& # 8217 ; s Topographic point: Fantasia And So Long A Letter Essay, Research Paper
Elizabeth Chang
English 121E
December 2, 2000
Limits of a Women & # 8217 ; s Place.
Throughout history adult females have ever had to stand behind their work forces ( whether it be regulations, tradition, etc. ) . In about every history context, whether it about wars or people, they have about been written by work forces for work forces. It is non even until this century that adult females in this state have gained new evidences for the equality that we hope will be as significant with work forces & # 8217 ; s equality. Despite adult females & # 8217 ; s hopes for equality, there is ever old traditions that are so difficult to be break that they sometimes keep adult females in inferior places. In these two novels, Fantasia and So Long a Letter, we will research how the adult females in these novels deal with modernness and the ways in which it conflicts with some of the traditions of their society.
In So Long a Letter, the chief character of the novel, Ramatoulaye is coming to clasps of the adversities placed upon her when her hubby takes on a 2nd married woman. In Ramatoulaye & # 8217 ; s instance, we see her conflicting emotions for she considers herself a feminist modern adult female, nevertheless she is still slightly submissive to the ways of tradition. She ponders on the options, yet she comes to one decision, to remain with her hubby. Her matrimony paralleled that of her good friend & # 8217 ; s Aissatou, nevertheless Aissatou was able to hammer in front with a new life that did non affect polygamy. Armed with her instruction and her strong will, Aissatou did non allow tradition or fright sustain her in a relationship that she deemed degrading. Aissatou is the incarnation of all the hopes that Ramatoulaye and Aissatou had when they were immature, to go strong independent adult females who would keep their caputs up high in times of adversity. Ramatoulaye is covetous of her friend Aissatou who is able to cut all twine of love, fond regard, and fright and travel onto a new life ( one that is non tainted with treachery or fraudulence by one & # 8217 ; s hubby ) . In Ramatoulaye & # 8217 ; s letters, we wonder is there is a intimation of green-eyed monster? Or bitterness at the fact that Aissatou was able to travel on and Ramatoulaye wasn & # 8217 ; t? Some type of underlying ailment is conveyed when Ramatoulaye references to Aissatou that she knew her friend & # 8217 ; s hubby had acquired a 2nd married woman when Aissatou herself didn & # 8217 ; t. Ramatoulaye will shortly happen herself in the same quandary as her friend. She can non travel on, although this 2nd matrimony pains her and she remains lonely while reminiscing of what love their used to be. It is supposed to be Ramatoulaye & # 8217 ; s instruction and broad head that is supposed to forestall the maltreatments of the old traditions but when she is placed in that state of affairs, she feel helpless because she divorce her hubby. She is sanctioned by her feelings, insecurities, and the conditions of her household ( she has 12 childs ) . Her broad attitude is defeated by that of tradition, she will reluctantly remain with her adult male. Ramatoulaye writes, & # 8220 ; to believe I loved this adult male passionately, to believe that I have him 30 old ages of my life, to believe that 12 times over I carried his kid. The add-on of a rival to my life was non plenty for him. In loving person else he dared commit such an act of disavowal. & # 8221 ; and her resentment is everlasting.
Ramatoulaye remains a broad and open-minded individual and when she comes across other bloodcurdling state of affairss. She handles them with wisdom and sternness. When Ramatoulaye & # 8217 ; s girl, Aissatou, becomes pregnant, she does non eschew her similar tradition would order. Ramatoulaye & # 8220 ; could non abandon Aissatou as pride would hold & # 8216 ; her & # 8217 ; make for & # 8216 ; Aissatou & # 8217 ; s & # 8217 ; life and hereafter were at interest, and these were all powerful considerations, overruling tabu and presuming greater importance in & # 8216 ; her & # 8217 ; head and bosom & # 8221 ; . Here and throughout other parts in the novel, Ramatoulaye transcends above all that is junior-grade and she seems to be like a wise adult female, dignified, and independent. Her confidence and assurances is shown when Modou & # 8217 ; s brother proclaims that he would wish to take on Ramatoulaye as a married woman. Ramatoulaye explodes and plaints that she is & # 8220 ; non like a piece of currency that can be exchanged. & # 8221 ; Here she breaks tradition and holds her caput up high, she will non get married Modou & # 8217 ; s brother because she does non love him nor does she O.K. of the manner he treats his other married womans. When another love from the past comes and proclaims his love to her, she besides denies the matrimony proposal. She does non desire to get married him and hold his first married woman experience the injury that she felt. Though get marrieding him would intend security to her household of 12.
