This story felt very much like a excerpt from a book, which it is. That would seem to explain the conclusion, where there was very little drama. Despite the lack of drama, I liked this short story (though not as much as some of the others we have read). I liked how the characters were very real, not larger than life or overly dramatic. I could see Fatiha’s personality fitting in anywhere, because she is very human. Fathida especially human in her reactions to her marriage- she isn’t going into hysterics but she also isn’t gushing about how wonderful her life is.
I also liked the descriptions in this story, which is unusual for me. The description of the female guests is especially interesting: “Putting on their wedding jewelry they looked at each other, admired each other, found fault with each other.” (p 55). I think that the descriptions of different characters’ reactions to Fathida’s marriage: her mother refusing to admit that she is simply unhappy, her friend Myriem knowing that she isn’t very happy, the old cousin telling her to smile at life, the sadness of the sewing teacher, and other guests’ reactions of thinking that everything is perfect all are very realistic.
One thing I noticed was that the author uses color to describe things a lot, and some of the color seems to have meaning (red might be tradition: the color of the henna and the color of a girl’s skirt- the girl, Leila, doesn’t know that her mother is talking about an arranged marriage for her). I was really interested in some of the symbolism in the story, for example, Fathida sits with her hands and feet bound in cloth (waiting for the henna to dry so she doesn’t smear it) and she is a prisoner of tradition, the one non-moving person in the room.
I was also interested in how many characters weren’t just stuck with tradition or weren’t just convinced that modernity was the way to go. For example, the cousin who comforts Fathida gives her good, realistic, almost ‘modern’ advice and then goes on to tell all the girls to get “magical red” henna on so that they will be married soon.
Questions:
What do you think will happen to Fatiha?
I looked at the italics section at the top, and I think that Fatiha’s future is going to be mixed, she will always be struggling, with no final happy ending, but she won’t sink into despair forever either.
“Then what is the use in winning our independence if we’re just going to copy everything the Europeans do?” (Fathida’s father says this on page 57). How should people in the middle east try to mix their traditions and the modern ideas of equality for women? Is “the west” partially responsible for all the extremism in the middle east?
Is Fathida’s mother blind in convincing herself that Fathida is happy? Is Fathida happy?
If you were in Fathida’s position, would you have the courage to tell your parents that you weren’t going to get married? (keep in mind what happened to Raha in “The Assassination of Light at the River’s Flow”)
~Mika
PS: a question I was confused about: Is A Wife For My Son the title of the excerpt/chapter or is it the title of the book?
I like how saw that this excerpt was realistic and not overly dramatic, because everyone elses blog complains about it being to boring.(cough Rajeeve) I knew that they wrapped her hands while the Henna dried but i didn't make that analogy. To me, you've read the story in a different way than i did.i looked for plot and drama(like most of the others) while you payed attention to the smaller almost unoticable details. As an answer to your fourth question I don't think many people would protest or make their opinions known even though they say they would. Overall no one would risk the fate of Raha when compared to having an okay marriage.
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