Generation Gap

[Cait]

Farah references the generational gap between Loyaan, Soyaan, and their father Keynaan multiple times. What do you think is the biggest difference between these generations, and how do these differences affect events?

[Elizabeth]

The younger generation has foreign influence -- both Loyaan and Soyaan have studied abroad, and Margaritta is half Italian. As a result they have more modern ideas about gender roles and they eschew the superstition of Qumman. Their modern perspective allows them to question the patriarchy epitomized by Kenyaan. In the sense that this patriarchy is a mirror of the regime as a whole (as you mention in another post, Farah emphasizes this connection), this paves the way to their resistance against the General.

[Elizabeth]

Ladan is an interesting exception to this though. She is part of the younger generation, yet it seems she has not left Somalia. She is depicted as very emotional, and more connected to her mother Qumman.

[Cait]

Claire wrote: "Ladan is an interesting exception to this though. She is part of the younger generation, yet it seems she has not left Somalia. She is depicted as very emotional, and more connected to her mother Q..."

Ladan definitely serves as something of bridge between generations... which makes sense, when connected to the entire theme of how women function within the entire story. I thought it was really interesting the way she highlighted the differences between her brothers and her father - I noted down the quote where Farah says "They [the twins] fed her small brain on figures round, complete, open-ended... She was like them - except she was a girl" (p 117). So on the one hand, new generation, certainly a different attitude toward women. But on the other hand, they also expect their sister to keep to her own gender role - the way they keep information from her, how irritated Loyaan is at her (and all the other women's) attempts to protect him, etc. So to me, Ladan is kept in this sort of 1.5 generation almost exclusively because of her gender. Even when the brothers are ok with other less traditional women, like Margaritta, it seems clear that they don't expect / support that kind of behavior from their sister.

[Cait]

Claire wrote: "The younger generation has foreign influence -- both Loyaan and Soyaan have studied abroad, and Margaritta is half Italian. As a result they have more modern ideas about gender roles and they esche..."

Re: Foreign influence. There was sooooooo much of that woven throughout. I feel like I would need to do research to understand even half of what Farah intended. In the beginning it's all positive, broader world (all that stuff with the globe, etc), but then we see that passage later (p 143) where the twins are saying "how could they make [Keynaan] understand that at school they were told they had no history?" and it recontextualizes everything with that history of colonialism - stuff that obviously I should have kept in mind the whole time, but I was so stuck on heartily disliking Keynaan that I ended up liking things he hated just because I was contrary.

[Becki]

I felt like Ladan was really an accessory to the story so her portrayal didn't strike me as much as it should have. I think women are seen as omens in a way; like the naked little girl who drinks Loyaan's juice in the restaurant before the government pursues the memos, or Beydan's ill-received pregnancy at the same time as this drama with Soyaan. Women seem to oversee or portend a lot of dramatic moments that happen to the male characters.

[Elizabeth]

I think Becki's comment is really interesting and I wrote some posts to continue this discussion in the women section. Cait, I think you're right to draw attention to references to colonialism like in that quote ("What irreverent condescensions! What lies!"). We are made to dislike and disagree with Kenyaan but there are some truths underlying his position. (By the way what does that say about the dictatorship? That it is a reaction to colonialism?) Also, totally agree re: Ladan being generation 1.5 due to her gender (and how the brothers are not completely modern in treating her as their full equal, despite teaching her math).

[Cait]

Oh I think the dictatorship is definitely directly related to that colonialism. I am woefully ignorant about it, but I do know that colonialism creates a lot of instability during its tenure and after it's withdrawn - resources have often been wiped out by the colonizing country, the economy is frail, there's still going to be the same "ruling class" hanging around, with gads of money and influence (and it's not as though the people who ruled colonies were there because they were shining stars of anti-corruption). And that's not even considering the less easy to pinpoint parts - like the effect of teaching entire generations that they have "no history."

[Becki]

Yes generations in colonialism is a really tough thing to dissect no matter what, and I think we are just starting to get to the point where we've had enough distance from the "fall" of colonialism where we can try to sort it out a little - most countries have had their independence for barely 50 years or more so it's hard to entirely see the effects it has after it's "gone" (I keep using quotes because there are so many ways colonialism is still playing forward, in immigration policies, funding/world bank/world economic policies, etc.). I definitely think this applies in particular to women, who have had to sort out their intersectional issues amidst reconstruction of economies/cultures/societies and are often the last to get their due. So it's hard for me to focus on women in this book as agents because it feels like historically and culturally they're not "in the mix" and also like the author hasn't placed them there. I feel like this comment floats in a bunch of these discussions but I'm going to put it here since I'm here now and it seems to fit slightly :)

[Cait]

Yeah who knows where this comment goes, I meant to address it earlier, because I agree that the women aren't true agents in the book... but I did spend quite a bit time thinking about them. Maybe just because I'm so used to investing more into less developed woman characters because that's so often all we get? But also maybe because Farah clearly tries to portray Loyaan/Soyaan as more forward thinking in this book, they are clearly meant to be more egalitarian, as demonstrated by the difference from their father, and how they treat Ladan, their women friends, and Margaritta... and yet despite that Farah also portrays Loyaan's shortcomings in this area (like at the Broom Ceremony). Farah clearly wants us to think about women's roles, but you're right that he doesn't give the actual women an opportunity to show this, just how Loyaan, Soyaan, and Keynaan react to those women differently.