Gender Representation in the Post Colonial Novels - Coursework Example

Hanoof Dr. Salam Mir English 76-221 6/5/2007 Research Paper Gender Representation in the Post Colonial Text as Told by Men Gender in the post colonial novel, as portrayed in David Lean’s screen version of A Passage to India, Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s The River Between, or Chinua Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah, are unique works reflecting the author, writer or director in a contemplative role whereby men are presenting the mind of a woman as a central character in their respective work. The group takes on the added challenge of the colonial or post-colonial patriarchal society. This means that they not only have to present to their audience the mind of the woman, but also, they must establish a relationship between that woman and a man to illustrate the patriarchal society which is indeed a challenge, to which each author and director successfully rose to. Each of the three works successfully depicts a man’s interpretations of feminism, and it is difficult to detect a male perspective in the female characters they portray in their individual works. The storyline in A Passage to India differed from the other works because the story setting is during India’s colonial period; whereas the works of Ngugi and Achebe take place in a post-colonial era. There are nonetheless the remnants of the colonial patriarchal society, as well as the cultural patriarchal society. In addition, each man had to develop the relationship of the female and the male that is influenced by the era in which they lived. In A Passage to India the women possess an awareness of an emerging feminist thought; in The River Between there is a distant familiarity with that feminist thought; and in Anthills of the Savannah there is a direct contact with the feminist thought. For the group of men who brought these works to their respective audiences, this was a commendable depiction and end result because there is nothing to suggest that these men fell short of their creative undertakings or failed to meet the challenges these works presented for them. R. K. Gupta puts forward the notion that “Feminism assumes that women experience the world differently from men and write out of their different perspective” (299). It is probably more difficult for the male authors to accomplish this goal than it would be for the male director, because the male director is informed by and supported by the female actresses. The male author probably has to work harder to develop a sense of closeness to the female perspective through a creative process that comes from within his own thought processes. This means that the male author must think out the relationship between the male and female characters and think in terms of both those genders. In contrast to the male director who is looking for a response from the female actress, and if he does not sense it to be the best or correct response the first time, he can continue to work with the female actress until his vision of the scene in which it is tangential to the environment and others film elements are achieved. This is not to suggest that the male director has less work for him. It probably does mean however that the challenge is perhaps not so great a challenge for him as it might be for the male authors. Globalization was introduced to India and Africa during their colonial periods. The identity of the female colonists informed and exposed indigenous women of the colonized countries to different roles for women altogether. Although theirs was indeed a patriarchal colonial society superimposing itself onto an Indian and African landscape and society, there was emerging in the West a movement towards women’s emancipation in the colonists’ country of origin. In A Passage to India, this is obvious because the English characters Mrs. Moore and Adela Quested arrive to British-India with as many feminists ideologies and behaviors as they do clothes. Even the colonial women who are in India seem taken aback by the liberal thinking of Mrs. Moore and Ms. Quested. Both women are immediately in conflict with society as they stand in opposition to the racist and superior attitude of the colonials they encounter. The social disparities between the colonials and the indigenous population of India are clearly illustrated earlier on in the film. By virtue of their empathy towards the Indians, and especially of Dr. Aziz, and their insistence upon mingling East and West socially, they put their new friends at risk. This does not stop the two women from asserting their emerging feminism, a notion of equality, in a social environment of British colonials who do not embrace the conception of equality between men, women, or the English and indigenous people of India. This is not to imply that all the colonial characters in British India were of that colonial mindset assuming colonial supremacy. One scene in the movie depicts a group