Metanarratives are the comprehensive and totalizing discourses that claim to offer a definitive and complete interpretation of history, reality, and human destiny. Lyotard views them as tools of authority that work to impose a specific pattern of understanding and marginalize plurality. Naguib Mahfouz's novel, " Under the umbrella" is an early and prominent embodiment of postmodern characteristics, aligning with Jean-François Lyotard's philosophical critique of totalizing and epistemic concepts. The novel's centrality stems from its deconstruction of the Grand Narratives by creating an absurd and unstable world. The novel demonstrates Lyotard's mechanisms through specific elements: The Event (L'événement) that presents reality as an unpredictable shock, forcing consciousness to question the scene's authenticity ("a real war" or "a cinematic spectacle"), thus nullifying the narrative of value or progress (e.g., the loss of value in military training). The Plea/Dispute (Le Différend) and the Phrase Regime Conflict which express the irreducible conflict of language games, leading to the dispersion of the narrative and the silencing of some voices. This is manifested in the sudden transition from the narrative of chasing a thief to drizzle, or the chaotic alternation between the waiter and the absolute object, which confirms the chaos of discourse and the bankruptcy of logic. The Identity Crisis and the Sublime (The High Order) which portrays the character with a fragmented consciousness, where identity is constructed as a perpetually "renewed self" subject to external pressures. Furthermore, the Sublime is employed through the introduction of illogical scenes, such as a caravan of camels in a civilian context, to highlight what transcends comprehension, while the urban addiction to elegant appearance reflects the deconstruction of identity into superficial symbols (Hyperreality). Through these mechanisms, " Under the umbrella" offers a profound literary model for how absolute certainty is deconstructed in the modern era.