In the recent years, literary historians and critics have begun to reevaluate the role of oil in politics, society and literature. Oil as a valuable material has dominated many aspects of people’s life especially those who live in oil rich areas. In fact, oil, as an inextricably linked social issue rather than a mere source of energy, has become the identity of people and has dominated their hidden desires. The present study tried to find out the impact of oil both as a material wealth and value form on two novels namely Upton Sinclair’s Oil! and Ahmad Mahmoud’s The Neighbors. In analyzing these novels due to the eligibility of them to be placed in the Petrofiction category, Amitav Ghosh's framework was utilized. Based on Ghosh, fiction has a gap named oil conflict, which he called petrofiction in his 1992 article. The results of the analyses revealed that oil as a material wealth and value form affects politics of a society and this in turn impacts the lives of the characters in both novels. The dual forms of oil create a set of relations among the characters who undergo a social change. This thesis examines the intellectual growth of the main characters in two novels as they undergo social change, leading them to adopt strong socialist ideologies in response to the cruelties of a capitalist society. Through a close textual analysis, the study argues that the characters' experiences prompt a reevaluation of their beliefs, resulting in a transformative intellectual journey. Drawing on socialist ideology and political philosophy, the thesis shows how the characters develop a critical consciousness and reject the dominant socioeconomic order.
