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Summary: The Secret Shame of Female Circumcision
Review: Possessing The Secret of Joy is a semi-sequel to The Color Purple, but you can jump right into "Possessing" without ever having read "Purple". Here, Alice Walker tells the story of Tashi, a minor character from The Color Purple. Transplanted from her native Africa, she is tormented by supressed memories from her childhood; memories that are starting to wear away her already tenuous sanity. Tashi is not only plagued by memories of the death of her sister, she is also suffering psychologically from the circumcision she subjected herself to before her departure from Africa. She undergoes some extensive therapy, conducted in part by Jung himself, to try to heal her mental scars. I was familiar with the concept of ritual female circumcision from various newspaper articles and news programs, but I had no idea of the extent of the mutilation these young girls are subjected to. Walker handles the subject well; she describes the procedure, and the effect, both physical and mental, on the girl, all the while taking great care to present every side of the story. Her presentation of the history of this procedure is gripping, as are her theories about how it may have started. While much of the book is relentlessly grim, it is, nonetheless, a fabulously rewarding read.
Rating:
Summary: The Secret Shame of Female Circumcision
Review: Possessing The Secret of Joy is a semi-sequel to The Color Purple, but you can jump right into "Possessing" without ever having read "Purple". Here, Alice Walker tells the story of Tashi, a minor character from The Color Purple. Transplanted from her native Africa, she is tormented by supressed memories from her childhood; memories that are starting to wear away her already tenuous sanity. Tashi is not only plagued by memories of the death of her sister, she is also suffering psychologically from the circumcision she subjected herself to before her departure from Africa. She undergoes some extensive therapy, conducted in part by Jung himself, to try to heal her mental scars. I was familiar with the concept of ritual female circumcision from various newspaper articles and news programs, but I had no idea of the extent of the mutilation these young girls are subjected to. Walker handles the subject well; she describes the procedure, and the effect, both physical and mental, on the girl, all the while taking great care to present every side of the story. Her presentation of the history of this procedure is gripping, as are her theories about how it may have started. While much of the book is relentlessly grim, it is, nonetheless, a fabulously rewarding read.
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Summary: Read this book
Review: Possessing the Secret of Joy, by Alice Walker, reveals a cultural tradition that is considered taboo by its society; it is left unspoken of, yet it is condoned. To someone of a different culture, this tradition is not only unacceptable but completely appalling. It is a tradition that brutally abuses and destroys its victims, the women of the society. Alice Walker presents us, specifically, with two of these women, Tashi and M'Lissa, of Olinka. Tashi can easily be seen as a victim of this cruel tradition, but M'Lissa initially appears to be the enemy, a traitor who continues to force this "initiation" upon the girls of Olinka. However, M'Lissa's character can be seen to change toward the end of the novel as her own story is revealed, and we can ultimately view M'Lissa, not as the enemy, but as a victim also. While, on the surface, M'Lissa and Tashi can be seen as two entirely different women with different motives and ideals, they actually are a great deal alike. Not only are they both women of this Olinkan society, they are both women who have lost themselves to this Olinkan society. While their ways of coping contrast, they both must live the rest of their lives in an attempt to deal with the harsh consequences of the painful and degrading tradition of female circumcision. At the beginning of the novel, the idea that Tashi could murder M'Lissa seems very appealing. Tashi lives her entire life in grief and agony because of what this woman has done to her. It seems completely justifiable for Tashi to take revenge on M'Lissa. Tashi considers herself to be dead throughout her entire life simply because she has been so completely torn from herself as a result of this massacre of her womanhood. But as the novel progresses, M'Lissa's one-dimensional character of evil begins to change and we begin to sympathize with her as we do Tashi. Walker presents us with M'Lissa's point of view, which was formerly obscure. And instead of coming face to face with a murderous enemy, we acquire the tragic story of a woman who is raised to believe female sexuality is sinful and condemned. In addition, she is told by her mother that to be a tsunga is not only a tradition, it is a great honor. M'Lissa is lead to believe that these practices are normal and admirable; female circumcision is an accepted ritual in this society. It is common knowledge to know that M'Lissa, herself, has been circumcised, but to hear her actual story paints a different picture than the one of the beast we see destroying Tashi. We, instead, see a young girl being subject to an insane and insanitary procedure. We learn that M'Lissa's mother tries to protect part of her, which leads the angry witchdoctor to show no mercy, and M'Lissa's pain is far greater than any other girl. We hear M'Lissa's words, "I could never again see myself, for the child that finally rose from the mat three months later, . . . , was not the child who had been taken there. I was never to see that child again." She also comments on her becoming the tsunga, "Can you imagine the life of the tsunga who feels? I learned not to feel." It is as if M'Lissa has completely void herself of any type of feeling as a result of feeling too much pain. She has completely lost herself. Maybe becoming the tsunga and withdrawing all her feelings is M'Lissa's way of dealing with this pain just as an abused child grows to be a child abuser. So when we rethink about Tashi murdering M'Lissa, we begin to question the murder's legitimacy. Did M'Lissa really deserve to be murdered? Could Tashi be the evildoer after all? Isn't M'Lissa, just like Tashi, dealing with the pain and suffering that results from the cruel ritual? Maybe we can't label the evildoer, but rather, consider the bumper sticker Alice Walker includes in the beginning of this novel, "When the axe came into the forest, the trees said the handle is one of us." M'Lissa and Tashi, both, are victims in this society that mutilates women, they just deal with their pain in different ways. We can imagine both M'Lissa and Tashi stranded amidst the surface of an immense sea of waves. M'Lissa is floating submissively along with the tide, yet she has no arms or legs, so she will sink to the bottom; Tashi is swimming hard in the other direction, an endless attempt to try and fight the current. Do they both lose to this mad society that brought them to hurt each other? It is sad that they can't join together in understanding of each other's pain.
