Name: Sadare, Oluwagbemisola Mary

Course title: The Novel: Classification and Techniques

Course code: Eng224

Department: English

Faculty: Arts

Assignment: Analyse three different novels based on their typology

This paper is a literary analysis of three novels namely Peter’s Abraham’s Mine Boy, Nawal

El Saadawi’s Woman at Point Zero and Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. The aim of the

paper is to analyse Mine Boy as a sociological novel, Woman at Point Zero as a feminist

novel and The Color Purple as an epistolary novel.

Mine Boy follows the story of a young black man, Xuma, a rural person who migrates from

the countryside to Johannesburg to eke out a living in the goldmines. Xuma life in the city is

shaped by the racist’s restrictions and segregations of the colonial capital, but Xuma differs

from other blacks through his evolution and his ability to surmounts the hardship of the

obnoxious system that is apartheid.

Man, by nature is a product of the society, and as such cannot alienate himself from the

realities of this same society. The novel was written to depict the apartheid system practiced

in South-Africa. The apartheid system created an apartness between whites and non-whites. It

was a system when Africans were estranged, separated from their environment, culturally,

socially, economically, politically and otherwise. Its effects on the sociological well-being of

individuals cannot be overemphasized. However, since the main focus of the paper is the

consideration of Mine Boy using the sociological typology as already stated, emphasis will be
placed on those prevailing social realities and effect in Apartheid South Africa that informed

the creation of Mine Boy.

Mine Boy reveals that race determines a person’s social class, fate and class position. The

races were divided because of the colour of their skin and the division was particularly visible

in residential areas. The white area was well built and maintained, whereas the non-whites

locations were dirty. The novel opens with Xuma's entry into Johannesburg where he is

spotted and taken into the residence of the benevolent Leah, at Malay Camp, one of several

sprawling black only quarters devoid of social amenities. It was described by him as a “dark

and awful city” not what he had expected to find. Xuma also reflects on how white people

have clean, open restaurants while black people are packed into filthy, confined eating halls.

The dominant white group uses dehumanization processes against blacks, which results in

alienation and an inferiority complex in the victims. The next day after Xuma's arrival he

was taken for a walk by Joseph, Leah’s brother who tried to introduce the city to Xuma, but

before finishing his speech there was a crowd of people fighting over something, on the other

side there was a thief who stole a woman’s bag and runs away, but the policeman left all

those and comes directly to Xuma, and asked him about his passport: "Do you know about

something called a pass? But why? How dare you ask? Negro! ".

The policeman here dehumanizes Xuma by calling him negro. He also thinks Xuma is not

literate to understand what a passport is. When Xuma shows him his pass, he is shocked, he

hit Xuma on the head. The use of the word ‘boy’ labelled the men working at the mines as

inferior to their white managers. Abrahams uses such terminology to demonstrate the level to

which the white dehumanize the blacks. After taking Xuma to the mines, Johannes has an

argument with a white man who is supposed to admit Xuma to the mine itself: "This is the

new one," Johannes said. "Your gang?" (said the white man)"No. For the Red One. Boss
Boy, " "The Red Man has not come." "My white man says so." "You mean your boss." "My

white man.

The system also thrived on economic exploitation of the black majority. Menial and

dangerous jobs where the only jobs available for black men. Apartheid imposed appallingly

heavy burdens on the blacks in South Africa. Leah’s character represents an

acknowledgement of the harsh conditions of the city. She is a Skokiaan Queen who sells

illegal liquor to the black and coloured people of Malay Camp. When she hears that Xuma’s

main goal of coming to the city is to work at the mine Leah warns him, and asked him to

forget about that. She said: "For you as a black man, the mines are no good, Xuma. Later on,

you cough and then you spit blood and you became weak and die…I’ve seen it many times, a

black miner is young and strong, but tomorrow he is thin and ready to die" This dialogue

shows the kind of gory jobs blacks do in South Africa. The author also uses the dialogue to

show the disparity between the blacks and the whites in South Africa.

The sociological effect that the apartheid system had on the characters in Mine Boy is

identity crisis. Eliza is tormented by racial consciousness and fundamentally crippled by it so

that she cannot function in “normal” society. Her identity crisis represents a burden that

prevents her from ever feeling satisfied, instils in her self-hatred, and destroys her ability to

relate to people. Xuma is contrasted with Eliza precisely in that, once he becomes a man

without colour and finally is able to understand Eliza, he applies this understanding to a

productive effort at resistance, whereas Eliza cannot cope with this consciousness and she

simply fades away into irrelevance.

