Mariama Bâ’s So Long a Letter
When a person hears words like feminist or feminism, notions of what it means to be feminine, or consequently unfeminine, begin to dimly form in our mind’s eye. Although we cannot definitively answer the question of what is feminine, we are able to recognize it when we see it or its absence. This conception, however, is arbitrary at best. What is it about an evening gown that seems to define and dress the feminine aura while a woman spitting would be denounced as inherently unfeminine?
There is no question that Mariama Bâ’s novel, So Long a Letter, is undoubtedly a work of feminist literature. Although we are able to easily make this identification, it is much more difficult for us to define and explain how we were able to come to this conclusion. One explanation might be that the novel calls for a sense of equality and balance between the two sexes:
We have a right to equal well-paid employment, to equal opportunities. The right to vote is an important weapon. And now the Family Code has been passed, restoring to the most humble of women the dignity that has so often been trampled upon. (Bâ 61)
In this passage, Ramatoulaye asserts a woman’s entitlement to equality, but this idea of equality, like that of feminism itself, is hard to define and implement. Although men and women should be paid the same amount for the same job, are women and men equally suited to handle all jobs? Are there some jobs that would be better suited to a man than a woman? Can men and women ever be considered truly equal when society points out so many apparent and inherent differences between them? Is a separate but equal mentality the closest we can come to achieving true equality? The egalitarian...
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Finding strength in motherhood, Ramatoulaye is able to look towards the possibilities of the future and find hope for herself for the first time in her life:
Despite everything-disappointments and humiliations-hope still lives on within me. It is from the dirty and nauseating humus that the green plant sprouts into life, and I can feel new buds springing up in me. (Bâ 89)
Works Cited
Bâ, Mariama. So Long a Letter. Johannesburg, South Africa: Heinemann Publishers Limited, 1989.
Grosz, Elizabeth. Sexual Difference and the Problem of Essentialism. From The Essential Difference. Ed. Naomi Schar and Elizabeth Weed. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1994.
Young, Iris Manon. Breasted Experience: The Look and the Feeling. From Throwing Like a Girl. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1990.
Within Hon. Shirley Chisholm’s well known speech, Equal Rights for Women, which she presented on May 21, 1969, she discusses in detail the ideology of woman’s rights before the United States House of Representatives. She touches base on her own experience with discrimination, how society has prejudice against women, and introduces the Equal rights act, in which she states “that has been before every Congress for the last 40 years and that sooner or later must become part of the basic law of the land.” With her speech, Hon. Shirley Chisholm makes a substantial argument about women’s rights. With her use of anecdotes, counter arguments, and statistics, her speech obtains great value.
Insurance is more expensive for women. Women must serve more time for crimes than men. According to this document there are about 1,795 laws that are against women’s rights as people. Equal rights amendment will bring all sorts of rights for women. According to this document It will help stop discrimination about sex, allow women to have their own credit and benefits, become a legal person under law, and stop law from discriminating against women. This document is important because it shows how far women's rights have come since the 1970s. Women now have the right to get a credit card in their own name. Women have the right to hold public office. Women can now serve in the military and they can also do so much more.The equal rights amendment was the stepping stool for women to achieve rights and freedoms. Throughout American history we see different groups longing to have the stake at American Freedom. Women have had a hard journey to make all the progress they have. This document is not only important because we can see
Susan B. Anthony was an equal rights activist and one of the founders of feminism. She was fined $100 for voting illegally in the 1872 election. She was outraged by this, and traveled the country speaking on women’s suffrage and equal rights. Though women weren’t given the right to vote until 14 years following her death, she delivered a powerful speech, now known as “Women’s Right to Suffrage” to express her anger with the lack of rights in this country. She argues that “we that people” isn’t just inclusive to white men, and that both men and women should be given equal opportunity. Today, Ms. Anthony’s words still echo into the hearts and minds of fourth wave feminists, like myself, and inspire them to continue fighting against inequality
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Throughout the centuries there have been many groups pursuing equal rights for themselves. These groups feel that they are excluded from privileges others possess and are subject to injustices that others are not. These groups feel they deserve better and that their presence in the world is unequal to others’. In the United States a large percentage of women started to feel they warranted equal rights to men. Margaret Fuller was among the supporters of the movement and published ground-breaking article called “The Great Lawsuit.” In “The Great Lawsuit”, Margaret Fuller tries to stop the great inequalities between men and women by describing great marriages where the husband and wife are equal, by stating how society constricts the women’s true inner genius, and by recording admirable women who stand up in an effort for equality.
