Yehya

Yehya is the 38-year-old protagonist of The Queue, around whom most of the plot revolves. He is a sales representative with no history of seditious action who gets caught up in violent events because of his curiosity, having “decided to watch from afar” (33). Although he never meant to become involved in the protests, Yehya values truth, an ideal that inspires him to eschew government operation on his wound and try to find a doctor who will let him keep the bullet. This principled stand risks his life and those of his friends throughout the novel. Yehya is a skeptic with a practical outlook. According to his close friend Nagy, Yehya’s “tenacity never abandoned him, and he never lost his faith in his ability to turn a situation to his favor,” a trait which helps him survive his ordeal (177).

In the novel’s opening chapters the narrator depicts...