of Englishmen gathered to assess the decision of how to address Adela Questeds accusation of Dr. Aziz who she claimed had raped her. The only colonial character that stood against the illusive inherent judgment that the British made of the Indian doctor was Dr. Fielding, played by actor James Fox. He was the only one that supported fact finding before judgment, while the other British characters immediately judged Dr. Aziz according to stereotypes, and not according to rational or fair investigation. Fielding appreciates the fact that India belongs to the Indians; he views himself as a guest in a foreign country, and he respects their cultural differences. This creates a bond between him and Mrs. Moore and Ms. Quested, and allows him to be a facilitator in the women’s pursuit of social mingling. The trio’s attempt to mingle East and West cultures ends in disaster for Dr. Aziz, who seems to inspire Adela’s sensual awakenings and fantasy. Whilst visiting the Marabar Caves, Adela and Mrs. Moore were escorted by Dr. Aziz alone, since Fielding and Professor Godbole were delayed by Godbole’s prayers and consequently missed the tour party’s train schedule. Once inside the caves, Mrs. Moore has a near breakdown as a result of some seemingly spiritual or supernatural and overwhelming essence that emanates from the cave. Adela has a like experience, resulting in a hallucination that is the fulfillment of her fantasy. She he claims Dr. Aziz has raped her, and consequently, he is arrested and suffers the ordeal of arrest and trial, and the invasion of his personal life when his home is searched by the British. At the end of the day, Mrs. Moore, who buys into Professor Godbole’s philosophy that all things will come to pass as they are meant to be, leaves the country instead of testifying on behalf of Dr. Aziz. Just as things look hopeless for Dr. Aziz, as he is on trial and as crowds of Indian supporters chant outside the courthouse; Adela is called to testify. Her memory clears at the trial and she realizes that in fact Dr. Aziz had not raped her. She finds the inner strength and conviction to refute her allegations, and Dr. Aziz is set free. The film closes with an emphasis on the character of Adela reading a note from Dr. Aziz, who has found it in his heart to forgive her for falsely accusing him of rape. The image to take away with the final scene is that Adela is in fact a reconciled woman, having found her strength not only of will, but of mind. The sense from the closing scene is that she has remained an independent and solitary woman. She has cut her hair, and presents the image of the strong and sovereign feminist. The viewer does not get the sense that Adela has married. Though written in the post colonial era and directed by Director Lean even later; nonetheless A Passage to India is, again, the creative efforts of a man attempting to get into the mind of a woman. Lean presents us with the images of India as the setting in which British women are asserting their own wills and feminist identity. However, this speaks nothing of the identity of the Indian woman, who is depicted as locked within her cultural bonds in the film. Dr. Aziz speaks of his wife as being not beautiful, but having other qualities which made them compatible, and says that they never met until they were wed. This stands in stark contrast to the fact that he is seemingly enamored of the sophisticated English women in the film who are asserting their feminist wills by having a social relationship with Dr. Aziz. Unlike African literature, the image of the feminist in Indian literature has been limited, according to Gupta (301). On the literary scale, Gupta suggests, Indian feminism is very different than the Western idea of feminism, and has only recently begun to emerge in Indian literature (301). This is perhaps one reason we do not see any resemblance of Indian female feminism in A Passage to India. One might expect that Mrs. Moore and Mrs. Quested are but the introduction to a universal movement, but this is not the case, and the film limits the feminist image to the western women. There is no comment by Lean Forester on the impact that the Western women had on Indian women. This stands in stark contrast to authors Ngugi and Achebe. In The River Between and Anthills of the Savannah the authors present the western feminist influence in a residual way. Even though in Anthills of the Savannah Beatrice has in fact attended institutions of higher education in England, and her experience with the feminist perspective is a direct contact experience. Leonard Podis and Yakubu Saaka remark in their Journal of Black Studies that "Achebe would seem to be making a barely veiled reference to his own controversial record on womens issues and signaling a desire to move in the direction of the greater feminist consciousness associated with Ngugi." (119 Podis; Saaka) In Anthills of the Savannah, similar to A Passage to India, the protagonist is a strong willed female, Beatrice