Comparison and contrast of The Representation of Exile in the books Season of Migration to the North and Breath, Eyes, and Memory
The two novels have been selected for this comparisons because they bear a close resemblance in the manner that the two different authors have portrayed the theme of exile. How the two authors narrate the long absence of the key characters in the two books draws a mixed reaction and anticipation among the audience on what awaits the characters upon their comeback to their respective village. They, therefore, provide a different perspective of exiles and the different scenarios that an exile can create within a society. A thorough analysis of these two books is, therefore, fit for ascertaining the nature of exile and their consequences to the perception and anticipation of the audience.
The similarity between the representations of exile in the two books is that the author has represented exile in Season of Migration to the North through the use of the figurative style of work and narration to depict exile, rape as acts of injustice on the resources of Sudan during his seven years of study in Europe. Love and war in the novel create the feeling of reality that the author is trying to narrate (Salih, 17). All these are metaphors use to explain his absence from his home country. Other forms of narratives are the clarity and crispness that leads to jarring didacticism. Some of the characters speak in rhetorical, unnatural and declamatory sentences that give the book its hallmark. The book also tries to justify that the cause of the exile was the clash between tradition and modernity in the post-colonial era
Similarly, the author of the book Breathe, Eyes, and Memory has used cultural dilemma that Sophie is facing to represent how women complication may lead them to run away from their culture. Danticat (26) relates the cause of the exile of Sophie and her mother to female sexuality that makes her body a battleground in the front lines of a cultural conflict drawing the New York and the Haiti cultural perspectives.
The two books have also highlighted the gender discrimination against women, misogamy and feminine expectation of the female members of the society. There is also a similarity in the dilemma that the main characters in the two books face. The eastern and western cultures seem to be conflicting, putting the main characters in dilemma of their next course of action. Another similarity in the representation of exile in the two books is the aspect of passivity and political violence in shaping the need for exile.
Works Cited
Salih, Tayeb. Season of Migration to the North. Trans. D. Johnson-Davies. London: Penguin
Books Ltd, 2013. ISBN-13: 9780141187204
Said, Edward W. Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient. London: Penguin Books Ltd.
ISBN: 9780141187426
Danticat, Edwidge. Breath, Eyes, Memory. , Heinemann, 2015. Print.