In conclusion, Peter Abrahams obviously succeeded in mirroring the realities of the ills of the

South African society. Through realistic character and characterisation, we are able to feel the

heavy pulse of oppression and dehumanisation with the people. Generally, the novel has
captured vividly realities of Apartheid South Africa, explored by representing grim images

and themes as obtains in this society.

The novel Woman at Point Zero deals with the true-life account of the fight of a woman

Firdaus a prostitute and her survival in a patriarchy society. She suffered all her life simply

because she is born a female. Each man who came in her life used her only for his sexual

gratification. She is taken to prison for the crime of murder. Firdaus didn’t appeal for the life

time imprisonment instead, she awaits execution as she takes this punishment as a relief and a

step towards salvation.

The novel is undeniably a feminist novel. Feminism is a socio-political movement. It

emphasizes that women should be given equal opportunities with their male counterpart in

various areas of human activity. Throughout history, women have always struggled to gain

equality, respect and the same rights as men. This has been made difficult because hegemonic

patriarchal power that controls gender, education, religion and sexuality.

Women have always suffered from male control, pressure, and suppression in and outside the

family. Patriarchy is a term that indicates male domination over family within the social

context. In the novel, premium is placed on the male child to the extent that when a female

child dies, Firdaus father would eat his supper and go to sleep but when a male child dies, he

would beat Firdaus mother, have his bathe and go to sleep. Despite being poor, Firdaus father

scrapes off the limited resources available. The husband matters more than the daughter and

the wife who prepares it. In page 18, Firdaus says: "My mother would hide his food from us

at the bottom of one of the holes in the oven...One evening I dared to stretch out my hand to

his plate, but he struck me a sharp blow over the back of my fingers..." In winter, he denies

the daughter the warmth she needs badly for survival at her tender age. She says:" Our hut
was cold, yet in winter my father used to shift my straw mat and my pillow to the small room

facing north and occupy my corner in the oven room" (page 16).

Firdaus as a child went through female genital mutilation. She experiences sexual pleasures

with Mohammaden at an early age before she was subjected to the cruel societal practice

carried out by her mother and the circumciser—a woman strange to her. Genital mutilation

denies her sexual satisfaction and becomes a mark of Firdaus’ female identity. She was just a

child when it happened, she being a kid only thought that she made some mistake and her

mother punishing her for it. She cried all night in pain but there was nobody to take care of

her. "Then she brought a woman who was carrying a small knife or maybe a razor blade.

They cut off a piece of flesh from between my thighs. I cried all night. The next morning my

mother did not send me to the fields."(page 12).

When Firdaus loses both parents, she goes to live with her uncle in Cairo. Her uncle is a

scholar, and this ignites and rekindles her long-buried ambition of acquiring an education as a

means of liberation. When asked by her uncle what she would do in Cairo, Firdaus’ response

is ecstatic: “I will go to El Azhar and study like you” (page 16). She knows that education

liberates and opens the door to freedom and power, especially for women. Although Firdaus

loves education, she is denied access to it because it is regarded as the sole preserve of the

men.

Through misinterpreted religion and cultural dominance, the patriarchy society also allow for

the arrangement of marriage for their female child. This practice enables the girl’s family to

get rid of her because she is regarded as an unnecessary liability. At the tender age of

eighteen, Firdaus is forcefully married off to Sheik Mahmoud, a sixty-year old rich widower,

by her uncle. This arrangement is masterminded by her uncle’s wife who complains that "the

house is too small and life is expensive. She eats twice as much as any of our children" (page
35). Firdaus is then thrown off to Sheikh Mahmoud, a deformed, ailing old man who is too

superior to her age to generate bride price to pay off her uncle’s debts. She is battered by her

husband, who, because of his patriarchal, and religious beliefs, considers her as his property.

