Aunt Safiyya, the Second Two Chapters

                  We had some very interesting discussion about the last two chapters of Aunt Safiyya and the Monastery in class the other day!  I thought that our discussion on gender roles in the village, especially the roles of the mother and father, were particularly interesting  (I know, I have to come up with another word other than “interesting”!!!  Someone help me, please!!!)  Both characters intrigued me, and I never knew quite what to expect out of them, or even how to analyze them after the end of the story.

                  The mother’s relationship with her son, her daughters, Safiyya, and her husband was quite shocking.  The fact that she openly favored her son over her daughters, and was even slightly abusive to her daughters when they did anything wrong, took me by surprise!  I expected that the mother would have had sympathy toward her daughters, I guess like my own mother has toward me.  Also, she favored Safiyya over her own daughters, because of her beauty and prospect of advancing the family’s honor by a prosperous marriage.  The whole character of the mother was harsh, though maybe some of her harshness was due to the roughness of life in the village.

                  The father was an even more complex character, and I am still not sure whether to think of him as harsh, or as tender and understanding.  I think he was a little bit of both.  The author seemed to have a fear of him throughout the whole book, as though not sure of what to expect from him.  But there were also tender moments in the book where you saw his wisdom, strength, and understanding.  He never seemed to overpower his wife, for example.  He also insisted that his daughters be educated.  And even when there was so much conflict over Harbi, he risked his life to make sure he was safe, and then did his best to keep family relations as peaceful as possible (though he never was successful).  All in all, I think his character was a noble one.

                  I really enjoyed this book, and there is much more that could be said about it, especially with all of the interesting topics we found for discussion.  I think the whole class will really enjoy writing a paper on this book and some of its topics!