The passage under consideration is Rabia Raihane’s A Red Spot from the collection of short stories Sardines and Oranges, commencing “To join the girls in their afternoon play…” and ending “staring hard at a red spot on the tiled floor. The story consists of a young girl’s metamorphosis into a woman, and as she matured, she realizes the true meaning of being a woman in her culture and began her struggle of resistance of “being a slave”.
The story is narrated through a young girl’s view as she undertakes both physical and mental transition from a girl to a woman; and it is through that view, Rabia precisely captures the essence of the sexual unjust that exists in the Muslin culture and boldly revealed it to the readers. Stylistically Rabia Raihane’s utilization of an impassioned third person narration with along with a very interesting use of fragmented structure and syntax lively illustrates a Muslin girl’s journey of becoming a woman.
The story began with a light and carefree writing style with general vocabularies and excessive details. When the protagonist first hears the news of the marriage, she is surprised but she “completely forgotten about the matter.”(A Red Spot paragraph 4) She did thought about the significance of the event, but it was later that she realizes the more profound meaning behind it. She remembered the story of the Policeman’s daughter who lost her virginity before marriage. She also recalled the consequences of her act: she had to willingly suffer as a lowly slave bearing disgrace, and that is when the protagonist started her rebalance:
“I don’t want to get married. I really don’t.”This impactful conversation between the mother and the daughter reveals what many young women hold dear: Freedom. She will become a slave to the society if she looses her virginity before marriage but even if she keeps it until her marriage, she will still become a slave; an honorable slave, but a slave non the less. This paradox torments the protagonist as she sought a way out, but there is none. The lowly status of women has already been deeply entrenched into the society; puberty for girls has turned bitter into a “death-sentence” they cannot escape.
Rabia Raihane accurately captures the existence of the sexual prejudice in Muslin culture. As a woman, you can never escape the claws of slavery; the practice is so entrenched into the society that it can never be altered. Rabia reveals that with the reaction of the protagonist’s mother towards her daughter’s rebellion: “My answer seemed to stun her and she sat there brooding. Then I heard her say in an aggrieved voice: “Why would you do that?”” (A Red Spot paragraph 21) The protagonist’s rebellion has set her mother into “brooding,” she remembers herself in the same situation. “Why would you do that?” she asked, but the use of “aggrieved” has already show that she already knows the answer to this, she was also a young girl once, she also desired for liberty, but the culture convention forbids it for her, and the cycle continues.
Rabia Raihane’s use of third-person narration expertly captures the emotion of a woman-to-be towards slavery and her futile attempts to break free of the system. Furthermore, her fragmented and timeless narration and the structure of the story effectively impacts the readers: first the protagonist knows about the news of her marriage, then the story leaps and describe how she suddenly realizes the world is not the same for her anymore.
Her mind began to battle, jumping from a story of the policeman’s daughter, to her own memories regarding virginity, and finally, she confronts her mother. The plot of the story was confusing at the start but it all made sense in the end and that’s when the story makes its impact. In conclusion, this passage effectively serves as a lively narration for the protagonist’s transition from a young girl to a woman which Rabia Raihane exploits to reveal the sexual prejudice that exist in the Muslin culture. Through the protagonist’s attempt to break free of slavery, Rabia is conveying the desire for freedom of the women. Rabia’s skillful use of interesting structure and excessive information makes A Red Spot an entertaining novel.
