How we cite our quotes: (Page)
Quote #1
[...] I turned over and over in my mind all that was happening to us. How Father had struggled on the right side and how he had been crushed by this political giant, this great hero of our Arab world. And I thought of the years of careful, devoted, meticulous thought and calculation about the Nile that had gone into his work and his understanding of this river, and of his heroic attempt to avert catastrophe and preserve for future generations the riches that Egyptians had enjoyed, and depended on, for their lives and their civilization since the beginning of time. (20)
As Ahmed attends her father in his last illness, she has a really hard time understanding how his heroic efforts could have such a tragic ending. No doubt this realization—that good people can suffer intensely in an unjust system—helped her to be stubborn about leaving Egypt to pursue a career. She also understands that this personal tragedy gives her an alternate narrative for the historic events happening in Egypt. She has a much better grasp on who really was a hero—and who truly wasn't.
Quote #2
[Egyptians] had not grasped or even remotely begun to surmise that in European eyes there was one thing that defined them as unalterably and ineluctably different, unalterably and ineluctably unlike Europeans and unalterably and ineluctably inferior—their race. (36)
This was the honeymoon period in modern Egyptian history, when the expectation of independent development for Egypt seemed a real possibility. It was also still a time when Egyptians looked to Europe as an advanced civilization, worthy of emulation. In hindsight, Ahmed says, her countrymen didn't really get it. The cards would always be stacked against Egyptian ambition because of deep-seated racial prejudice. Ahmed isn't blaming Egyptians for ignorance—it took her a long time to get it, too.
Quote #3
Father's reading of why the British had tried to obstruct his training as an engineer was that they wanted to prevent natives from acquiring such skills so that the country would have to continue to depend on British know-how. That was the way the British were in those days, he said. Unjust in their dealings with Egyptians, trying one way or another to hold onto the country for themselves. (43)
Once again, Ahmed finds that political agenda interferes with the hopes and dreams of everyday citizens. But there's something especially insidious at work here. The obstruction of education like this for Egyptians was meant to cripple Egypt's ability to be self-reliant and to sustain development in the future. While Ahmed's father can't prove this agenda, it falls in with other British policies meant to cripple the country.