Posting on behalf of Dan:
Just as the Europeans in Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad portrayed the Africans as savages, I believe that it is Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s attempt to reflect a similar depiction back to the Europeans through the main character in This Earth of Mankind. The main character in this novel is a young man named Minke, who is the only Javanese student in an elite Dutch school. In the beginning of the story, he is a character that is completely dependant on his European education in order to obtain a successful life. However, through his experiences and his constant struggle with his identity, we are able to see Toer’s views on the Dutch Colonial Rule of Indonesia.
In my analysis of the characters in This Earth of Mankind, it seemed to me that certain characters held a symbolic significance. For example, it was interesting to see the way in which Toer describes a Dutchman in this story. Just as Conrad uses the character of Marlow in order to depict the people of the African tribe, Toer applies the same strategy through the experiences of his main character, Minke, to give his own portrayal of the European white man that settled in Java. When Minke visits the home of the wealthy Herman Mellema, he describes the man’s home as a “private palace” (24). This small piece of information alone left me with the impression that Mr. Mellema is a man similar to that of a king. However, when he appears for the first time in the novel, it is quite the contrary. The way in which Toer literates the physical features and body gestures of the man, made him out to be some sort of cave man. “The dragging steps became clearer and clearer. Then a European man emerged, tall, fat, too fat. His clothes rumpled and his hair in a mess, who knows if really white or gray” (47). It is in my opinion that this is Toer’s attempt to show his bias representation of what it is to be a European colonizer. Does anyone else agree with me?
Ironically, Nyai Ontosonoh, the Javanese concubine of the European seems to be the character who symbolizes the strength and pride of the Javanese people. For example, the fact that she is sold by her parents to become a life long servant to a European master can symbolize the struggle that the Javanese people endure during the colonization of the whites. When she relays the story of her life to her daughter, we learn that she worked and studied diligently in order to become a powerful and successful Javanese woman. In fact, she becomes powerful and confident enough to be seen as if she is the dominant figure in the household. This is of course going against traditional European and Javanese customs. She even scolds Mr. Mellema after he insults Minke at the dinner table and throws him out of the room. Again, this is just my opinion on the message that Toer is trying to get across in his novel.
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I do agree with your analysis of Mr. Mellema, and I wanted to point out another example in the text. You wrote about Minkes description of Mr. Mellema and how he describe him as a sort of cave man. I also found that Ms. Mellema, or Nyai, does the same thing when she first sees him, "The skin on his arms was coarse like an iguana's skin, and was thick with yellow hair...His arms were as big as my legs." (pg.84) Toer gives Mr. Mellema an animal-like description here. Not only was the skin on his arms coarse like a lizard's, but it was also discolored. And when Nyai goes on to describe how big his arms where I couldn't help but to think of arms like an apes. I could just picture these big tree trunk sized arms. Toer doesn't use any humanistic descriptions when writing about Mr. Mellema
ReplyDeleteI also agree about everything you have said about Nyai, but I wanted to make just one more point. I think that Nyai was a very intelligent and respectable Javanese woman, but she still can't help but to compare herself to that of a European woman. One response that her husband, I mean Mr. Mellema, gives is, "It's impossible for you to be like a Dutch woman. An it's not necessary either. It's enough that you are as you are now. Even thus, you're cleverer and better than all of them. All of them!" (pg. 92) Nyai reflection on what he said, "Of course he was exaggerating. But I was pleased and happy. At least I was not below them." (p. 92) Nyai is content with the fact that she is at least considered as an equal to European woman. She doesn't want to just be happy with the fact that she has better herself, she wants to make sure that she is seen in a better or equal light to that of Europeans. Also, I can't help but to be reminded of her father who had a good respectable job amongst his people, but wanted to continue to promote himself, not because he wanted to help his family or himself but to have people see him equal to that of Europeans. He was still getting raises in his job, but he didn't care about the money, it was the title that he strived for. And he went as far as selling his daughter for it. So if Nyai as shallow as her father when she asks Mr. Mellema this question, or is it just something that can't be avoided? From a little bit of a different perspective, I believe that Toer wrote Nyai to be such an intelligent character to show that it does matter what kind of person you are, if your not a Native your nothing.