Jonathan Guerrero “Cultural Misogyny”
¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 Cultural Misogyny
¶ 2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 2 “SEASON OF MIGRATION TO THE NORTH” by Tayeb Salih is a novel about misogyny of men who do not value women for wisdom, skills and love but for the pleasure they can bring to men at night. Throughout the story, men talk about their encounters with women that they have both married and slept with and mention only the pleasures the women brought them. As stated by Mustafa Sa’eed on page thirty-one “The Island was like a sweet tune, happy and sad, changing like a mirage with the changing of the seasons. For thirty years I was part of all this, living in it but insensitive to its real beauty, unconcerned with everything about it except the filling of my bed each night.” This quotation is the body of the book, as men in the novel do not value much in life other than finding a woman to spend the night with. The author uses literally element simile to compare the beauty of Mustafa’s surrounding to the changing of the seasons, where one might enjoy themselves taking in the scenery. Although the land is beautiful as it is, it has no effect on Mustafa who was not concern with anything other than filling his bed at night. Like Mustafa, Wad Rayyes did not care for women other than to marry and divorce them once he was tired of them.
¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 2 In “Season of Migration to the North” some of the men in the novel spend their days looking for women to sleep with. They do not value or mention women for anything other than pleasure the women can bring them. For example on page twenty-seven, as Mustafa is recounting his days living in London, he talks about Ann Hammond a woman he meet abroad. He states “She proved an easy prey.” meaning he was able to entrap her easily. Salih uses metaphor in this instant to in pic Mustafa chasing after women like a predator would catch its prey. Using metaphor in this way shows how women are nothing more than a game to Mustafa, going after each one as if he is collecting them for some sort of prize. Later in the same passage when he talks about their sexual experience he mentions “In my bedroom I transformed her into a harlot.” Again using metaphor, Mustafa depicts his sex with Ann Hammond as having sex with a prostitute as he sees her for nothing else. Mustafa like many other men in the novel, chase after women for sex and for that reason only. Once they accomplished their goal, they move on to their next target.
¶ 4 Leave a comment on paragraph 4 2 Mustafa knowingly chases after women for pleasure they bring him and even sets up his bedroom to entrap them. He does not concern himself with their own personal feelings, only cares for what he gets out of it. Mustafa’s next victim after Ann Hammond was Isabella Saymour, a Spanish woman he also met in London. “After months of feverish desires [he] turned the key in the door with her at [his] side, a fertile Andalusia; after that [he] led her across the short passageway to the bedroom where the smell of burning sandalwood and incense assailed her, filling her lungs with a perfume she little knew was deadly.” Page thirty-six. In this passage Mustafa describes how he lures women into his bedroom filled with the smell of burning incense and sandalwood, which entraps them and makes it hard for them to leave. He later then describes both of their experience walking through the passageway to the bedroom stating “I knew the short road along which we walked together to the bedroom was, for her, a road of light rodent with the aroma of magnanimity and devotion, but which to me was the last step before attaining the peak of selfishness.” From this quotation, it’s easy to see that Mustafa knows his “prey” has fallen victim to his trap, and while Isabella may be in it for love and affection, he is merely in it for his own selfish reasons. When Salih writes “the smell of burning sandalwood and incense assailed her, filling her lungs with a perfume she little knew was deadly” she foreshadows Isabella’s death from suicide. Although the actual smell of the incense and sandalwood was not really deadly, it was in the sense that it made her fall victim to Mustafa, made her fall in love with him, just to come to realize he did not care for her in the way that she thought.
¶ 5 Leave a comment on paragraph 5 0 The men in the novel know they can ruin a women’s life with the action they take, such as leaving them for another women, or showing no love for them at all, and feel no remorse for their actions. They do not care that they are misogynist so long as they get what they want. For example, on page twenty-eight Mustafa confess “Everything which happened before my meeting her was a premonition; everything I did after I killed her was an apology, not for killing her but for the lie that was my life.” Referring to Jean Morris, a woman he married in London, he is unapologetic because he had planned to kill her after their second encounter. On their second encounter Mustafa vowed to get revenge on Jean for calling him ugly. Because he could not handle the disrespect of Jean Morris he chose vengeance on her. He does not feel sorry for killing her but for misleading people to believe he is something he is not. Leading women to believe he loved and cared for them, he lived his life in a lie. Telling any woman he can catch lies and made up stories about himself, whatever he believed would entrap them. After leaving the women, he does not care what actions occur from his selfish action, so long as his pleasures were satisfied. This shows how Mustafa along with other men in the novel are misogynist as they do not care what a woman feels and concerns herself with, so long as they are satisfied.
¶ 6 Leave a comment on paragraph 6 1 Like Mustafa, Wad Rayyes is another character in the novel that has no regards to women’s feeling and value, other than to sleep with them. Having multiple wives at a time or having really short marriage to move on to the next, he never stopped to think about how they felt. He believes what makes a man is the amount of women they sleep with. “This tribe of yours isn’t any good. You’re one-woman men. The only real man among you is Abdul Karim. Now there’s a man for you”, page sixty-seven. Not only does he marry women to sleep with them, he then divorces them to move on to the next. “We here lop it off and leave it like a piece of land that’s been stripped bare” he states on page sixty-eight referring to women from Abyssinia and Nigeria. Using simile, he compares how after having sex with women, he and his tribe leave like nothing after having finished with them. Wad Rayyes is one of the most misogynist characters in the book. He believes in polygamy but does not treat the women he marries with respect and dignity. He sleeps with women and moves on to the next because he feels it’s what God intended for men to do. He uses his religion and his culture as an excuse for his actions towards women.