Okoh, whose identity is shaped by being raised under a strict patriarchal code (81), by a mother who was subordinate to that code to the extent that it created tension between herself and Beatrice because Beatrice was not born a male child (79). Podis and Saaka explain in their journal that "In creating a central character for the first time, one with the name of Nwanybuife and one so sensitive to the injustices of traditional patriarchal society, Achebe would appear to be making a self-conscious reference to his own history of treating women characters as peripheral" (118). Having been educated in the West, and living in a society that was the product of colonialism, Beatrice returns to her homeland after having gained not just an education, but a strong and independent mind as a woman who does not identify herself in the traditional patriarchal way of her mother. Beatrice made a concentrated effort to approach life pragmatically and independently. Her identity is not intrinsically intertwined with that of a man – or so she believes (80). The author creates a struggle for Beatrice as a character and as a woman through her obsessive concern about her role in a relationship with a man. Beatrice is also the by-product of colonial western woman influence. According to Achebe himself, Beatrice is not in touch with her traditions or her heritage as a result of, first, colonization of her country, and, second, by virtue of her English education (Stratton, F 27). There is in Anthills of the Savannah, as in A Passage to India, significant experiences associated with the hills and caves. In Africa, as in India, the hills and caves hold a traditional symbolism for the indigenous population. In Nigeria, Chielo is the priestess and prophetess of the Hills and Caves (105) and an image or a sense of being, that Beatrice can relate to. While Mrs. Moore and Adela experience negative personal experiences with the Indian cave spirits, which could serve to symbolize that they did not belong in the setting they were in. The theme of cave dwelling deities is a parallel between the two works, as is the strong, individual feminist will of the women at the front of the stories. Both Beatrice and Adela are attracted to the intellect of their men, as opposed to the unreasonable thinking and closed mindedness of the men who pursue them. Adela is undecided about whether or not to marry Mrs. Moore’s son Ronnie, and when she tells him about her hesitation he responds by trying to hurt her, asserting that he hadn’t exactly asked her to marry him anyway. When Adela changes her position, Ronnie is delighted that he and Adela are engaged as he assumes that, once again, he is in charge of his world, after having reined in a headstrong woman. Beatrice, as a modern woman, was less confused than Adela Quested about her freewill. The author conveys this trait in Beatrice by revealing her most intimate thoughts. “I was determined to put my career first and, if need be, last. That every woman wants a man to complete her is a piece of male chauvinist bullshit I had completely rejected before I knew there was anything like Women’s Lib” (80-81). Podis and Saaka point out in their journal that Beatrice "rejects the view that both the oppression of women and the impulse toward feminism are solely foreign importations, aspects of the colonial legacy" (118). Their claim is supported by Beatrices statement, "You often hear our people say: But thats something you picked up in England. Absolute rubbish! There was enough male chauvinism in my fathers house to last me seven reincarnations" (81). Beatrice spurns the advances of Sam, a tough guy turned politico, and opts for the gentler, kinder affections of Chris, who began his career as a journalist and then became Commissioner of Information. Beatrice is comfortable with Chris, in whom she sees reflections of herself (80-81). Adela, perhaps because she was in an era of emerging feminist thought, never seemed to achieve the comfort level with her role as a woman until the end, when the director shows her living alone, apparently satisfied with her life. While Beatrice is constantly analyzing society and oppression, Adela moves about it, mystified in so many ways, but resistant to the notion that it’s right to separate people based on ethnicity. On that point, Adela is adamant. Beatrice is perhaps less innocently idealistic than Adela, acknowledging that “The women are, of course, the biggest single group of oppressed people in the world and, if we are to believe the Book of Genesis, the very oldest” (90). Parallels exist in every turning of the page of Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah and the film A Passage to India. Even When Dr. Aziz welcomes the opportunity to mingle with the sophisticated British, it comes to pass that his enthusiasm and Mrs. Moore’s and Adela’s feminist compulsions are perhaps ahead of society. Beatrice recognizes this, saying, “Experience and intelligence warn us that man’s progress