The Nile River Symbol Analysis

The Nile river, on whose banks the Sudanese village of Wad Hamid sits, represents the great forces of nature, which are capable of both sustaining life and destroying it. The Nile’s symbolic value as a force of nature capable of sustaining life is suggested by the fact that it is this river on which the villagers of Wad Hamid depend for their livelihoods. It is the waters of the Nile that irrigate their fields, and allow them to cultivate the crops that enable their survival in the otherwise hostile environment of northern Sudan, which is mostly desert. On the other hand, as a symbol of nature, the Nile is also depicted as potentially menacing and destructive. When the river overflows one year as a result of floods, it claims people’s lives—most notably Mustafa Sa’eed’s, who disappears into the waters, never to be found again. Likewise, the narrator almost loses his life when, at the end of the novel, he attempts to swim from one bank of the river to the other, and almost drowns in the process, as a result of the strong currents pulling him down into their depths. In its depiction as a force both capable of giving life and taking life, therefore, the Nile represents the contradictory, and awesome, powers of nature.