English Reflective Statement

I participated in an interactive oral discussion; about the novel by Nawal El Sadawi named ‘The Woman at Point Zero’. From the interactive oral, I was able develop a new idea which I had never thought of. The idea was that the characters in the novel were two dimensional, so that the main character Firdaus is able to change, which she is not. The idea stemmed from what Ashleigh said about how Firdaus has the power of rejection using her physical body. So I said that it was a delusion for women and what Firdaus does have, is the power to change.

I developed it into the concept of change for the better, i.e. the ability to change and move forward in society. For example if Firdaus looked at the situation where she was being abused by her uncle and aunt, reviewed all the problems and then found a way to make the next situation better, which would the be domestic violence received from her husband Sheikh Mahmood. All in all, in a society like Egypt in the 1970’s, fear was the most dominant way to have power, but its not removing the fear that allows the courage to change, it’s the knowledge of fear and moving forward anyway.

Talking about fear, Brad brought up an interesting idea of Firdaus not being afraid of what normal people would be afraid of, but of something so delicate, eyes. He said something about how she was cautious and self conscious about being looked down upon and being watched over. Which made me ask the question, why she didn’t have the courage to change her fate, up until the moment she killed her