Discussion Topic
The significance and conflicts faced by the main characters in "So Long a Letter."
Summary:
In "So Long a Letter," the main characters face significant conflicts rooted in gender roles and societal expectations. Ramatoulaye confronts the pain of her husband's polygamy and her struggle for independence, while Aissatou deals with the betrayal of her husband and her decision to leave him. Both characters navigate the challenges of maintaining their dignity and identity in a patriarchal society.
What is the significance of the main characters in "So Long a Letter"?
I argue that the main characters of Mariama Bâ’s So Long a Letter are significant largely because they represent a marginalized population to Western readers. Indeed, the novella foregrounds the struggles of Senegalese women addressing customs such as polygamy in an Islamic culture. For the majority of Western readers, this voice is incredibly rare to find in literature. Here, Bâ confronts the issues that women face in Senegal through her frank characterization of Ramatoulaye Fall and her uncensored letter to her best friend, Aissatou Bâ. Ramatoulaye often questions the conventions in her culture that marginalize women, especially polygamy:
“I have heard of too many misfortunes not to understand my own. There was your own case, Aissatou, the cases of many other women, despised, relegated or exchanged, who were abandoned like a worn-out or out-dated boubou” (41).
Later in the novel, Bâ is startlingly direct in her call for women...
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to become politically active. The fact that this is coming from a Senegalese woman writing from the perspective of another disenfranchised Senegalese woman is especially potent:
“Women must be encouraged to take a keener interest in the destiny of the country…. If men alone are active in the parties, why should they think of the women?” (62).
Thus, the main characters are significant because they perfectly capture the issues women in Senegal face, and they are direct in their critique of their conditions.
Who are the main characters in So Long a Letter and what conflicts do they face?
The two main characters in So Long a Letter are Ramatoulaye Fall and Aissatou Bâ. The novel consists of a long letter that Ramatoulaye writes to Aissatou. Both women have undergone much hardship and various conflicts in their lives, largely related to being women in a patriarchal society.
Arguably the most significant conflict in Ramatoulaye's life came when her late husband chose to take a second wife. This second wife, Binetou, is the same age as Ramatoulaye's daughter, and after his marriage to Binetou, their husband, Moudou, gives all his attention (and his resources) to Binetou.
Aissatou had taken a different approach when her husband took a second wife. Even though, in this case, it was pressure from his mother that convinced Mawdo to take a second wife, Aissatou was having none of it, and this conflict ended in divorce.
Ramatoulaye also faces various conflicts which arise due to her children and their actions. Three of her daughters become cigarette smokers, and when she discovers that one of her daughters is pregnant, she decides to break ties with tradition and handle the situation in a forward-thinking manner. This ties in with the larger conflict in this novel, which is between Senegalese cultural traditions and modernity. Conflict is created by the inequalities between men and women in Senegalese society, and the ultimate conflict faced by Ramatoulaye is between tradition and progress.