Revenge

A burning heart is a heart that's been consumed by emotions and deprived of all logic. When someone has a burning heart, they are ruled by their feelings, and make decisions without really thinking about their consequences. Said, in The Thief and the Dogs by Naguib Mahfouz, has this problem. His hunger for revenge has blinded him. He cannot understand the fact that in 4 years people can change, and accept that this is simply an inevitable part of life. Just because he refuses to change does not mean everybody around him must stay the same as well. Said is selfish, and refuses to comprehend that the world does not revolve around him, and his relatives are actually separate individuals like himself and not objects that he has possession over. Because of this selfishness, he seeks a revenge he claims will let him find freedom and security. He seems to believe that he is just and right in all matters. Nothing he does is wrong. Even when he learns he's killed an innocent man by accident, he does not react. He is not upset a man is dead, but rather angry that he hasn't succeeded in achieving his vengeance. He's so consumed by this emotions that he convinces himself that his daughter must love him (although it's extremely unlikely she even recalls his face after 4 years) and ignores anything that contradicts this belief. His burning heart keeps pushing him on, and on, to repeat the mistakes he's done in the past. It burns like the sun he wakes up to every morning, and leads him on a fixated, instinctive path, so that he may turn into ashes.