Thursday, December 3, 2009
Shaman's Tranformation
Shaman was a crazy, uncontrollable child. There's absolutely no doubt about that. And she wasn't particularly endearing, either. I think, then, that it's really interesting the way Chughtai takes her through her maturation--her anger and rage becomes controlled. When she is an adolescent, she is still prone to violence, but it is a much more calculated violence; she slaps Rasul Fatima once, when she is offended by her; she beats her cousin Noori to keep her tongue in check. And the older Shaman gets, the more shy, especially when confronted with men, she becomes. Eventually, Shaman is a poised, quiet woman, and this progression is so natural, so subtle, that once I realized she had become something totally different, I had to go back and see if what I read of her childhood was what I remembered. I thought this evolution was masterful.
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I posted earlier saying that Chungtai was probably interested in sex roles as a condition one has to be inducted into rather than being born with male or female traits? is this a right word? or behaviors.
ReplyDeleteI confess I have not finished the novel. But have you any thought on her subtle change? From our class discussion, I was under the impression that it was a marked change. Perhaps you meant it wasn't abrupt and in a short time? I could be wrong. The use of the word natural is very interesting. It seems that way for the character, doesn't it? Though we know Chunghtai probably thought the induction into the proper sex role wasn't really "natural."
I find it interesting too that you call her a quiet woman. To me, in the end she isn't really shy or quiet, she constantly fights with her husband and is even upset when he will not go out with her. Also, in the end if I'm not mistaken doesn't she go kind of crazy longing for her husband who left her, screaming for him, pretty much being off of her rocker because he left? I think her change adds commentary more on the despair of a woman's position than as a natural end to a path.
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