They both keep a lot of their feelings bottled up, and express them indirectly in their interactions with others, alternately disengaged and hands-on to the point of being critical. They both act decisively, sometimes impulsively. They are both strong and resilient and succeed at holding their families together (in Souad's case, after her divorce). Souad ends up going farther on her own. Her generation of women learned to take themselves seriously; Alia never found a satisfying outlet for her own energy. She seemed unfulfilled and restless, with nothing to direct her mind away from the past.