Voices By Dacia Maraini - Book

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Recommended: Meaning of themes of oppression in literature

Repeated images of Angela Bari living an imprisoned life in Voices by Dacia Maraini play an important role in book. The internal and external forces surrounding Angela Bari lead her to a life of confinement and domination. If Angela Bari had broken away from her confinement she may have prevented her untimely death by exposing the ill ways of her stepfather, Glauco Elia. Angela's secretiveness, self-doubt, and compliance with others lead her to victimization.
It is not until her unfortunate murder that Angela's imprisonment gets unraveled. Her distorted emotions are revealed as this relatively unknown young woman's death is investigated. Journalists trample inside Ms. Bari's life without any regards to her in an attempt to solve this murder mystery (17). Angela's body was discovered by the porter of her apartment who is 'astonished that there should be so little blood on the floor'; when he discovers that she is lying on the ground dead after being stabbed several times (18). This is the first clue that Angela is cornered in her own little world. She has little blood, which is regarded as the seat of emotions, and her lack of such nourishment suggests that perhaps she was never nurtured. Furthermore, her cause of death, internal hemorrhage, suggests that those feelings imbedded within her were lost rapidly and uncontrollably (19). The obscure grasp Angela has of her emotions is just one facet of her imprisonment.
Angela's imprisonment is traced back to its roots in adolescence, when at the young age of eight her father dies leaving an 'empty gap'; in her life 'that couldn't ever be filled'; (189). Shortly thereafter her mother remarries, and her bondage evolves. Her new family life is the main source of her isolation. It is, as though her family remained 'cocooned inside its own cultural and linguistic bunker'; (6). Similar to many, her family was like a 'minefield'; (39). The most explosive is Angela's new father who sexually abuses her (214-215). 'He loved her without respecting her . . . and treated her as if she belonged to him'; (213). He felt as though he were taming her (233). He obviously sees nothing wrong in what he is doing as he claims, 'I'm very content with my household of women'; (190) as though they were objects. In addition, he does not see anything wrong with Marco beating Angela's sister, Ludovica. 'I know he beats her up but I think wi...

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...aked, would be overcome by an excruciating desire to touch her, caress her, to penetrate her, even to rape her because in some way she was really asking for this . . . at the same time that brought out the wish to kill her. (237)
Angela's life was marked by this torture. Glauco Elia lived so that he could dominate and overpower Angela like so many people did, but in the end no one was able to really control her. Just as she began to truly break away from her prison by exposing the 'horrible things'; that encompassed her she is murdered by her stepfather because he loses all his sense of power. She tells him that he had 'ruined her life, her body was dead, forever, dead'; (241).
Similar to Michela who has trouble finding Glauco's house even when she has directions (183-185) Angela is unable to find a path that will lead her past Glauco and his dominance. Even after her death Angela Bari's soul 'isn't at peace'; (55). Her body does not 'remain whole until the Day of Judgement';, (57) but similar to her life she is 'brutally torn apart'; (22) at her death. Even her family does not come to Angela's funeral (7) further illustrating the isolation Angela was bound to during her lifetime.

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