What is the role of Ramatoulaye in So Long a Letter?
Ramatoulaye is the narrator of So Long a Letter; the book is both her diary and a long letter to her friend Aissatou. Ramatoulaye belongs to the generation that grew up under the French colonial regime and came of age just as Senegal was achieving its independence.
Why does Ramatoulaye stay with her husband?
Ramatoulaye is going through many pragmatic challenges such as raising children and supporting them financially. These challenges are overwhelming her liberal feminist attitude which is why she chooses to stay with her husband.
Is Ramatoulaye a feminist?
Ramatoulaye lives at an intersection likely unfamiliar to most Western readers: she is African, she is Muslim, and she is a feminist. Rather than reject any one of those identities, she seems to value and embody each equally.
Who is Ramatoulaye Co wife?
Together they informed her that Binetou's sugar daddy was in fact Ramatoulaye's husband Modou, and that Binetou would soon be her co-wife. Ramatoulaye was left heartbroken and effectively abandoned as Modou began a new life with Binetou.
WHO rejects Ramatoulaye?
Ramatoulaye turns down two other marriage proposals, including that of Daouda Dieng. She is well educated and teaches at a university. After her husband's second marriage, she must work a lot, since her husband cuts off family ties and financial support. Modou: The husband of Ramatoulaye and of Binetou.
How does Ramatoulaye conceive of motherhood?
For Ramatoulaye, motherhood is an ongoing, mysterious, hugely difficult, and ultimately reciprocal process.
What type of feminist is Ramatoulaye?
By her 'strategic self-positioning', as defined by Islamic feminist Miriam Cooke, among others, within a small group of Senegalese Muslims – locally known as ibadu Muslims – Ramatoulaye succeeds in enacting Islamic feminism in her spiritual persistence for a strict adherence to the Qur'an and in her resistance to the ...
What did feminists believe?
Feminism is defined as the belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes. The goal of feminism is to challenge the systemic inequalities women face on a daily basis.
Who is the main character in So Long a Letter?
Ramatoula...BinetouMawdoAïssatouModouDaouda DiengSo Long a Letter/Characters
How many kids does Ramatoulaye have?
Normally, it is the woman who leaves when a marriage breaks down, while the man stays and enjoys his new wife. But going against tradition, Ramatoulaye stays and tries to piece the shards of her shattered life together and raise her twelve children without Modou's help.
What gift does Aissatou give to Ramatoulaye?
But Ramatoulaye's ability to love and be loved in return is what saves her. The love she has for her children enables her to keep going day after day, and the gift of the car that Aissatou gives her out of love allows her to express her independence.
Who is Mawdo?
Mawdo is a doctor, an upstanding citizen, and a member of Senegal's class of nobles. He and Aissatou fall in love despite the class difference between their two families. This upsets Mawdo's mother, who eventually tricks him into taking on his young cousin Nabou as a second wife.
Did Ibsen consider himself a feminist?
Ibsen, one of the world's greatest dramatists, is considered as the father of modern drama, and as one of the great supporters of women. He never calls himself a feminist, and he is more a humanist. There are indeed plenty of feminist tendencies in his plays.
Is sadhguru feminist?
Sadhguru definitely associates arts, music and all other beautiful aspects of life with feminism. But he does not associate science & technology with masculinity — Ms Adil does. Sadhguru has said that 'commerce' and 'warfare' have been brought to forth because of power politics of men.
What type of feminist was Oakley?
liberal feminist sociologistWhat type of feminist is Ann Oakley? Ann Oakley is a liberal feminist sociologist.
Is Oprah Winfrey a feminist?
Winfrey is a true symbol of feminism and an example of a badass women in leadership. Her accomplishments are an inspiration to women everywhere.
A letter so long by Mariama Ba
Ramatoulaye gets married, but the union is not a happy one as she is later replaced by a much younger wife. When Jaqueline finds out her husband, S...
How do the words happiness does indeed have a meaning,doesn't it in relation to the story
Ramatoulaye gets married, but the union is not a happy one as she is later replaced by a much younger wife. When Jaqueline finds out her husband,...
what human qualities did ramatoulaye find in modou at the beginning of their relationship?