in freedom will be piecemeal, slow and un-dramatic" (90). Another African writer, Ngugi Wa Thiong’O, gives readers a glimpse of the young Kenyan feminist mind in The River Between (1965). In this story about the transition between a tribal society from a pre-colonial traditional social setting that included pagan rituals, to a colonial setting where the pagan tribal customs have been supplanted by Christian doctrine and conversion, there arises tension within the society and within individual families (59). Ngugi writes in the post-colonial era, describing the mind of women, but presents his women differently than Achebe. Ngugi has portrayed his character of Muthoni as a victim of colonization in that she, unlike Beatrice, has an awareness of her traditional culture, and seeks to participate in that culture, which thenceforth leads to her death. Writing from the post-colonial moment, Ngugi is using the resistant and rebellious spirit of Muthoni, going against her father’s wishes and secretly going off to be circumcised, as the consequences of colonization (52). The supplanting of Christian ideologies over tribal traditional customs and culture has, for Ngugi, been the source of a deterioration of the post-colonial indigenous peoples (Uraizee 27). The antagonistic theme of the story is one wherein a young girl, Muthoni, secretly has a circumcision in the ways of the old customs. For Muthoni, it is her emergence into womanhood, and as the women of her society and culture did before, Muthoni, too, wants to participate in the ritual of circumcision marking this important time in her life (25). Before Muthoni clandestinely goes to her aunt for the procedure, she shares her plan with her sister, Nyambura (25). Nyambura does not understand Muthoni’s desire to pursue the pagan custom, as their family is Christian, and their father is a Christian leader in the community (25). Nyambura cautions her sister that their father will be angry with her disobedience (25-27). Muthoni follows her own will and secretly goes and participates in the ritual (35). As a consequence of the circumcision, Muthoni falls desperately ill, and dies (52). Her death then becomes the source of dispute and contention as pertains to tribal customs and Christian conversion. The local Christian minister is exasperated by the scenario he recognizes as one that resurfaces time and again (55). Even though Muthoni’s father is a Christian, Ngugi depicts that conversion to Christianity based on a mislead faith held by her father, because the Christian missionaries themselves are depicted as being insincere by their thoughts and feelings towards the indigenous peoples (56). This expresses Ngugis attitude towards the cultural suppression that came about through colonization, and most specifically the Western efforts to put a stop to ancient tribal traditions such as circumcision (Uraizee 27). According to Natasha M. Gordon in A Jornal of Opion, she contends that "Ngugi does not take an unequivocal stand for circumcision, as a custom which harms women, rather he aligns FC with larger cultural values, automatically suppressing any other perspective which could address the custom specifically" (26). In response to this act of aligning womens sexuality with social transformation, Maxine Molyneux looks at the socialist agenda in "Women in Socialist Societies: Problems of Theory and Practice" and states, "the abolition of inequality along lines of sex can only be achieved as part of a broader socialist transformation of society through which divisions along class lines will also be abolished" (1984). Ngugi does not allow for this grand transformation to occur in his novel, leaving behind the plight of women and the practice of female circumcision to domestic domains, where it remains glorified as a vessel of pure Kenyan tradition. What is presented in The River Between, is that the society about which the author writes is at a crossroads between traditional pagan customs and modern Western Christianity. There is, on both sides an intolerance of the other that foregoes the understanding needed to make this transition without loss, which is represented by Muthoni’s character. It is also a story built around the controlling patriarchal societies of Nigerian tribal leaders and Christian patriarchal figures and society. Women are subordinate to the male figures in their society, and it is difficult to measure the improvement in their lives from the traditional custom life to the Christian life. While Muthoni was seeking to reconnect with her cultural roots, she was also asserting her will, a pursuit of freedom that Christian doctrine and education caused women to become aware of, therefore resisting the role of being subordinate to the male figures in their societies. Muthoni, akin to Beatrice, has become educated in the Western English Christian understanding of faith and learning. Similarly, Muthoni gained a strength and sense of independence through her knowledge and