Mufid al-Wahsh’s Childhood and Family Relations Impact on His Behavior: A Psychological Study

The End of a Brave Man addresses the issue of childhood and its effect on the individual's personality, considering the great impact that harsh upbringing has on the psyche of children, in addition to the impact of society and peers on them. The significance of studying the novel from a psychological point of view is twofold:   on the one hand, the author of the novel is one of the leaders of contemporary Arab novelists and, on the other hand, the focus of the story is on the importance of childhood in building a person's character. Accordingly, this study pinpoints the impact of childhood on Mufid al-Wahsh, the protagonist of the novel.  The main question that this research addresses is that what are the most important environmental factors affecting the development of Mofid al-Wahsh's personality? To answer this question, the study examines the role of parents in forming a child’s personality, along with the role of teachers, peers, and village people as members of society. It finds that the novel portrays a picture of an abused child who is subject to sufferings and pains as imposed by society. He experiences the first layer of abuse from the family due to emotional disorder as his kind mother cannot make up for his father’s unforgiveness. The second environmental factor is school where he comes to hate knowledge as he is fired from classes. Also, his peers spark misery and rebellion in him. Finally, the people of the village torture him regularly. Mofid al-Wahsh's personality represents the character of numerous men who lived in such a repressive upbringing environment. The protagonist’s conduct is indeed is a natural reflection of the upbringing he received, an upbringing that is based on the oppression of the father in the patriarchal Eastern society, a society where mothers have no role but to cry.