Jasmine's Father by Paul Tan

Jasmine's Father - Analysis

Paul Tan

Paul Tan Kim Liang has published three volumes of verse. Curious Roads (1994) and Driving into Rain (1998) won prizes at the Singapore Literature Prize competitions. His most recent collection is first meeting of hands (2006). His writings have appeared in publications like The Straits Times, The New Straits Times and Commentary.

Criticism : A Wilting Bloom
Short Stories : The Oriental Grocer
Short Stories : Jasmine's Father
Jasmine’s Father

Plot

Introduction
The story basically revolves around the flashbacks of the protagonist/narrator who essentially remains unnamed. The plot starts off with a realization by the protagonist/narrator of the irony of his present situation in the light of his daughter’s behavior and sharing with him. We are then introduced to the daughter, Jasmine ,who is the only named character in the story The story moves forward through a chronological order of the changes in Jasmine’s life as seen through the eyes of the protagonist when she first started working until the day she left for Canada.

Significant milestones in the plot are as follows:
o Introduction : The narrator recalls the irony of his present situation and that of his daughter’s current situation
o Conflict: The father remembers that the daughter’s present condition as being due to Jasmine’s workplace
o Climax: When the father was informed of Jasmine’s decision to migrate
o Resolution: Acceptance of the migration and of life alone.


Setting
The story has no definite setting; the settings that are presented are set in the mind of the protagonist/narrator and remain essentially there. The only clear setting was during the flashback to the pivotal point in the story where Jasmine breaks the news of her impending migration. The setting for this point was the garden.

Symbolism

The main symbolisms in the story are:
□ The omission of the name of the boss to represent the society that Jasmines lives and works in.
□ The entire patriarchal society of Singapore is personified as a single entity in the form of “The System”

Characterization

□ The main characters in the story is the protagonist/narrator, Jasmine and the System
□ The protagonist, who is only identified as Jasmine’s father is seen as a loving father who does open channels of communication between him and his daughter and who in the end changes to acceptance of his empty nest status in life.
□ Jasmine, the daughter, is portrayed here through the eyes of her father is presented as being:
o Opinionated
o Self-confident
o Determined Modern
□ The antagonists in the story is the personification of the patriarchal working society in Singapore in the mind of Jasmine as the System

Point of View

-First Person. Limited Omniscience
-We are introduced to the narrator’s thoughts but are only given to speculations concerning Jasmine’s rationale for her actions.

Tone
Continuum of Ironic moving on to Fondness and finally Acceptance

Theme
Coping with Change, Generation Gap, Conflict between Value Systems

Her Three Days by Ousmane Sembene

Her Three Days

Sembène Ousmane
Senegalese writer and film director, a modern griot, storyteller and chronicler, best-known for his historical-political works with strong social comment. Sembène has often turned his short stories and novels into films. He is considered one of the founders of the African realist tradition. Sembène's image of Africa has been more self-critical, less romanticized that Leopold Sedar Senghor's, who more or less glorified the past.

Sembène Ousmane was born in Zinguinchor-Casamange region of Senegal in the colonial French West Africa. After a brief period of the Ecole de Céramique at Marsassoum, Sembène turned to various occupations in order to support his family. Since the age of fifteen, Sembène has earned his living. He has worked as a plumber, bricklayer, apprenticed mechanic. During the World War II he served in the French Army in Europe. Following France's official surrender to Germany, Sembéne joined the Free French forces in 1942 and landed with them in France in 1944.
After the war Sembène returned to Senegal where he participated in the Dakar-Niger railway strike of 1947. Later, he returned to France, joining community of dock workers in Marseilles. He taught himself to read and write in French and published his first novel in 1956. The work was based on his own experiences in France.

In the 1960s Sembène developed an interest in the cinema and studied film production in the U.S.S.R. His La Noire de.. (The Black Girl from...) was the first film ever produced by African filmmaker and won a prize at the 1967 Cannes Film Festival. It was a story of a girl, Diouna, who leaves her own family to become a housemaid in Antibes, France. She commits suicide, and her employees, a white retrund to Dakar, to explain what cannot explain.

As a writer Sembène made his debut as a novelist with LE DOCKER NOIR (1956, The Black Docker). It was born quite accidentally. Sembène was forced to leave work for several months, during which time he wrote down his personal experiences as a dock worker. The protagonist is Diaw Falla, who works on the docks. He kills a white woman who had tried to take credit for a prize-winning book that he himself wrote, and ends in prison in life.


Plot

- A story about Noumbe, the third wife of Mustapha, who was making all the preparations and sacrifices to welcome her husband home for her three days of having him alone. It also tells us the importance of “three days” to the narrator.
-Introduction : Introduces Noumbe as the third wife
Introduces Aida, the next door neighbour as Noumbe’s confidant.
Introduces the setting
-The conflicts : Internal conflicts - her emotions towards her husband
External conflicts - her emotions towards other characters, the village
women, her children.
-The climax : After all the preparation and sacrifices done, her husband, Mustapha
didn’t come home for her “three days”.
-The falling action: Mustapha, her husband came home.
-The ending : Noumbe’s bitter reactions towards her husband’s return

Setting

-Place : North Africa, Mali, unknown village, Noumbe’s shack
-Time : Three days durations
-Weather Condition : Very hot
-Social condition : close knit among the womenfolk

Symbol

Noumbe’s hut. “She went into her one-room shack sparsely furnished; there was a bed with white cover and in the corner stood a table with pieces of china on display. The walls were covered with enlargements and photos of friends and strangers framed in passé-partout.” The bareness of the house symbolizes her emptiness and longing for her husband’s affection.

Character
-Noumbe – the third wife (protagonist)
-Musthapa – the husband (antagonist)
-Aida – next door neighbour, her confidant.(minor character)
- Mustapha’s second wife – (flat character)
- Mactar – Noumbe’s son (flat character)

Point of View

Limited Omniscient (3rd person)
Only introduced to the narrator’s (Noumbe) thoughts

Tone

Nostalgic – when Noumbe reminiscing the sweet moments whilst the husband was around.
Sorrowful – when Noumbe expresses her thoughts on Polygamy
Anger - when Noumbe showed her unstable emotions upon her husband’s return

Theme

Gender bias among the African.
How husband is worshipped above all; children and self.