education. Muthoni and Beatrice are like Adela Quested and Mrs. Moore, at that point in their education, faith and thinking that leads them to assert themselves as independent thinkers, women, resistant towards subordinating themselves to the will of men. They are, too, characters that arise out of an era when the British Empire was “dissolving,” and giving in the pressures of the states within which they had asserted themselves as colonists who imposed upon those cultures their politics, religion, and social customs. “The Atlantic Charter and the independence of India fed, in their different abstract ways, the African desire for emancipation, which received a more concrete impetus from African soldiers returning from foreign military service" (Janmohamed 11). Thusly, we find that reference to Sam, in Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah, a former soldier, choosing for his role model in his vision of himself as a future dictator, “the English gentleman of leisure” (47). The stark differences in customs that existed between the colonial British and the indigenous peoples of the countries occupied by the British are subjects explored from the female perspective in each of the respective works talked about in this paper. In Lean’s film, the viewer is impressed with the fact that the British are repulsed by the Indian customs and rituals. This becomes evident during traditional celebrations where the Indians crowd the streets in pursuit of a non-Christian celebration. It appears, too, in Ngugis The River Between through discussion of the Christian missionary’s feelings towards the ancient tribal traditions, especially circumcision where they believe, "Circumcision was wholly evil. Thenceforth nobody would ever be a member of Christs Church if he was so much as found connected in any way with circumcision rites" (59). Achebe, Ngugi, and director Lean, in his adaptation of A Passage to India, are cognizant of the post colonial political transitions in India and Africa and were influenced by these social transitions as evident in their respective works. However, that each of these men focused on the emergence of the female as an independent individual in those settings and attempts to convey to an audience the mindsets of the feminist, is really, quite unique. According to Guptas aforementioned statement that “Feminism assumes that women experience the world differently from men and write out of their different perspective,” (Gupta 299) we appreciate that when we have men attempting to write or create on film the female perspective of the world, we do indeed have something different and unique each time a man strives to do so. Ngugi presents us with Muthoni, the feminist victim of resistance to the will of her father. Nada Elia, in her book, Trances, Dances and Vociferations: Agency and Resistance in African Women’s Narratives (2001), suggests that the African woman portrayed as the victim is in fact one way in which to utilize the agency of feminism (25). It is a paradigm, she suggests, that portraying African women as colonial victims, helps move the image of the African woman beyond that image of a victim and into the contemporary feminist image, thereby surpassing, too, the image of the culturally bound woman in a still traditional patriarchal African society (27). African writer Chandra Mohanty in her article "Under Western Eyes" taken from Natasha Gordons "Tonguing the Body": Placing Female Circumcision within African Feminist Discourse discusses the colonization or westernization of post colonial African women, arguing that the residual effect is one of stagnation for the African woman (Gordon 1997). The stagnation that she refers to is, she says, as a result of the feminist notion impacting African women during the period of colonization, and then, post colonization, the patriarchal society of colonial Africa and its traditional hegemony emerged as the greater force suppressing a feminist awareness catapulting it the emerging identity into a state of stagnation. It is in that state of stagnation, Mohanty contends, where African women stand today (24). Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s The River Between really is a story where the elements that come together of westernization for women, as exemplified by the conflict between traditional and post colonial notions surrounding female circumcision; is supportive of Mohanty’s argument that African women stand in a state of post colonial stagnation as to a feminist identity. The western identity that African men adopted along with Christianity was not an identity informed by gender equality, but rather was compatible with African men’s own patriarchal subordination of women. This is illustrated in Ngugi’s work where Nyambura’s rejects Waiyaki’s marriage proposal because she was obedient to her father (122). Yet Waiyaki’s mother warned him of his desire to marry Nyambura because she managed her life as an African mother in accordance with the traditional “voice of the people,” (to read men) (123). The presentation of the feminist thought in the film A Passage to India is an emerging feminist thought and identity, in its infancy really, and the director presents it as a concept that neither women nor men are prepared for. In fact, it is presented as a concept that may be too powerful for women to grasp. This is the legacy of westernization and colonialization for Indian and African women. The stagnation about which Mohanty speaks is the colonial legacy for women, and men, in India and in Africa, where the awareness of feminism continues to stand in opposition to hegemonic traditions and conditions that hold the feminine identity in limbo, so to speak. As countries emerge from colonialization into a world of globalization, there is every reason to believe that these conditions will change, evolve, and that Indian and African women will one day evolve an awareness of their feminist identity, to assume that identity and that it will afford them the opportunity to participate in their own lives and societies in a more full way. The past cannot be changed, but Indian and African women can take the lessons of the past and leave for their daughters a new kind of legacy. In conclusion, the most striking parallel between the three works is they are the creative products of men trying to convey to their audience the minds of women in response to the patriarchal societies in which they live. It is an interesting and bold thing for a man to take on these complex feminine storylines, and each man did it well. However, if we find the female perspective to be, in a feminist way, skewed, we must remember that these men are writing on the perspectives of women from their own male perspectives. Having said that, without knowing beforehand that the authors and the director are male, it would be very easy to believe that the author and director are women, because the perspectives are so close to the feminine thought. - WORKS CITED- Achebe, Chinua, (1987), Anthills of the Savannah, Random House Publishing, New York, New York. Anthills of the Savannah and Petals of Blood: The Creation of a Usable Past Leonard A. Podis; Yakubu Saaka Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 22, No. 1, African Aesthetics in Nigeria and the Diaspora. (Sep., 1991), pp. 104-122. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-9347%28199109%2922%3A1%3C104%3AAOTSAP%3E2.0.CO%3B2-L Elia, Nada. Trances, Dances, and Vociferations: Agency and Resistance in African Women’s Narratives. New York: Garland Press, 2001. Gupta, R. K. (1994). Trends in Modern Indian Fiction. World Literature Today, 68(2), 299-307. Retrieved March 30, 2007, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=95705102 Jan Mohamed, Abdul R. Manichean Aesthetics: The Politics of Literature in Colonial Africa. Amherst: U Massachusetts P, 1983. Lean, David, (Director) (1984), A Passage to India (Motion Picture), India. Maxine Molyneux, "Women in Socialist Societies: Problems of Theory and Practice," in Kate Young (et al.) Of Marriage and the Market: Womens Subordination Internationally and its Lessons, London: Routledge, 1984, 55. Stratton, Florence. Contemporary African Literature and the Politics of Gender. London: Routledge, 1994. Thong’o, Ngugi Wa, (1965), The River Between, Heinemann Publishers, Great Britain. "Tonguing the Body": Placing Female Circumcision within African Feminist Discourse Natasha M. Gordon Issue: A Journal of Opinion, Vol. 25, No. 2, African Women in the Age of Transformation: Womens Voices from the Continent. (1997), pp. 24-27. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0047-1607%281997%2925%3A2%3C24%3A%22TBPFC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-%23 Uraizee, J. F. (2004). "Flowers in All Their Colours": Natios and Communities in Ngugi Wa Thiongos Petals of Blood. International Fiction Review, 31(1-2), 27+. Retrieved March 30, 2007, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5007265887 Gender Representation in the Post Colonial Novel OUTLINE I. Introduction – Gender in the Post Colonial Ia. A Passage to India Ib. Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s The River Between Ic. Chinua Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah II. Feminism IIa. R. K. Gupta – Universal “feminine perspective” IIb. Colonial Influence on Identity of Self IIc. Colonial Gap Between Cultural Identity and Colonial Identity of Self III The Cultural Identity and Role of Women in PreColonial Society IIIa. The Impact of Colonialism versus Cultural Feminine Role IIIb. Post Colonial Indigenous Women Assimilate British Persona IV The Conflict Between Cultural and Colonial Feminine Identity V The Colonial Christian Influence on Indigenous Females VI Conclusion VIa. The Contemporary Indigenous Woman as a Manifestation of Universal Woman VIb. The End of Indigenous Feminine Tradition VII Post Colonial Male Authors/Filmmakers Attempt to Dialogue From Post Colonial Feminine Perspective Read More