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“Life locks its windows and squats like a stone” (p. 70). In Naguib Mahfouz’s Fountain and Tomb, the character of Saqr Mowazeeni and his family are imprisoned financially, socially, physically, and emotionally. Upon the death of his father, Mowazeeni is forced to become the head of a large family of unmarried women. The inability of the family’s women to marry causes an increased strain on Mowazeeni’s financial and social standing, resulting in physical and emotional consequences. Upon graduation from school, Saqr Mowazeeni follows his father’s career path and becomes a government official. After being financially independent for only a year, Mowazeeni’s father dies leaving Saqr no inheritance. This unexpected death forces Saqr to support “four women and a bitch on his pittance of a salary” (p.70). In a modern society, the women of the family would go into the workplace to try to find other sources of income to help the family maintain its standard of living. However, in the society Naguib Mahfouz depicts, early twentieth century Egypt, the constraints placed upon the family by tradition and soc