Modou is the deceased husband of Ramatoulaye, described as a stereotypically perfect husband: charming, handsome, and scholarly. However, he also h...
ramatoulaye
If you need a funny friends who will laught at all your joke, who will help you when you are sad, who is smart but not at the same time, who is creative: go get a ramatoulaye
ramatoulaye
Ramatoulaye is THE best friend you need. She is the nicest and most helpful friend who will always give you a smile. She has a good sense of humor and her laugh is totally bizarre. Most of the time, the Ramatoulaye come from Guinea. She has a specific talent in which she excels wonderfully
Who is Ramatoulaye's husband?
Modou is the deceased husband of Ramatoulaye, described as a stereotypically perfect husband: charming, handsome, and scholarly. However, he also harbors an extreme selfishness, taking on a second wife even when it dreadfully hurt his first one.
What is Ramatoulaye's older daughter called?
Ramatoulaye's older daughters which she refers to as "the trio ." The community compares the three of them to a young Ramatoulaye, but Ramatoulaye struggles with their more nontraditional habits, like smoking tobacco and wearing trousers. After Aissatou becomes pregnant, Ramatoulaye warns them to remember to respect themselves and their bodies, although she worries it's an overdue conversation.
Why did Jacqueline move to Senegal?
Ramatoulaye thinks about Jacqueline's story to make sense of her own mental health issues.
What caused Jacqueline to have a nervous breakdown?
Jacqueline's husband, a doctor whose unfaithfulness causes Jacqueline to have a nervous breakdown.
Is Ramatoulaye divorced?
She is divorced, and later moves to the United States and successfully makes a new life for herself. She and Ramatoulaye have a very kindred relationship, and she provides emotional support for her.
Who is Aissatou's husband?
Mawdo, a doctor, is the divorced husband of Aissatou. Because he follows the tradition of polygamy, marrying a young girl named Nabou (also his cousin), Aissatou divorces him.
Who is the protagonist in the novel Ramatoulaye?
The protagonist and narrator of the novel through her letters, Ramatoulaye is a widowed Senegalese woman. Throughout the novel, she talks about how her husband psychologically abandoned her after cheating on her with a second wife, and the emotional toll that took on her. However, she also emphasizes the sense of personal growth that came with these experiences.
Who is Ramatoulaye in the book?
Ramatoulaye: The widowed Senegalese woman who, after 25 years of marriage and 12 children, narrates the story of her psychological abandonment by her husband, who takes a second wife. Ramatoulaye physically distances herself from Modou who dies four years after this second marriage. Ramatoulaye turns down two other marriage proposals, including that of Daouda Dieng. She is well educated and teaches at a university. After her husband's second marriage, she must support her family, including her 12 children, since her husband cuts off family ties and financial support.
Who was Ramatoulaye's husband?
Modou: The husband of Ramatoulaye and of Binetou. He was well educated, handsome, and charming. For his own selfish desires, he marries Binetou and cuts ties with his 12 children and first wife, Ramatoulaye. He later dies of a heart attack.
Why did Mawdo divorce Ramatoulaye?
Aïssatou: Ramatoulaye's best friend, to whom the letter is addressed. She divorced Mawdo because she did not believe in polygamy; she left him a letter explaining her actions and never returned. She takes care of herself well and bought Ramatoulaye a car, which made life much easier for Ramatoulaye. Her divorce is symbolic because it represents a new life for her. She later leaves Senegal with her four sons and moves to the United States to start over. She succeeds in making a new life for herself.
Who is Ibrahima Sall?
Ibrahima Sall: A student of law who impregnates Aissatou, Ramatoulaye's daughter. He is tall, respectful, well-dressed, and punctual. Aïssatou is his first and possibly only love, he says. He will marry Aïssatou if Ramatoulaye will allow it.
Who is Little Nabou?
She later marries Mawdo Bâ to be his second wife. She is the niece of Grande Nabou and the first cousin of Mawdo Bâ.
Who is Mawdo's wife?
