The Red Tent: Interpretation of Activities Inside the Tent, Dwelt and Celebrated the Facets of Womanhood
Anita Diamant's fiction, "The Red Tent (1997)," is her interpretationof the activities in the red tent, where the Canaanite wives of the firstpatriarchs dwelt and celebrated the facets of womanhood, such asmenstruation and childbirth. There, they were shielded from their men'soutside affairs and cares. These patriarchs were Abraham, Isaac and Jacoband the wives were Sara, Rebecca, Leah, Rachel and their maids Zilphah andBilhah. It assumes that these women were priestesses of goddess-worshipingtribes of the Canaan region who practiced and perpetuated rituals,traditions and habits until obliterated by their only daughter, Dinah,because of her violation by an Amorite and the murder of the Amorites by The novel is told from the first person viewpoint of Dinah, the onlydaughter and last child of Jacob and Leah and the last in the maternal linethat should have sustained her mothers' goddess worship (Day 2003). Shenarrates about the occurrences inside the tent where the women in herfather's family connect and relate, although not always in harmony, and herperception of rape by Shechem, his pursuit of her in marriage, thenegotiations, and her brothers' violent m
Most prominent among them is Sarathe queen and wife of Abraham, the very first patriarch. What he offers Jacob's family is nothing more than theexternal ritual of a wedding or the formality of a marriage. Historians saythat this practice was common since the Middle Ages and in the 19th and20th centuries wherein travelers in the Middle East, North Africa and Asiawere treated to a form of tribal hospitality, which included sexualservices, in the houses and inns (Gur-Klein 2003). The author writes through Dinah:"Like sisters who live together and share a husband, my mother and auntiesspun a sticky web of loyalties and grudges. Thesons of Jacob, deceiving the Amorites, say that they will agree only if allthe male Amorites get circumcised and that, otherwise, they will simplytake Dinah and leave. But marriage will not correct a moraloffense: it will make the offense worse if there is no change of heart inthe offender. Diamant's description or unfolding of her female characters is moredeveloped and enticing than the male characters, which are flat,stereotypical and unpleasant (Skylar Hamilton Burris 2000). Dinah witnesses andcollects these observations, perceptions and stories within her as the onlyand last daughter to carry the information along. Genesis interpreters, without admitting it, underplay the seriousnessof the crime of rape and give more credit to Shechem's willingness ordesire to make it up to Dinah by marrying her and agreeing to all her orher family's terms for the marriage (Scholz 2001). It is also plain that Jacob does not make all the major decisions inhis family. Dinah as narrator says that Jacobis devastated to hear about Joseph's death but Diamant does not bring thisdevastated feeling out because there is no portion in the novel abound thebond between the father and the son. Leah is not aspretty as Rachel but is blessed with six sons and a daughter. Dinah's father, Jacob, was her mother Rebecca's favorite. The book is her report ornarration of her four mothers' personality traits, menstruation cycles,childbirth, their slaves, artisans, household gods and feminine secretsthat perpetuate the matriarchal lineage.
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Acceptance Essays
