“You think, boy, because you wear European clothes, mix with Europeans, and can speak a little Dutch you then become a European? You’re still a monkey.” “Close your mouth!” shouted Nyai loudly in Dutch. “He is my guest.” Mr. Mellema’s eyes shifted dully to his concubine...Her eyes burned with hatred and disgust. “You have no rights in this house. You know where your room is.” The nyai pointed to a door. And her pointed finger was clawed. Mr. Mellema still stood in front of me, hesitant. “Do I need to call Darsam?” she threatened. The tall-big-fat man was confused; he growled in answer. He turned and walked, dragging his feet, to a door next to the room I had just occupied, and disappeared behind it (pp.47-48).This Earth of Mankind is set near the end of the 19th century in Java, Indonesia. During that time, Indonesia suffered under Dutch colonialism. The narrator and concubine in this passage are both natives, while Mr. Mellema is European. This brief encounter is important because it provides a bold introduction to the character of Nyai.
According to Aristotle, a character must have a good purpose, know his or her place in society, be true to life, and demonstrate consistency (p. 5). Nyai's purpose in this passage is to defend her guest in front of her husband. In doing so, however, the concubine does not behave in a polite manner or abide by society's expectations of her. Like the narrator, she is a native who speaks fluent Dutch. She is also married to a European tradesman. Her quarrel with Mr. Mellema therefore represents both lower class and female dominance in a household where the reader expects upper class, male dominance.
Good purpose, Aristotle states, is "relative to each class. Even a woman may be good, and also a slave; though the woman may be said to be an inferior being, and the slave quite worthless." On the subject of propriety Aristotle states, "There is a type of manly valor; but valor in a woman, or unscrupulous cleverness is inappropriate" (p. 5). Given these two statements, Aristotle would most likely say the character of Nyai is absolute crap. Her purpose in this excerpt is inappropriate for her class. This is of course assuming that Nyai's greater purpose (challenging society's norms regarding gender, race and class) goes unnoticed...I wonder how Aristotle felt about poetry as social commentary...
In conclusion, is Nyai's character true to life? Maybe not. Nevertheless, she is intriguing. She forces the reader to pause and consider his/her own society's expectations, as well as the inner workings of other societies ("Us" and "Them" and "It"). Hopefully Nyai's character will remain what Aristotle describes as "consistently inconsistent" in terms of 19th century Indonesian custom as well as the reader's expectations (p. 5).
I'm impressed that you can take a quote from Aristotle that by today's standards would be considered highly sexist and generally offensive to women and... well slaves and turn the quote around to make sense in a far more modern context. You took historical context into account used Aristotle's basic thought process to argue your point and describe a very interesting piece of literature. There was one part of the text you described I was a little confused about. The character of Nyai is introduced as Mr Mellema's concubine. But a few lines later you say she is married to a Dutch businessman. I wasn't sure how both would be possible at the same time, then again this might require my reading the rest of the story which I intend to do.
ReplyDeleteI was confused about that too, and had to ask my dance history professor to clarify (yesterday). Apparently Mr. Mellema/Dutch businessman would have native concubines and the title of "wife" would be reserved for a European woman.
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