So Long a Letter deals with multiple themes, which includes the life of women in Senegal during the 1970s, family and community life, Islam and polygamy, and death rituals.
What is the style in So Long a Letter?
The novel is told in the epistolary style—that is, it is structured as a very long letter, written by Ramatoulaye to her friend, recounting the latest events in her life and reminiscing about their shared childhood and adolescence.
What is the meaning of So Long a Letter?
So Long A Letter is an autobiographical novella, in which Ba professes her desire to see equality amongst all people come to her country. Ramatoulaye is in the mourning period for her husband Modou. Prior to his death, he abandoned her for a woman half of her age despite having twelve children with her.
How does So Long a Letter reflect the theme of polygamy?
In sum, the main issue, in So Long A Letter, is not about the criticism of polygamy as a prescribed God‟s law, but men‟s polygamous instincts that result in the abuse of Islam, betrayal, infidelity, lack of trust and abandonment which disgrace women.
What is the summary of the novel So Long a Letter?
So Long a Letter Summary. So Long a Letter begins when Ramatoulaye, a Senegalese woman living in Dakar, the country’s capital, decides to write a letter to her old friend Aissatou, who lives in America. The letter is occasioned by the sudden death of Modou, Ramatoulaye’s estranged husband.
What is the conflict in So Long a Letter?
Ramatoulaye constantly faces the conflict between tradition versus modernism as she transforms into an independent mother, and disregards others’ thoughts. Despite the idea that common practices like polygamy and gender inequality prosper in Senegal, Ramatoulaye expresses that she detests these practices.
What are the four major styles of letters and their uses?
expository – Write in this style to explain or expose a topic. narrative – Write in this style to tell a story. persuasive – Write in this style to convince the reader of something. descriptive – Write in this style to create an image in the reader’s mind.
Is So Long a Letter a feminist novel?
Mariama Ba’s So Long a Letter is novel whose pages drip with feminism. It exposes how African women have been exposed and subjugated. There is a feminist element when Ramatoulaye’s husband, Modou, takes a second wife without his wife’s consideration.
What is patriarchy in So Long a Letter?
Mariama Bâ presents patriarchal institution in her novels as a potential threat to women’s relationship with men. Her novel So Long a Letter describes the plight of women owing to different forms of oppressions. It demonstrates how women characters struggle throughout their lives in order to survive their predicament.
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.
What is the theme of letter?
The theme of the chapter ‘The Letter’ is that the human beings are transformed into better beings by suffering.For instance, the postmaster in the story ‘The Letter’ behaves quite unsympathetically and rudely with Ali, who is already sad and sorrowful for his past misdeeds and separation from Miriam.
What is the theme of polygamy?
Polygamy is mainly recommended for extending support, safety and livelihood to helpless widows, whose husbands have lost their lives in wars. The Islamic principles mainly advocate polygamy to maintain proportion in the population of men and women. A man should marry only when he can afford it.
How is patriarchy reflected in the novel So Long a Letter?
In the novel. So Long a Letter, the female characters are conveyed as victims of Senegalese societal patriarchy. The main character, Ramatoulaye Fall, is portrayed as a stereotypical Senegalese woman, who is silenced and oppressed by her community and society’s accepted norms.
What is the moral of the story the letter?
Moral: we should have faith in God but we should also trust in humanity. Unlike Lencho we should trust other humans also.
How is Ramatoulaye a feminist?
For Ramatoulaye, her love for Modou overpowers the hurtfulness of his disloyalty. This depicts her as a moderate feminist because instead of taking sole responsibility of her husband’s remarriage or the other extreme of totally rejecting him, she takes the middle ground.
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.
What is the major conflict encountered by the character in the story?
character conflict, also known as man vs. man conflict, involves two characters struggling against each other. The conflict can manifest in different ways, from a physical altercation to irreconcilable differences in morals or beliefs.
What is the central conflict or problem facing the main character?
To identify a central conflict in a story, ask yourself what the main character’s biggest challenge is: what do they overcome by the end of the story? If the answer is themselves, the central conflict is internal (character vs. self).
What is the main conflict or problem in the story a letter to God?
Answer: The conflicts between humans and nature is shown in the story when Lencho’s crops were destroyed by the hailstorm. He had expected some good rain for a good harvest. However, when his crops were damaged by the hailstorm, he lost all hope and became sad at the sight of his destroyed field.
Why are there two types of the letter A?
Originally Answered: Why is the letter ‘a’ we write and the letter ‘a’ we type different? We tend to write in the cursive script, which has a continuous stroke so the pen doesn’t have to be lifted often. As such, the so-called single-storey ‘a’ is used.
What are the major types of letters discuss with examples?
Letter writing can be divided into two main types – Formal Letters and Informal Letters. Formal letters are letters that are written for official purposes, whereas informal letters are written about anything you want to let your friends or family know.