The Two Stories Minutes of Glory and the Keeper of the Virgins - Essay Example

Literary Analysis of Two Stories: Minutes of Glory by Ngugi wa Thingo and The Keeper of the Virgins by Hanan Al-Shaykh Often in works of literature, writers explore different themes and use different genres of literature to explore the themes. There is however instances in which two different writers explore the same themes despite the differences in their backgrounds. The two writers may even use a similar genre but their stories will have different settings and will explore the themes using different characters and settings. One such theme is that of longing and desperation as explored in the two stories; Minutes of Glory by Ngugi wa Thingo and The Keeper of the Virgins by Hanan Al-Shaykh. The two stories are from writers with very different backgrounds yet their stories have many similarities. Ngugi wa Thiongo is a Kenyan writer who has extensively written on the Kenyan culture and the western influence on the culture among many other themes (Achebe & Innes xi). Hanan Al-Shaykh on the other hand is a woman who was born and brought up in Beirut. This shows the universality of the themes of literature that makes them applicable in any setting, be it in an African country like Kenya or any other place. The way the themes are explored however is usually different as will be seen in the two stories. Minutes of glory is a short story by a Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiongo. In this story, the main protagonist is Beatrice (who preferred her Christian name Beatrice because according to her it sounded ‘more pure and more beautiful’). Beatrice suffers from a low self esteem and is in search of acceptance from the society. Beatrice constantly complains of the hardships that she has faced in her life and is dissatisfied with the fact that people do not seem to take notice of her. In the attempt to change her life, Beatrice steals money from a customer and runs of to Nairobi (the capital) in the search for a better life. It is in Nairobi that she feels she can finally achieve the happiness that she desires (Halpern 557). The story follows the experiences of Beatrice in her quest to find recognition and find her place in the world. Being a school dropout because of lack of school fees means she does not have bright prospects of employment. Her naivety causes her to fall prey to the promises of a man who promises her employment but dumps her after having a one night stand with her. She therefore finds herself trapped in a world that is not familiar to her (in Nairobi). Eventually, she is left with no choice but to resort to becoming a prostitute, which is completely dehumanizing to the woman. Beatrice is an unstable and cannot hold a job for a considerable period of time. The story describes her as a ‘wounded bird in flight.’ In her search, she does not succeed at holding jobs in urban centers and tries to look for work in the townships in the vicinity of the urban centers. Her lack of success at the job sometimes causes her to be dismissed by her employers because the more money she makes as a prostitute the more income her boss gets. By moving from place to place, she hopes to find some success in her life. Beatrice views her black skin as the cause of her unattractiveness and she is willing to go to great lengths to lighten her skin which she believes will make her more attractive. She uses skin lightening creams which do not help her in her perception of self. It is when she is fired by her boss for refusing his sexual advances that she begins to discover an inner strength and an assertiveness she did not know she possessed. At the end of the story, Beatrice longs to go back home to the communal life in the village but she feels she cannot go back home ‘empty handed.’ She is therefore cut off from her past where she would have enjoyed security and happiness and is trapped in a life of exploitation and abuse (Halpern 558). The story therefore portrays the idea that once one is separated from the traditional communal life, she is bound to experience exploitation. The removal from that traditional way of life leaves the women open to exploitation which has come about from the fact that people have blindly embraced the western values and ideals. Her situation reflects the tragedy of the woman who is in an attempt to exist in an environment that is not in line with the natural way of life. The story ‘The Keeper of the Virgins’ by Hanan Al-Shaykh is the story of a dwarf who is obsessed with a woman (Georgette) who affectionate to him. The dwarf has been unable to achieve success anywhere else in his life. The dwarf visits the walls of the convent on a daily basis, hoping to see the woman, and maybe reunite with her. The dwarf is obsessed with the idea of being with the woman so much so that he sneaks into the convent in an attempt to be close to her. The nuns in the convent allow him to stay and become their servant and become a part of their family in Christ (Halpern 9). He (the dwarf) likes being in the convent for a period of time, and begins to feel like he is part of their community, though he cannot seem to find Georgette, until the day a nun takes him to the burial chamber. In the chamber, he sees a rotting corpse which is a disturbing sight. The dwarf longs to leave the convent and go back to his family who sit outside the walls of the convent waiting for him. The dwarf sits by the gates of the convent, longing for his family, just as he had once longed for Georgette (Halpern 12). The two stories Minutes of glory by Ngugi wa Thingo and ‘The Keeper of the Virgins’ by Hanan Al-Shaykh can be seen to explore similar themes and have a lot of similarities. The two stories are however very different in the way they choose to explore these themes. They are both stories that explore desire and longing, and how it has the potential to influence the decisions made by people. The two