Another coevals of friends that choose different waies is between Binetou and Ramatoulaye & # 8217 ; s girl Daba. When Ramatoulaye hears about Binetou & # 8217 ; s & # 8220 ; sugar dada & # 8221 ; she tells Daba to promote her friend to go on her instruction to edify herself. Yet she does non cognize that this quiet miss would shortly go her rival. Binetou is the tragedy figure in this novel. Although the reader might hold an instant disfavor for Binetou ( being the place wrecker ) when one looks deeper into this state of affairs, one can non assist but experience sorry for her. She is chained down by tradition, even though she has the chance to hold on the modern universe and the freedom that comes with it ( instruction, autonomy ) . Although she is educated she falls victim to the caprices of her household. She is forced to give up most of the sloppiness that accompanies youth because tradition holds that she has duties to her female parent to get married a affluent adult male that will supply security to convey them out of their poorness. In exchange for the luxuries ( Villa, trip to Mecca for her parents ) that are the wagess for this matrimony she sacrifices her ain dreams of happening a adult male that she truly loves. When Binetou goes clubbing with Modou, she can & # 8217 ; t assist but detect the other younger twosomes that are really in love. She is trapped in a matrimony for a adult male that she does non love. Her disdain for Modou is apparent in the manner that she & # 8220 ; daringly & # 8221 ; describes her new love to Daba by naming him & # 8220 ; sugar dada & # 8221 ; and & # 8220 ; pot belly & # 8221 ; . She is a victim of tradition and her ain household & # 8217 ; s greed.
Daba is a good representative of her female parent & # 8217 ; s girl. She holds the same broad attitude and is exhaustively fed up when her male parent takes on a 2nd married woman. It is through her, where Ramatoulaye can vicariously seek soundless retaliation ( although she might non outright approve of Daba & # 8217 ; s actions ) . Daba goes to the nine where her male parent and new married woman go and looks at them haughtily and with disgust. When she becomes the inheritor of male parent & # 8217 ; s Villa, she tells Binetou and her household to travel out without any commiseration, unmerciless at the fact that they were the household that broke her parents up. She finds a relationship that her female parent yearns for. When Ramatoulaye tells Daba & # 8217 ; s conserve that & # 8220 ; he spoils her married woman & # 8221 ; , Daba & # 8217 ; s hubby answers, & # 8220 ; Daba is my married woman non my retainer & # 8221 ; . It is through her first girl, where Ramatoulaye & # 8217 ; s hopes as immature miss will travel on, for she has the same dreamer beliefs as her female parent and attempts to remain true to them. She represents another coevals of adult female who is strong willed and independent, revoking any traditions that they feel deprecate their ain value.
Throughout this novel, there is such a conflict of the old and the new. This narrative is about how adult females affect each other & # 8217 ; s life and how some are hindered to travel frontward because they are inherently bound by traditions that devalue adult females. Ramatoulaye & # 8217 ; s composing best amounts up the conflicting scenario, & # 8220 ; Now our society is shaken to its foundations, torn between the attractive force of of import frailties and ferocious opposition of old virtuousnesss & # 8221 ; .
In the fresh Fantasia, the writer trades with the predicaments of a modern adult female in a still male dominated society. Not merely does she show her ain uncomfortablenesss, she tells narratives of her less fortunate female opposite numbers who are still veiled and sanctioned to follow the rigorous regulations of the old tradition.
