, so do people depend on each other if not physically but socially. Firdaus seem to the author as a person of its own special kind, who possess no fear against most terrifying event that might experience any human being – the expectancy of its own execution.