25 pages 50 minutes read

Naguib Mahfouz

Half a Day

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1991

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Essay Topics

1.

In what ways does Mahfouz foreshadow the ending of “Half a Day”?

2.

Compare and contrast the work’s final paragraph with its first two. How do their similarities and differences contribute to the story’s overall meaning?

3.

Compare and contrast the sections of the story narrated in first-person singular (“I”) with those narrated in first-person plural (“we”). Why might Mahfouz have chosen first-person plural for the sections of the story set at school?