ABSTRACT
Naguib Mahfouz's examination of postcolonial Egyptians' cultural identity thus illuminates our understanding of the world. His determination to pursue a creative vocation resulted from a discontinuation of his academic studies. Given the unfavorable nature of a society that mostly rewarded the wealthy and honored the powerful, as the discussion on Mahfouz's famous Cairo Trilogy will highlight, his resolve was extraordinary. The claim that the Egyptian thinkers were happy to replace the political view of Islam with Western secular ideals does not appear entirely valid in the case of an intellectual like Mahfouz, who was more interested in an exchange between Western and Islamic views of society. Later in the same article, Viorst notes an interconnection between Western and Islamic ideas of democracy. The Trilogy contains the stories of love and longing through highlighting a Cairene family's struggle to find stability in their success-driven society.
