many could care less about it. Meaning that although polygamy was accepted and was still seen as a way of gaining status many did not practice it, however, they did not look down upon it. The interaction between the families was one that left me a bit stunned. I did not expect them to be best friends but from reading Things Fall Apart, although the wives may not have been good friends they still had interactions with eachother. It also seemed to me that when El Hadji remarried there was a given amount of time in between his marriages. It almost seemed that he remarried when his most recent wife started becoming "old" or a "bore". If you looked at how he saw his first wife he noted her as one who was deeply religious and who kept her place as the wife. He seemed to think she really no longer needed him other than for financial support and the status of being married but when we met with her alone she spent her time weeping because she felt alone. I would have to say that for a 100 page story Xala had a lot packed into it!Links:
http://www.bartleby.com/65/se/Sembene.html
3 comments:
I think I too expected the family to be closer. It was like El Hadji had multiple lives. He was different with both families.
Being Mormon, I was somewhat familiar with polygamy, but I was shocked that he kept himself do distanced from each wife. Usually the families build a sense of community, or at least know each other well. Nice blog...
Very interesting comparison with Things Fall Apart!
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