¶ 7 Leave a comment on paragraph 7 1 Although there are monogamist men and men who treat their women with kindness in the novel, many of them still do not value freedom of opinion and choice for their women. After Mustafa dies and leaves his wife a widow, Wad Rayyes wants her hand in marriage and asks the narrator’s grandfather, Hajj Ahmed, to ask his grandson to convince her. Although she made countless claims she does not want to marry again, they still pursue Hosna Bint Mahmoud. After telling his grandfather he did not want to vouch for Wad Rayyes, Hajj continues to convince the narrator to speak with Hosna. “However, my grandfather insisted that Wad Rayyes was still sprightly, that he was comfortably off and that he was sure her father would not oppose it; however, the women her-self might refuse and so they had wanted to make a persuasive intermediary out of me.” page seventy-two. Although he does not want to, and know Hosna will say no, the narrator grandfather continues to talk to his grandson on behalf of Wad Rayyes. Hajj believes that since Hosna is a woman, she needs a man by her side to look after her and her children, even if its Wad Rayyes who does nothing more than showboat the women he sleeps with.
¶ 8 Leave a comment on paragraph 8 0 In this novel, if a woman makes her own decision in life on how she wants to live it, it is not valued. The men make the decision for their mothers, daughters, sisters, and wives. After talking to Hosna to no avail, the narrator tells Wad Rayyes she does not want to marry neither to him or anyone else. Frustrated and upset, Rayyes begins to throw a temper tantrum and states “She’ll accept me whether she likes it or not. Does she imagine she’s some queen or princess? Widows in this village are more common than empty bellies. She should thank God she’s found a husband like me.” page eighty-one. Using metaphor, Wad compares Hosna rejection in marrying him to a queen or princess, meaning that she is no one of high status to reject him. It is not common in this village for a woman to make her own decisions. When it does happen, like in this instant, they do not value it, completely ignoring the request. Although it may be in Wad Rayyes religion for men to have the say in a women’s life, he does not do it with good intent. Wad abuses his power over women, to get him whatever he wants.
¶ 9 Leave a comment on paragraph 9 1 When a woman refuses to do the things they are asked from a man, it is the women who are penalized instead of the men. The men in this village can do no wrong no matter what they do. For example, on page eighty-three, when the narrator goes to his friend Mahjoub for advice on Wad Rayyes, he tells him “You know how life is run here. Women belong to men, and a man’s a man even if he’s decrepit.” By this saying, it is easy to see that a woman must do as a man is asked, even if the act is heinous. Women are judged for their actions, while a man is still a man not matter what crimes he commits. This quotation shows how the village as a whole is misogynist.
¶ 10 Leave a comment on paragraph 10 1 After being forced into marriage with Wad Rayyes, Hosna kills him and herself after he rapes her. Instead of the villagers taking into account what went wrong with forcing Hosna to marry Wad Rayyes, after refusing so many times, they quickly blame her and call her a monster for the act she has committed. When the narrator asks Mahjoub why he did not intervene when Hosna father forced her to marry Wad Rayyes after he confided in him she doesn’t want to marry, he asks what was he supposed to do? “It was the woman herself who had the impudence to speak her mind. We’ve lived in an age when we’ve seen women wooing men.” page 109. Although she was raped and forced into marriage against her will, Hosna is still the demon in this village, while Wad Rayyes gets a pass for being a man. They believe since they are costume to a man getting whatever he wants and women having no say at all, Hosna was in the wrong for rejecting Wad Rayyes and for killing him after being raped.
¶ 11 Leave a comment on paragraph 11 1 “Season of Migration to the North” shows how men were misogynist in the small village at the bent of the Nile where the narrator is from. They believe men were superior to women, and that a woman must be obedient to a man no matter the request. No matter what crimes a man commit he is innocent, while a small rejection to do something asked of them is criminal to a woman. Women in this novel have no say in their lives so long as they have a man who looks after them. Even if the man is young then a woman, such as a son to his mother, they control what happens in the house hold. For Hosna, a women ahead of her time, it was unacceptable for a man to give her orders, she wanted nothing more to be left alone to look after her children. Because of that, she was considered a criminal, a monster for killing the man who raped her. This novel shows how some religion/teaching can teach its members how to discriminate against a certain group. In this situation, the narrator’s culture teaches its men they are in demand and that a woman should be submissive to her man.
This is your thesis right? i think it needs to be stated at the end of the Intro paragraph.
Perhaps you might not want to include this long quotation in your introduction paragraph. Rather, state your thesis as clearly as possible, with only a minimal amount of evidence – simply because a quote like this deserves to be analyzed in some detail, and you can’t get into the details so much in the intro.
I’m a bit uncertain what you mean by “the body of the book.” Say more here. If you’re suggesting that this quotation represents the book’s position, explain that. It might become a particularly strong thesis statement.
I think the first sentence here is your thesis. However, I think you might complicate the idea a bit. I agree with Ray that, during the course of the novel, the narrator is waking up to the misogyny present in the traditional way of life of the village, and learning to reject it. It seems that part of the purpose of the book – which was written in Arabic for Sudanese readers in the 1960s – was to wake its readers up to that injustice as well. Perhaps you might consider that nuance in your thesis.