XI

After graduation, Said returned to Egypt but with a different spirit. It was no longer the

same place as he used to see it. The changing political climate was so intense that it worried

foreigners about their business above all considerations. The new politics of Jamal Abdunnasir

obliged many families, of the then privileged minorities, to leave the country or at least to get

involved in the turbulent political affairs. Paradoxically, Said’s father business grew more and

more after establishing his own independent business. Said’s parent kept pressing him into

service in the family business without any specific duties. It was their way to prepare him for

holding the responsibility as a Man of the family and the deputy of his father while ,ironically,

he felt that he was less favoured as far as his sisters were concerned. The domestic sphere did

not appeal to Said’s interest who seemed too concerned with academic achievement.

His experience at Princeton intensified the sense of alienation he always felt in Egypt,

which became a far remote place in his mind. The new setting at Princeton did not afford him

to set a kind of affinity towards the world he lived in, but allowed him instead getting engaged

in academia and political discussion. It was there that he felt a total change in speaking and

thinking. He became more concerned in politics and the happenings in the Middle East.

Especially, the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Said gained much understanding of the secrets of interpretation and philosophical

inquiries at the same university. He was too indebted to his competent teachers who set him on

the right track of solid learning that had formed the foundations of everything he did as a teacher

or a scholar. Apart from the negative memories of discomfort and isolation, it was there where

he found himself digging deeper and beyond the level of formal academic disciplines to develop

a new state of mind fully concerned with the suffering of his people.
 During the political Crisis of Suez, Said got anxious about his family and the people of

Egypt. The incident raised his awareness of the injustice of the western world to the Middle

East and atrocities Zionism committed against his armless people in Palestine. That event was

the beginning of the moral commitment he would adhere to throughout his subsequent life. He

states one of his heated debates with a man called Arthur gold about the injustice of Israel to

the Palestinian and the strange incident of a Rabbi advising him to help their fellow citizens in

their struggle against Israel.

During his last part of time at Princeton, he engaged in a romantic relation with Rosy

but it ended soon for his heart was attached to another women. Then he ended another one with

Eva to make an unhappy marriage that ended soon as well. After graduation from Princeton,

his parent were so pride of his achievement. He recounts how they were lavish with him and

supportive throughout his life. After successive trips to European countries, they came back to

Egypt. He worked with his father in his business though he soon realized that he had not the

passion for that kind of work. Later., he relates his mother suffering and her late days as well

as his struggle with sleeplessness.