The acquisition of Gallic offers the writer boundless freedoms. She can travel freely ( without a head covering ) and is able to roll the streets. Her female relations can non go forth the house unveiled or with the complete freedom that she has. French besides changes the relationships of those around her. She writes of the altering relationships between her female parent and male parent because of the Gallic linguistic communication. After her female parent has started larning some Gallic she starts naming her male parent by his name. In Algerian society females must mention to their hubbies in the 3rd individual. She breaks this tabu in forepart of the other adult females and they are amazed. Her female parent seems to be acquiring a bang of interrupting from old traditions, as if she was slightly privileged by the acquisition of Gallic and wants to demo off her new freedom to her still restricted household members. The writer & # 8217 ; s male parent besides writes a missive to her female parent. Tradition besides dictates, that work forces should non compose letters to their married womans, least another male reads it. This missive is besides shown to the enviousness of other adult females. Therefore, we see the relationship of her parents exceed unto another degree that surpasses the limitations of usage. In this novel, the writer besides tells the narrative of others who try to interrupt and divert from traditi
on. When the writer was younger, she was a good friend to some small misss. These misss besides used Gallic to offer them a breakage from the ennui and limitations of their current state of affairs. Gallic allowed these misss to get away the plodding of parturiency at place. They accomplished this by composing love letters in Gallic to their Islamic male opposite numbers. By composing these letters, the misss allow themselves to hold fantasy love personal businesss. They can woolgather of a universe, where imposts and limitations can non touch them. With the ability to read and compose Gallic, the misss are able to interrupt from their humdrum modus operandis. Their breakage of regulations ( their parents would non O.K. ) is likely due to the fact that they can non take their ain hubby and this fact adds an excess bang for in Gallic they can “write and dream” about whoever pleases them. Even at this early age, we’re able to see the rigorous limitations on adult females met with a soundless opposition. One of the small girls plaints “ I’ll ne’er let them get married me off to a alien, who in one dark will hold the right to touch me.” By composing these letters, these misss are able to woolgather of really falling in love and taking their ain couples alternatively of the customary arranged matrimonies.
These efforts to get away their hereafter world are reasonably much useless. These misss know that they will be doomed to remain indoors and veiled, merely like their female parents and grandmas. It is a manner of usage and it is the powerful tabu that are so hard to get away from. As a kid the writer tickers in awe and astonishment as the older adult females travel about with their ritualistic ceremonials, chants, and narratives. Because of adult females & # 8217 ; s limitations to place, it is in the inside that they & # 8217 ; re able to get away from the restrictions placed upon them. It is through & # 8220 ; their chants that [ these adult females ] are able to travel free and allow their sorrows of being confined be expressed. & # 8221 ; In the Algerian civilization, it is males who can travel in and out as he pleases. But for the females, their topographic point is indoors. It is merely in the confines of the place where the females can travel approximately freely ( stating narratives, dancing and express joying ) . When females are in public they must ever stay veiled and has a solemn prose. They are backgrounds in a male dominated universe, unable to talk freely, do freely, nor unrecorded freely. In the indoor, it is the older adult females whom ever seem to hold the most rights to show themselves. It is likely because these elderly ladies, after so many long old ages of entrapment have been granted that right. It is sort of a privilege for these ladies for digesting so many old ages of parturiency. The writer makes it clear of the dominated matricahy by composing of her childhood where she witnesses that & # 8220 ; matrons take their topographic point & # 8230 ; age takes precedency over luck & # 8230 ; while younger adult females & # 8230 ; are seated ailment at easiness ( and hardly speaking ) & # 8230 ; while the loud voices of the oldest women- a merry laugh, a chortle, so a suggestion of an obscene gag pealing out. & # 8221 ; These assemblage of adult females allow them to bond and possibly to offer them solace that other adult females are in the same quandary as them & # 8220 ; trapped in a web of impossible revolt. & # 8221 ; They must ever populate their lives as shadows, ne’er to be to the full seen or heard. These feelings of repression need an mercantile establishment and it is at place where these deprived adult females have that audience. This is where person will listen and watch. As a immature kid, the writer and her cousin are & # 8220 ; tense with expectancy as they watch her grandma, the matricah [ who ] usually ne’er complained ; but this extravagant or absurd ceremony, which she on a regular basis organized, was her manner of protesting. Against whom? But when she danced she became queen of the metropolis. She drew her day-to-day strength before our really eyes & # 8221 ; . With the power of the indoors, these adult females who seem so unagitated and calm in forepart of their male opposite numbers are able to allow travel. The express themselves in which they can non make in the outside universe. .
