SHAME by Shirley Geok-Lin

Lim
Feminism
New criticism

Prepared by:
Aminah Syuhada binti Abdul Latif
Nurain Izzatie binti Zakaria
 Biodata of Shirley
Geok-Lin Lim

• Was born in 1944 in Malacca, Malaysia.

• One of 5 children of a Hokkien Peranakan Family.
(Baba and Nyonya)
• She endured a childhood powerfully shaped by
deprivation poverty, parental violence and
abandonment.
• The only daughter in the family.
• Her first poem was written and then published
when she was ten.
• "Growing up when I did, there weren't many
other recreational alternatives, and I had a
pretty unhappy childhood. Reading was a huge
solace, retreat, escape. I was a really obsessive
reader. Somewhere along the line, I had a
sense I should write about things I knew rather
than read about things I didn't know. I wanted
to write my own voice, my own community. "
 FEMINISM
• Feminist criticism is a type of literary criticism,
which was developed in the late 1960s,
focusing on the role of women in literature.
• Two important representatives are Virginia
Woolf and Simone de Beauvoir who claim that
women are a subject and no object.
• Belief on the equality in social, politic and
economic between male and female.
• to explore the extent of patriarchal ideology in
literature, namely to explore the material
forms of social, economic and political
discrimination of women.
 From the text,
• ‘… what men liked their women to do in bed,
how babies were made, and how awful giving
birth was…’ (pg 29)
• ‘… women were different from men who were
bodoh and had to be trained o be what
women wanted to be…’
• ‘ If women were carts, men were like kerbau
hitched to them.’
• “…Men are all alike, itchy and hot. You cannot
stop him by showing a dirty face or talking bad all
the time. You will drive him away. The only thing
that women have is their cunning…” (pg 30)
• “ Yes, we women must accept our fate. If we
want to have some fun also, stomach will
explode. Where can we hide our shame? But
men, they think they are datoks because they can
do things without being punished. But we must
control them, and to do that we must control
their money.” (pg 32)
New criticism
 Theme: Effects of the culture

Negative effects of the Baba Nyonya Culture:

- Tua Ee don’t want to nurse or hold her daughter Siew Eng.

- The women treat their husband as a buffalo.

- Disrespectful to the husband.

- An innocent girl able to lie just because she doesn't want

to be scold by her mother.

Setting of place:
Setting of time:
Malacca:
Mei Sim’s house :
Tua Ee’s house at
Klebang: During 1950’s:
Lunch time at Tua Ee’s
house until evening:
 Character

Tua Ee
Mei Sim
Mei Sim’s grand aunty
An innocent girl
Strict and sometimes
6 years old.
heartless to her daughter.
Afraid and respect her
Strict with her culture.
mother.
Control her husband.

Mother
Married to rich man
arranged by Tua Ee.
A strict mother of three
children.
Pretty
 Uncle Muti
Siew Eng
A neighbor to Tua Ee because
Tua Ee’s daughter.
he rent the house from her.
Obedient and
Good person. He give hens to
hardworking girl although
Tua Ee because that year
her mother doesn’t want
they hot many chickens.
to treat her nicely.

The Boy
Uncle Muti’s son.
Cannot speak English.
Being accused of holding
Mei Sim’s dress.
 Literary Devices
Language
Simile.
Like a nail on the fearsome
Malay Language:
pontianak.
Boleh la, ta malu, macham
Men were like Kerbau.
bungah, tanjong bunga, orang
jakun,
Bodoh, sundal….
Onomatopoeia
Drub drub
Slosh slosh
 The end
Thank You