Naguib Mahfouz narrates a story about the existence of absolute happiness in the text ‘’The Happy Man’’. The story is told in the eyes of character that wakes up one morning in state of an absolute happiness. The character himself is shocked that he could find himself in such an exceptionally happiness, when in the real sense, the world does not guarantee. The idea by Mahfouz is tell the readers that nothing exists in the world like absolute happiness and to achieve this, the author uses different literary devices such as irony, satire, and hyperbole among others.
Even though the main character is extraordinary happy, the happiness has been used ironically in the text by the author to show that no one can achieve such a state. The character just lost his family and was in sorrow before waking up to the state of extraordinary happiness. For example, the character is not sure about his new state. He is forced to ask uncle Bashir about it. He says in the text, ‘’… am I a happy man?’’ (p.236).
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Through interactions with other characters in the book, readers start to question the character of the happiness, his new personality, and actions. For example, he starts to talk to people whom he previously treated as enemies such as Uncle Bashir and others in the text. He talks to Bashir as if everything had all along been good between them. He says ‘’Good morning ‘’ to Bashir without feeling any strain of compunction (p. 237).
Therefore, the moral lesson in this story is that true happiness is an illusion in the real world. No can achieve it without losing their mind and that to achieve such a state one has to alienate themselves from the world. Mahfaouz successfully illustrates this by telling the story of the extraordinarily happy man.
