There
were instances of gender inequalities and I think that topic is something that
is very fresh and very relevant in also today’s society. During the book it was
very obvious that inequality played a tremendous factor in crushing the
ambition of girls while also making them think twice before assisting future
female generations. During her book she
is faced with times of hardship as females have little opportunity to succeed.
“And these days it is
worse, with the poverty of blackness on one side and the weight of womanhood on
the other. Aiwa! What will help you, my child, is to learn to carry your
burdens with strength.”
She argues that being a black female is twice as
hard. And I would agree, as if life of all females wasn’t hard enough I could
only imagine how hard the life of a black female would be. Having even less
opportunities because of their skin colors. Ma’Shingay tells her daughter that
rather than fighting against the conditions she wants her to accept the
conditions. In this quote I think it also shows the difference in the women and
the tradition behind it as each attitude is very different. Ma’Shingay may seem
very traditional but she also grows jealous of her brother in law an she is
very much against how much society cherishes men over women and she sees the
inequality. I thought this was a very important quote because it went along
perfectly with the representation of inequality throughout the book as well as
the strength black women need to having seeing that they have twice as much of
a burden due to their gender and race.
-Sierra Romero
Sierra,
ReplyDeleteGender inequality is definitely a theme in Dangarembga's novel. The clear distinctions that she makes for the roles of men and women paint women in subservient positions from the very beginning of the book. Dangarembga portrays the difficulties of being a woman, but I agree that it must be even more difficult to not only be a woman, but a black woman. Being in double jeopardy of sexist inequalities, she and the women of her village, must maintain those oppressions in addition to brave racial oppressions.
However, I want to extend your thoughts of her gender and racial oppressions and include within it her class oppressions, making her a case of triple jeopardy. Her own brother pointed out the poverty when the author wrote that he was embarrassed by their homestead, that their poverty began to offend him. Tambu seems to have accepted their poverty, not complacently, but enough to know that "although our squalor was brutal, it was uncompromisingly ours..." (pg. 7). This acceptance puts the narrator at an even lower tier within the system of hierarchy.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Sierra!
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ReplyDeleteI think the quote you included here is a really rich one, Sierra. It seems to illustrates a lot of the novel's preoccupations with class. In fact, the following paragraph after the quote (on page 14) even goes on to talk about how the burden of being black is: being poor. I thought it was interesting that poverty was the burden of being black, allowing class and race to intertwine. The novel almost makes it seem as if the two are inseparable or at least, one is definitely contingent upon the other. A number of other things could take poverty's place in this phrase such as oppression, inequality, etc. However, as Chris says, this class anxiety persists, ie. the narrator's brother. He cannot come home during breaks, looks down upon the family due to all his education, and refuses, for the most part, to work the hard labor with his family. In some senses, they seem too poor or too lower class for him. And his sister critiques him for that--yet, in my next section, we will she that she is just as preoccupied with class as he is.
ReplyDeleteConversely, I think it is also interesting that the burden of being a woman is having to bear children and having to look after the husband (16). In other words, domesticity is the issue. Maiguru, who is an exception to this definition, is therefore the narrator's role model. However, even Maiguru is put on a pedestal due to her class. She has a big house and a fancy car. She looks clean and overall, she is just more wealthy than the narrator's family. Thus, she is seen as better. However, I wonder if she was just a different type of woman (as the narrator states) and was not part of the higher classes, if the narrator would admire her. It is something I wonder. So, again, even when the burden seems to be on domesticity, the novel is again preoccupied with class.
I also think this quote is very useful in our understanding of this book. I agree with Chris's and Alicia's notions of the character having to live through a triple jeopardy. I think it is interesting that the speaker uses this choice of wording. "...the poverty of blackness" is interesting aspect of the quote to explore because it could be in a sense equalizing her class with her race. Positioning these the words poverty and blackness in such a way could be a way for the author to highlight the impact race, in this case, being black, has on an individual's class standing.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that these "subservient roles" are laid out from the beginning of the novel by presenting these different gender roles between men and women. I would be curious to explore how other texts compare to this notion. For example, we talked about how the black men in There Eyes were watching God, felt as thought they were at even more of a disadvantage because of again, there race, class, and gender. As Alicia pointed out, there seems to be a resistance to the domesticity of women. This can be similar to Sula's understanding of the expectations of women and the problems that occur from immersing themselves in the work of the household and the lives of their husbands. I think it is helpful to draw connections from the several different texts that we have studied in order to get a better understanding of black feminism.