At the beginning of the story Raha talks about her school as if it was some sort of sanctuary from the outside world, and that she was safe there. I think that this is kind of her way of living in her own little fantasy land where she is in denile of the fact that she is eventually go back to her home and marry this man that she doesn't even know. Of course, at the beginning of the story we don't know about this man so we think that she is just a happy girl at school, but when we hear about this man we realize that this was a girl who was just trying to ignore the inevitable by always keeping happy thoughts in her brain.
It is upsetting for me to face the truth that some young women were and possibly are still for to take part in these arranged marriages. This ritual shows that the culture of some places is still quite similar to how it was many years ago, and that even some children that come from families that are well off can have a very hard life.
Yeah Cole i totally agree with you on the ending. At first when i read the last few paragraphs, i thought that Raha had actually had hung herself with her hair rope and the last few lines were her after death, but then i realized that she was still alive. Then i thought the mother came in and killed her at the end but after some discussion i don't know. The author seems to have written a cliffhanger ending, but i am pretty sure that Raha will die sometime in the near future because she strongly refuses not to marry Fahid and the family has already established the penalty as death. On the subject of the beginning, i could kind of tell that something bad was going to happen becuase Raha was a bit overly dramatic and happy. When people uise extreme forms of emotions like that, it sometimes means that the mean something else.
ReplyDeleteI totaly agree with you. This story kind of reminds me of midsummer night's dream when Egeus wants Hermia to marry Demetrius and she refuses. In this case though she just goes away and a magical fairy makes her fall in love with someone else. However in the story Raha has nowhere to go the parents (more likely the mother) beat her and it kind of implies that she dies in the end. I agree with you that we may never know if she really did die or if she gave in and married the man or e even she just experiance a lot of pain. I think the culture of these places also has effect on this as you said.
ReplyDeleteI didn't really understand the end either, but I think she hung herself, and did die. Her saying her mother "gave her death" probably means that she gave her death indirectly, as in forcing her to kill herself. However, I didn't like this style of writing. I find it too cluttered with unecessary literary devices for me to understand. I also don't like such an unclear ending, that left me confused and annoyed.
ReplyDeleteIt seems strange to me that Raha completely forgot that her planned marriage to this man existed. She probably remembers it unconciously, because she has a feeling that something is going to change, but doesn't fully remember. I agree that she is living a fantasy, denying anything that she doesn't like. Despite the fact that she seems like a young woman, already able to leave home and stay at a boarding school, her mind is very limited and childlike. Not that she isn't intelligent - she already assumes her exam scores will be excellent - but she doesn't allow sad news to penetrate her brain, trying to shield herself from unpleasantness. That includes the deaths on the TV and radio, and her marriage.
Also, why did her parents have her come home so quickly, by telling her her father was ill? They could have waited for her to come home herself. I think that Raha's parents are even more extreme than most parents in the Middle East are.