Amina scuttles off to prepare a midnight meal, and Si El-Sayed watches her leave. In essence, Mahfouz’s Si El-Sayed was Mr. Man: an individual who demanded glory and reverence simply for being the father of the house. Si El-Sayed embodied the hypocrisies and injustices of patriarchal Egypt, domesticating them into a single household. Academic Salma Abdelsalam describes Si El-Sayed as more than a father, but a god-like decision-maker. The true Si El-Sayed, however, lives on in Mahfouz’s writings as the villain of his own family—a villain of his own making.