So Long a Letter by Mariama Ba Essay Example

which she showed her independent by raising her kids without any help from the father side. I personally respect Ramatoulaye decision not divorcing Modou Fall but I do think it would have been better if she had divorce her husband; this would show a good role model for her daughter dada. I think the reason she might not want to divorce him is because of the number of children they had. And it would be hard to travel with those kids.

The Muslim culture in Nigeria, polygamy is still common today; I believe the myth is Nigeria is that the richer you are the more women you marry; having more wives prove that you have more money; that you can afford for the wives and kids. Another Challenges Ramatoulaye encountered was either accepting the traditional values or modern values. The Senegalese culture says the younger brother can inherit the elder brother’s wife as his wife; usually to provide shelter and security for his dead brother’s wife and children.

But in the case of Ramatoulaye, she refused to accept that culture; she refuses to be transferred as an object. “You forget I have heart, a mind that I am not an object to be passed from hand to hand. ”(58) This shows her the new world has shaped Ramatoulaye decision. I agree with Ramatoulaye and the she shouldn’t being treated as a property you move from place to place, I think through the French settlers, the Senegalese are now learning the some French’s culture and at the same time, dropping the Senegalese’s culture.

Another challenges she resolved, was when she was able to get over her long time admirer

Daouda Dieng since known when she was in school. She choose between her feelings and emotion to decide which path to follow; “My heart does not love Daouda Dieng. My mind appreciates the man. ”(66) at the end she wrote a letter to explain the reason she refuse to be his second wife and that she prefer to have different live where she don’t have to share a man with someone else; where She could watch over kids.

Another challenge Ramatoulaye was able to get over was shyness; she was able to challenge herself to go to the movie hall by herself compare to before when she was shy. “I learned from them lessons of greatness, courage and perseverance. They deepened and widened my vision of the world, thanks to their culture values. ” She spent most of her idle time going to the cinema. She also listened to radio to give her relief from her stress. Another thing I notice in this book is that; there are generation and gender gap between polygamy.

The older women tend to go with the old idea without challenging it while the younger generation tends to challenge it. The author talked about the past and the future; and how the older generation don’t get it “She lived in the past, unaware of the changing world; she clung to old beliefs” in this quote, the author tries to point how the filtration she feels about Mawdo’s mother (aunty Nabou) beliefs; a strong example of this was aunty Nabou offering her niece to Mawdo; by doing this, she showed approval of the old beliefs that she is fine with it while Daba

wants her mother to divorce her father for picking a second wife.

In the case of life style, I notice the modern values of Ramatoulaye children are going to the mall, being able to stay up late and also having boyfriend and girlfriend. Lastly the author also describes the struggles and sacrifices Ramatoulaye encounters as she learned to be a single parent. Part of her struggle came as she raised her kids by herself. “My grown children are concerning me a great deal of concern. ” (74) as we known wherever there are children there are daily crises, illness, and trouble.

We see that in the book Ramatoulaye tries to be both parents for the kids. She constantly checks them and talks to them about relationship. She criticized the clothes her daughter haves. However she tried to raise the kids to have the modern culture by allowing them to bring friends in the house, in which their friends could stay as long as they want compare to her old tradition when she was young; her grandfather didn’t allow any of her friend in the house and at 10pm, he would kick visitor out of the compound. But she feel worried about the kids smoking, drinking habit.

I think new generation has a lot of freedom compare to their mother’s time. I could relate to what the kids mother and I know how different everything has changed; I remembered when I was 10 years old and living in Nigeria, my dad use to make us (my sisters and I) to study at night and welcome to no visitors. We could only have visitors during the weekend and they can’t

stay for a long time unless my dad would go mad and kick them out. This shows how society has changed. Ramatoulaye also brought food to the table; by taking care of the family and paying bills and buying food.

She also takes tough responsibility when her daughter was pregnant she demanded for the father of the baby and when the father came to her house, she questioned him his intention to his daughter; she didn’t want her daughter dropping out of school because of this. Furthermore, the author has expressed the feelings of Ramatoulaye through a letter she wrote to Aissatou. We have seen both women, the letter writer and the receiver of the letters, are educated women trying to come to terms with their lives and their country where one foot is firmly lodged in the old customs and the other lodged as firmly in change.