After his marriage with Nabou, Aïssatou (his first wife) divorces him. He is Modou's long-time friend and a doctor.
Who are Ousmane and Oumar?
Ousmane and Oumar: Young sons of Ramatoulaye. They represent the idea that a father figure would be beneficial for Ramatoulaye's children since several of them are still so young. This does not, however, convince Ramatoulaye to marry Daouda Dieng.
Who is Ramatoulaye's husband?
Ramatoulaye lingers on Daba for a while, describing her marriage to her husband Abou. Daba maintains a far more practical view of marriage than Ramatoulaye ever has, fully accepting that there may come a day when she and her husband decide to divorce.
What is Ramatoulaye's comfort?
Ramatoulaye is greatly comforted by Aissatou’s words of comfort and encouragement. She looks forward to the day when they meet again, writing that the changes their bodies have undergone, and the time they have spent apart, will be meaningless to them. Their friendship is founded in the content of their hearts.
What does Ramatoulaye argue about her daughter?
Ramatoulaye and her daughter have two separate ways of responding to this obviously racist, colonialist injustice.
Is Ramatoulaye a true friend?
For Ramatoulaye, true friendship, unlike romantic love and marriage, is impervious to distance, time, and change. Even though Ramatoulaye and Aissatou have conducted their friendship only through letters over many years, it remains as strong as ever.
Who is Ramatoulaye's old childhood friend?
Modou. Aissatou is Ramatoulaye ’s old childhood friend, and the addressee of her letter. She comes from a rather poor family; her father is a goldsmith. Aissatou experiences similar trouble in her marital life—her husband takes on a young second wife, of noble birth, in order to please his mother—but she reacts to it quite differently.
Where does Aissatou move to?
Of a much more independent spirit than Ramatoulaye, Aissatou decides to pursue her education. She ends up moving to America, to work in the Senegalese embassy there.
Who is Ramatoulaye?
Ramatoulaye: The widowed Senegalese woman who, after 30 years of marriage and 12 children, narrates the story of her psychological abandonment by her husband, who marries a second wife. Ramatoulaye physically distances herself from Modou who dies four years after this second marriage. Ramatoulaye turns down two other marriage proposals, including that of Daouda Dieng. She is well educated and teaches at a university. After her husband's second marriage, she must work a lot, since her husband cuts off family ties and financial support.
Who is the suitor of Ramatoulaye?
Binetou became an outcast who never quite fit in with the younger couples or the mature adults. Daouda Dieng: A suitor of Ramatoulaye prior to her marriage with Modou who Proposes to Ramatoulaye after her husband dies, but is turned down. Daba: Ramatoulaye's and Modou's daughter. She is married and the eldest child.
Why did Aissatou leave her husband?
Some women in Senegal saw fault in polygamy and fought against it. Aissatou leaves her husband for practicing polygamy and Ramatoulaye says no to marriage to another man.
Why was the letter Ramatoulaye used?
The letter was used in the western hemisphere to study how strong bonds women formed influenced them. Ramatoulaye and Aissatou's friendship helped them break away from social norms, gaining social and political respect without a male.
What is the tension between Ramatoulaye's feminist values and her religion?
The letters explore the tensions between Ramatoulaye's feminist values (developed largely as a consequence of her French colonial education) and her religion, which is often used a means of justifying the mistreatment of women like herself . However, Ramatoulaye attributes the mistreatment of women by men to the misinterpretation and misappropriation of Islamic scriptures, rather than suggesting that they are inherently sexist.
Why do Alioune and Malick play ball in the streets?
Alioune and Malick: Ramatoulaye's young boys who play ball in the streets because they claim to have no space to play in a compound. They get hit by a motorcyclist that they drag home with the intention of having their mother avenge them. They are disappointed to find that Ramatoulaye does not get mad at the cyclist, but at the boys because they were careless to play in the streets. This shows Ramatoulaye's wisdom in raising her children in the right way.
What does Ousmane and Oumar represent?
They represent the idea that a father figure would be beneficial for Ramatoulaye's children since several of them are still so young.