Although America wasn’t created equal to women, it is now. Women can now vote freely and do all the things men can do. The prolonged war for justice for women’s right to vote is over, a right that should’ve been given to them in the very beginning, has been given to them now. America now really is the home of the free and the home of the
Murray, Judith Sargent. "On the Equality of the Sexes." Ed. Paul Lauter.The Heath Anthology of American Literature, third edition. Volume 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1992. 1058-1064.
Young, Iris Marion. Throwing Like a Girl-Breasted Experience: The Look and the Feeling. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1990.
Whitbeck, Caroline. Theories of Sex Difference. Women and Values: Readings in Recent Feminist Philosophy. Edited by Marilyn Pearsall. Wadsworth Publishing Company: California. 1986. 34-51.
These novels, poems and short stories show how sexism is very much an issue in past decades but also in present and future decades. The America that we live in wants to believe in the fact that all men and women are created equal, it has yet to do anything. Women are still seen as objects to an extent. We are still seen as Daisy or as Charlotte Perkins main character, or the woman Carlos Gomez Andres writes about. The fact that we might die from the loss of freedom, because one cannot escape from an unhappy marriage, is considered ridiculous.
From the beginning of time, females have played a powerful role in the shaping of this world. They have stood by idly and watched as this country moved on without them, and yet they have demanded equal rights as the nation rolls along. Through the years the common belief has been that women could not perform as well as men in anything, but over the years that belief has been proven wrong time and time again. So as time marches on, women have clawed and fought their way up the ladder to gain much needed equal respect from the opposite sex. However, after many years of pain and suffering, the battle for equal rights has not yet been won. Since women have fought for a long time and proven their importance in society, they deserve the same rights as men.
“Women need no protection that men do not need. What we need are laws to protect working people, to guarantee them fair pay, safe working conditions, protection against sickness and layoffs, and provision for dignified, comfortable retirement” (Equal Rights for Women, 1969). Shirley Chisholm, the writer of Equal Rights for Women clearly states how women need what men have and they do not need special privileges (Equal R...
Throughout literature’s history, female authors have been widely recognized for their groundbreaking and eye-opening accounts of what it means to be a woman in society. In most cases of early literature, women are portrayed as weak and unintelligent characters who rely solely on their male counterparts. Also during this time period, it would be shocking to have women characters in some stories, especially since their purpose is only secondary to that of the male protagonist. But, in the late 17th to early 18th century, a crop of courageous women began publishing their works, beginning the literary feminist movement. Together, Aphra Behn, Charlotte Smith, Fanny Burney, and Mary Wollstonecraft challenge the status quo of what it means to be a woman during the time of the Restoration Era and give authors and essayists of the modern day, such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a platform to become powerful, influential writers of the future.
Ramatoulaye realizes that she was obeying and depending on her husband and following the societal norms and urges all the other women to unite and be independent of a man that doesn't appreciate a woman. Also, Ramatoulaye makes a choice to be a single woman that will do anything for her children and doesn't want to be with a man like Daouda who might be rich, but has a wife already.
Throughout history, there have been constant power struggles between men and women, placing the male population at a higher position than the female. Therefore, in this patriarchal system women have always been discriminated against simply due to the fact that they are women. Their rights to vote, to be educated and essentially being treated equally with men was taken away from them and they were viewed as weak members of society whose successes depend on men. However, this has not prevented them from fighting for what they believe in and the rights they are entitled to. On the contrary, it has motivated them to try even harder and gain these basic societal rights through determination and unity. In Mariama Bâ’s book, “So Long a Letter”, the