Mariama Ba's "The Scarlet Song"

Paper Summary:

The paper examines the novel, "The Scarlet Song", by Mariama Ba, with a focus on the main character, Ousmane Gueye. It looks at how, throughout the novel, Mariama Ba employs adages and aphorisms to characterize certain traits of the characters, including the novel's central persona, Ousmane, and how these adages discriminate between Ousmane's sundry and dynamic personalities. It also analyzes how Mariama Ba employs adages relating to ingrained and habitual actions in order to characterize Ousmane's congenital personality traits and looks at how this defines Ousmane's intrinsic nature as a cultural norm for the Senegalese.

From the Paper:

"Ousmane defines a cultural standard in Scarlet Song when he plays a host to the various guests who he entertains. Ousmane's aphorism, "In my country children don't teach their parents how to behave"(Ba 85), defines a rudimentary rule one follows in entertaining guests. Ousmane tells Mireille that his culture forbids him from correcting his parents poor behavior such as Yaye Khady's disgusting treatment of Mireille's carpet or Yaye Khady's use of toothpicks. Senegalese culture deters discourse to reprimand such behavior. However, this lenient and relaxed demeanor also applies to other guests in Senegal. Mireille often voices complaints relating to the ill-manners of Ousmane's many guests. Ousmane's friends invite themselves over for dinner and expect Mireille to constantly clean and cook for them. Many of the friends treat Mireille as property of Ousmane's and complain about Mireille's cooking."

More papers on Mariama Ba's "The Scarlet Song":

• Book Review # 95029 : "The Scarlet Song"
• Analytical Essay # 4779 : "Scarlet Song" by Mariama Ba"
• Analytical Essay # 64124 : "Scarlet Song" and "Candide"

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