The patriarchal society refuses to see Firdaus as anything but a sex object, a body that is

meant to exist for the sole pleasure of men. Firdaus uncle sexually molested her at her

father’s home while she is kneading dough to bake for family use, her uncle, under the guise

of reading a book. He takes advantage of her because she is a female. After Firdaus escapes

to the streets from her husband’s violence, she meets Bayoumi, a coffee shop owner. He

initially offers to help Firdaus and shows her kindness and care. He accommodates her in his

apartment and provides her basic needs. When Firdaus expresses the wish to get a job instead

of sitting at home all day, this is how she expresses her agonizing experience in the hands of

Bayoumi: "He jumped up and slapped me on my face… His hand was big and strong and it

was the heaviest slap I had ever received on my face…"(page 51). Despite the fact that

Firdaus is raped and sexually exploited by Bayoumi, he also allows his friends to molest her

sexually.

The patriarchal society controls women’s bodies by depriving them of sex and by making

women fear their sexual bodies. Because of being circumcised, Firdaus greatly suffers all

her life and cannot feel any sexual pleasure. For example, when she is having sexual

intercourse with a customer, Firdaus is described as “some passive, lifeless thing, refusing

to surrender, undefeated".

After her heart is broken by Ibrahim, Firdaus quit her job and re-entered the sex industry.

By this point, she had built up a wealthy clientele; so popular was she that she was able to

turn away men to assert her power. Firdaus tries to change her class but she cannot stop the

impact of all the systems of oppression. She manages to fight the patriarchal gaze by being
economically independent and getting her own food, rather than have someone watch over

every mouthful.

"I thought I had escaped from men but the man who came this time practiced a well-known

male profession. He was a pimp." Even as a prostitute, Marzouk, a pimp, threatens Firdaus.

He tells her that "every prostitute has a pimp to protect her from other pimps", and from the

police…. Firdaus is not as safe as she thinks regardless of all the wealth she acquired. She

reports the pimp to the police, but she discovers that even the police are behind him. She

ends up killing because that was the only way out of his hands.

In conclusion, Sadaawi has shown a deep concern about certain subjugating conditions that

women undergo. In her concern are attempts to evoke those subjugating circumstances of

women in order to arouse our pity for them and then to emancipate them from such

conditions. In the end, what emerges is a positive vision of women different from what has

been in existence in the societies that informed the background and setting of the novel.

Alice Walker’s The color purple is a novel that portrays the story of an African-American

woman named Celie. The novel consists of letters written by Celie and Nettie, two sisters

living in the rural south of the United States in the first half of the twentieth century. Celie

starts writing letters at the age of fourteen, and keeps on writing for four decades, ending

sometime in the nineteen forties, when her journey through life and love, and Nettie’s journey

through the world, reunite them in their childhood home.

The Color Purple is a novel in which the language of the letters looks so much like spoken

language that the reader is easily duped into believing that he or she is hearing the voice of

the narrator, rather than reading her writing. The Color Purple is written mostly in a

distinctive rural black dialect that is so close to the speech of the narrator that her letters read
like spoken language. Celie does not only speak, she defiantly speaks her dialect, and writes

her dialect in what later comes out as a refusal to use standard English or speak “properly”

The novel opens with Celie who is an African-American as she is writing her first letter to

God. She confides in God by writing to him that she's only fourteen, but already she is

burdened with cooking, cleaning, and caring for a multitude of brothers and sisters because of

her mother's failing health. In addition, her father has raped her.

Celie is writing to God in much the way that she would write to, or speak to, a good, close,

loving friend. The reason why Celie writes to God is that she would like to tell her mother

what happened, but Celie's father has warned her not to tell "nobody but God," especially

not Celie's mother because, according to him, "It'd kill your mammy."

The need for Celie to write God stems from the case that she has no one in which she can

confide; she is essentially voiceless. She uses God as a medium in order to vent her feelings

about the difficulties she is facing. She is a woman bound by the limitations of being female

and African American in a society that is male-dominant and oppresses minorities. Her father

finally marries her off to Mr.__ who also sexually, physically and verbally abuses her. She

remains in this state of oppression until Shug Avery helps reunite her with her sister, Nettie,

and helps her find her sexuality and independence.

It is at the crucial point in the novel when Celie begins to find her identity that she discovers

that Nettie is alive and begins to address her letters to her instead of to God. She goes on to

start her own pants company, finds her children with the help of her sister and is finally

liberated from the restraints of the male members of her family.

REFERENCES

Bamidele, L. O. (2000). Literature and Sociology. Ibadan: Stirling-Horden Publishers (Nig.)

Ltd.
Davis, R. H. (2006). “Apartheid”. Microsoft Student 2007 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft

Corporation.

Hooks, Bell. (2015). Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics. New York: Routledge

Taylor and Francis Group.