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Summary: alice walker is the most inspirational writer, cecile sydney
Review: reading alice walker books are mind blowing and it's sad when I eventually finish her book it's like there is a void in my life and I just can't get enough. One of my many dreams is to eventually meet this wonderful human bein
Rating:
Summary: Super
Review: Someone finally spoke out on this issue! The story needed to be told. The book is hard to understand at first, but it makes sense as you keep reading. The storyline is about a girl who underwent the FGM ceremony without fulling understanding all it would entail. The results are real--Walker did not make them up: painful urination, infection, nearly impossible sex, and loss of desire. She spends many years trying regain her lost sexuality, and eventually overcomes. Walker has done much research in this area, and I consider her a voice in this area that is trying to help so many young girls protect themselves from a harmful tradition. FGM is not about a bond between women or an impowering ceremony--it is based on fear and social pressure. Once women are given all the details and can stand in society as individuals, it will and should become obsolete.
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Summary: Speechless
Review: Talk about dignity in the face of adversity... I read this shortly after "Temple of My Familiar" and there was dangerous estrogen everywhere!!! Read "The Da Vinci Code" and you will be convinced of the power and sacredness of the female...
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Summary: Possessing the Secrets of Joy
Review: The book Possessing the Secret of Joy was a very interesting piece of literature. I felt Alice Walker drew you in without giving away to much detail until the end. I loved the conclusion, and the last two poetic lines took my breath away. At the same time I found some of the dialogue confusing, but if you keep reading you figure out what is trying to be said. Also the flashbacks were a little hard to pick out. They went back and forth from past to present with every new part. You understand the psychological effects on Tashi because the book is out of chronological order. It makes more of an impact on the reader if you understand what it did to her right away. I did like the way she broke the chapters up so that each character told their own stories of Tashi or about the circumcision. It gave you a chance to hear the story from the other person's point of view and hear what they thought about Tashi's situation. Lisette was a dynamic character in the way she didn't understand Tashi until it was explained to her, and the reader. The story told of how Tashi overcame her battle to understand the torturous circumcision she went through. By the end of the book she understood why they say black women possess the secret of joy. I think Walker being an African American woman influences her to speak out on the issues of African culture that she is passionate about through her books and other writings. I give her credit for having guts to write about something so controversial.
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Summary: I couldn't place it down.
Review: The feeling you get when you read this book is one in a million. It touches your heart. A young girl who lived in Africa and moves to America after getting mutilated to fit her custom. She had to learn how to adapt and live with what was done to her. THis book was definetely one of her best.
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Summary: Possessing the Secret of Joy is an Extraordinary Novel
Review: This book has changed my life. It has opened my eyes to the suffering of millions of women who are victims of FGM. This is a wonderfully complex book that tells the story of a woman's lifelong physical and psychological struggle with FGM, from her viewpoint and the viewpoint of different people that are close to her. This book is universal because it could be the story of any woman whose body was brutalized by this horrid procedure. The novel is powerful because while being an absorbing work of fiction, it is also a cry to stop the brutal practice of FGM. It is truly one of the finest pieces of literature that I have read and I highly recommend that this book be read by all people.
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Summary: Secrets
Review: This book holds many secrets-- and it unfolds many, but not all, to the reader. The astute reader wil see many hints of the deeper levels to which Walker alludes, but i am sure the multiple layers are beyond any one reader. perhaps, based on her own comecnst, beyond Alice Walker as well. but if you are a reader who likes peeking into your own depths, this book is more than an anthropologically interseting work of fiction. it is a window into your own soul-- and that of the human race.
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