Half a Day

“Half a Day” is a short story by Nobel Prize-winning Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz (Midaq Alley, Palace Walk, Zaabalawi). 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.

The story opens in an unnamed city early in the morning. The narrator, a young boy, is struggling to keep up with his father, who is walking him to school for the first time. Although his father is cheerful and reassuring, remarking that the day represents an important step forward in life, the narrator is nervous; he feels he’s being punished: “I did not believe there was really any good to be had in tearing me away from the intimacy of my home” (Paragraph 5). His anxiety only increases when he arrives at school, where he and the other children are divided into groups and welcomed by a woman who advises them to accept the school as their new home.

The narrator and the other students do so and find themselves enjoying their new environment; they attend classes, play games, nap, and make new friends. As time goes on, however, they realize that their new lives also involve a great deal of hard work and frustration: “And while the lady would sometimes smile, she would often scowl and scold” (Paragraph 14).

As sunset approaches, the narrator emerges from school expecting to find his father waiting for him as he promised. When his father doesn’t show up, he begins walking home by himself and runs into a middle-aged man who greets him familiarly. They exchange pleasantries, and the narrator continues walking, only to find that the city has changed dramatically since the morning; he’s now surrounded not by gardens, but by crowds of people, cars, and tall buildings. Increasingly alarmed and more desperate to reach home than ever, the narrator is trying to cross a busy street when a young boy approaches to help him, addressing him as “Grandpa.”