stories also explore what happens after one achieves the object of their desire or longing. In both stories, once the desired object is achieved, the protagonists in the story come to realize the deceitful nature of their pursuits. The desires are however different, and the means to achieve them are different. The circumstances surrounding the desires are also different as will be discussed. One of the main differences in the stories is that in Ngugi’s stories, the main protagonist is a woman who is in pursuit of happiness while in Hanan’s story; the protagonist is a man (dwarf) who is going after a woman as he believes she has the power to make him happy. Beatrice believes that is she could make more money, then she would be happy. Her object of desire does not lie in one specific person as is in the case in the dwarf. Beatrice longs for the happiness that she feels she cannot achieve from her rural area. She thinks that she will find this happiness in the big city once she is able to find employment. The dwarf on the other hand is also in the pursuit of happiness, which he feels he cannot achieve among his family, and which he believes he will achieve when he finds Georgette. The two characters are therefore different in terms of their background and in what pushes them to the blind pursuits of what they believe will make them happy. The stories of the two characters, Beatrice and the dwarf are also different in that when they escape their immediate environment, they are faced by different circumstances and obstacles in the achievement of their desire. For Beatrice, the escape immediately causes her to face more problems when she meets a man who promises to get her a job, despite the fact that she is not very well educated. The price she has to pay to get the job is giving into the man’s sexual advances. Her desperation causes her to pay that price. She is however disappointed when the man dumps her as soon as he gets sex from her. When she gets to the town, she cannot find acceptance from the society which she blames on herself and on her appearance. She is also subjected to abuse from the men in her search for acceptance. The dwarf on the other hand has to risk getting into the convent in his search for Georgette. On getting into the convent, he gains acceptance from the nuns who decide to allow him to stay in the convent, and treat him with kindness. He is therefore able to gain acceptance which he had felt he could not get from his family and the society. The two characters are in the pursuit of particular things that they believe will make them happy. Beatrice thinks that getting a job and getting people, especially men, to like her will make her happy. She also believes that if she can change her appearance, then she will be beautiful. Her obsession and desire is therefore directed at many different people from whom she wants to gain acceptance. For the dwarf, getting to see Georgette will make him happy. His obsession is therefore directed at a single person, and he does not show any real desire to change his appearance. The two stories also explore how the conditions and pressure that is exerted on people by the society can cause them to act in a way that is contrary to expectations. The setting in the two stories are however different. The hatred that the dwarf feels is directed at him by his society and his family makes him look for comfort. This makes him imagine that Georgette had a fondness for him and would actually treat him with the same affection if he would find her. The perceived kindness from Georgette may actually have been in the dwarf’s imagination and may have provided him with an escape from his life. The same case applies for Beatrice where moving to the big city presented her an opportunity to escape her life of poverty. She is however in pursuit of the improvement of her economic position, and the acceptance by self and by the whole society. The two characters are restrained from the escape by different things. For the dwarf, the constraint is the physical walls that keep him locked in the convent’s compound. For Beatrice however, the limitations are in her mind, and in her perception of herself. If she can overcome this, then she will be able to break free from the self abuse she subjects herself to. In Ngugi’s story, the contamination of a culture and a way of life is seen to have disastrous consequences. The escape from the traditional and communal African way of life for Beatrice and the embrace of the westernized and individualized way of life causes her to experience abuse and humiliation. This is the implied meaning in the story. Hanan’s story however does not touch on aspects of culture. The stories end when the characters have realized the futility of their efforts. They also come to the realization that the reality they were trying to escape is far much better than the reality they found. They are therefore left with the longing to go back to the lives they led but they feel that life events have made it impossible for them to go back. Beatrice wishes she could go back to her mother’s village in Nyeri, while the dwarf wishes he would go back to the family escaped from. They are however unable to go back, and this realization is a depressing fact for both of them. The two stories are therefore an example of how similar themes are realized in different ways in a work of literature. This realization can be said to be dependent on the writer, his culture and socialization. These are the factors that influence a writer and are revealed in their work. Two writers can therefore explore the same theme, using the same genre of literature, but their works will be considerably different. Works cited Halpern, Daniel. The art of the story: An international anthology of contemporary short stories. New York: Viking Press, 1999. Print. Achebe, Chinua. Innes, Catherine. African short stories. Oxford: Heinemann Publishers, 1985. Print. Read More