These limitations placed on the adult females folk allow the writer recognize merely how lucky she is. With the acquisition of Gallic she is offered a ways out of her traditional prison. She can travel in out wherever she pleases, she can traverse the well-marked boundary lines of the adult females & # 8217 ; s realm ( indoors ) into the males ( outside ) . This freedom that accompanies French has her feeling uneasy. The writer is in a province of oblivion, she feels certain intimacy with the old traditions and with the acquisition of Gallic, she knows she can ne’er return to the old ways. She knows that it is her & # 8220 ; father & # 8217 ; s presence that [ has decided for her ] ; light before darkness. [ She ] does non recognize that an irrevokable pick has been made ; the out-of-doorss and the hazard, alternatively of prison of my equals. This shot of luck brings [ her ] to the brink of a breakdown. & # 8221 ; She does experience a sense of guilt as to & # 8220 ; why it is her and her alone out of all [ her ] folk that she has this chance & # 8221 ; . To explicate her state of affairs through a metaphor would be like person holding all these delightful nutrients to eat and beautiful apparels to have on while their loved 1s stare at them hungering and dressed in shred. The writer would wish to portion this freedom to her female opposite numbers, but this is impossible, the trenches of tabu are to thick and unbreakable. She realizes that if it were non for her male parent & # 8217 ; s liberated head she would hold an wholly different life style. She knows that her freedom is at the caprices of the male figure. She tells of fellow pupil, a baker & # 8217 ; s girl, who used to travel to Gallic school with her but was & # 8221 ; withdrawn overnight from school & # 8230 ; [ Because ] of the outgrowth of her adult females & # 8217 ; s personality transformed her into an incarcerated body. & # 8221 ; She knows she could hold been that miss, her freedom shrouded everlastingly in the limitations of a head covering.
Because she lives in a different universe than other females in their civilization, she must sometimes support her freedom. There is little uncomfortable feeling when she encounters a female frequenter who asks haughtily why a miss her age is non covered up. It is her female parent who defends her, & # 8220 ; she goes to the Gallic school & # 8221 ; . She is the privileged one and her singularity is for all to see. She does non hold to cover up her face, she does non hold to adhere to the same traditions as other adult females, but yet she is non wholly comfy with being this liberated adult female. There is no 1 to turn to when she has feelings of non belonging. Her head is that of the French individual & # 8217 ; s but her bosom is with the Muslim imposts. She knows nevertheless that by larning Gallic, she is slightly breaking ties with the old traditions and ways & # 8220 ; talking at oneself in a linguistic communication other than that of seniors is to unveil oneself, non merely to emerge form childhood but to go forth it, ne’er to return & # 8221 ; . Her Gallic, assures her that she will ne’er return to the patterns that she has grown up with, but she is holding a hard clip retreating organize her yesteryear. In a manner acquisition, French is going with her childhood, her memories of past of the adult females in the house and that of her ascendants. She knows she will ne’er take part in those rites and this leaves a slightly drab adieu to her childhood. However, she does non recognize that by taking to be a author, she is someway go throughing on that tradition of the yesteryear. She is reciting her narratives merely like how the adult females in the indoor Tell others of their narratives.
In this novel, the writer besides touches upon different historical narrations. One of them is that of Cherifa. Cherifa was merely a kid when she participated in the Revolution. As a kid she had her strong will and one finding, to contend and get the better of the power of the Gallic. The ways she talked and moved about was that of a adult male and she had the bravery of a adult male. For she didn & # 8217 ; t yield to all the ways of tradition. She was told she was traveling to be married, nevertheless she replied stanchly & # 8220 ; no & # 8221 ; . As a combatant, Cherifa was fearless, strong, and loyal to her cause, & # 8221 ; I didn & # 8217 ; t experience any fright: God made these Frenchmen seem like shadows in forepart of my eyes! And it was true, I would hold preferred to decease! & # 8221 ; The ways in which she fought for the chauvinistic cause was brave. One can conceive of, that when this old lady was immature she had the freedom that she likely now longs for. She could travel, speak, and populate how she pleased. However, this right was merely under certain conditions, war conditions. During bad times, the work forces of Algeria allowed their adult females to hold certain freedoms. They had to, for they needed to enroll the aid of all Algerian to assist them in their cause. However, as clip passes these freedoms are revoked. The adult females are left veiled one time once more and domesticated to the indoor. We & # 8217 ; re able to see that Cherifa & # 8217 ; s freedom as a combatant has changed. As the Revolution has ended, she is no longer able to run about freely as a adult male. In old age & # 8220 ; [ Cherifa ] is housebound, As she sets her voice free, she sets herself free once more ; what nostalgia will do her voice to neglect soon & # 8221 ; .
Through these two novels, we & # 8217 ; re able to see the predicaments that adult females must confront when modernness and old imposts come caput to caput. Both of these adult females remain courageous and to seek to prolong their new found freedoms, despite any hard brushs. It is these adult females with their fierce ideals that would do them innovators for all adult females release motions.
