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| - The Beginning and the End opens with the death of Kamel Effendi, the father of the Kamel family in Cairo, whose death leaves his wife, daughter, and three sons to survive in near-poverty. The family not only grieves the loss of their patriarch, but also the loss of the income he earned as a low ranking government official. While the sons finish school, Nefisa, the daughter, must become a paid dressmaker, and Samira, the widow, struggles to make ends meet. It is not dignified for women in this society to work outside the home, a truth the family is well aware of. Though the reader is never introduced to Kamel Effendi as a character, the significance of his death haunts the rest of the novel.
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