Rejection

Mariama Bã

BACKGROUND Mariama Bã [April 17, 1929 – August 17, 1981] is a

Senegalese author and feminist who later became a
teacher. Her two French novels were both translated into
more than a dozen languages. Born in Dakar, she was
raised as a Muslim.
Her frustration with the fate of African women and she
uses her novels to reveal the unjust treatment of women
justified by a patriarchal society, polygamous practices
and certain Muslim traditions.
SUMMARY The narrator is an Islamic wife who takes care of her
household and supports her children’s education. She is a
caring person who welcomes friends of her daughter,
Daba, when they come to study. Her husband, Modou,
also shows interest in the beautiful young girl Binetou, by
sometimes taking her home after studying.
Binetou’s mother puts her under pressure to accept the old
man’s hand in marriage. Binetou is not excited about the
marriage, but she submits to her mother’s pleas and
agrees.
The three men break the news to the narrator that her
husband has taken a second wife. She is shocked about
the news. She remains calm, while Daba is furious and
feels betrayed by her father and friend.
After 40 days of mourning Modou’s death, Tamsir,
Modou’s brother, announces his intention to marry the
narrator. She, for the first time, does not keep quiet but
stands her ground and rejects him in front of the other
men.
The narrator’s rejection of Tamsir is the turning point of her
life – no one will ever again bully her or tell her what to do.
TITLE Rejection means the dismissal or refusal of a proposal or
idea. The story is about the narrator, who at the end of the
story, rejects the idea of marrying her late husband’s
brother. The rejection gives the narrator the power in a
patriarchal society.
THEMES Cultural and religious practices
In this story, the narrator, an Islamic wife, submits to her
cultural values. At the beginning, she enjoys being the only
wife, but a crisis erupts when a second wife joins in the
marriage without any consultation. She hates the fact that
she must pretend to be happy and support the young
second wife. Her feelings are not considered by her in-
laws, especially Tamsir, who announces his intention to
marry her after the 40th day of mourning her late husband.
Broken relationships
The narrator’s relationship with her husband, Modou, is
shaken when he takes a second wife without consulting
her. The family expects her to accept the new living
arrangements of being left alone at all times. Daba and
Binetou’s relationship ends when Binetou marries Daba’s
father and becomes her stepmother. The narrator’s
relationship with her in-laws is shaken when she openly
refuses Tamsir’s intention to marry her after Modou’s
 passing.
Betrayal
The narrator feels betrayed by her life partner, Modou
when he takes a second wife without consulting her. Daba
feels betrayed by her close friend, Binetou, when she
marries her father. Both the narrator and Daba feel
betrayed by Binetou whom they welcomed to their home to
do schoolwork.
Gender inequalities or patriarchy
Modou and Tamsir dominate their marriages. They make
decisions without consulting their partners. Women in their
lives are treated as objects and their opinions do not
count. Modou shows no respect to girls as he exploits the
young Binetou by making her his second wife.
Abuse
Binetou’s mother abuses her daughter when she begs her
to marry Modou. She sees Binetou’s marriage as a life
changer and an upgrade in social status.
Poverty
Binetou is exposed to poverty and ends up getting married
to an older man because he can provide for her and her
mother.
SHORT STORY ARC
SETTING The story takes place in Dakar, Senegal in the late 1990’s.
Most events take place in the narrator’s home where she
stays with her family.
EXPOSITION The narrator introduces the story with ‘MY OWN CRISIS
CAME’ which indicates that she has been living happily at
home. Binetou, Daba’s classmate, frequently visits the
narrator’s house. She is described as young, beautiful,
evidently poor and she gets the attention of the narrator’s
husband.
RISING ACTION Binetou’s relationship with and old man transforms her into
a new person who wears expensive dresses. The
narrator’s daughter shares all her friend’s secrets with her
mother, including Binetou’s crisis of being courted by the
‘sugar-daddy’. Binetou has no choice but to marry the old
man because her mother is desperate for a better life that
will be provided by the ‘sugar-daddy’
CLIMAX The three men: Tamsir, Mawdo and a local spiritual leader
‘Imam’ announce that the narrator’s husband has married
a new wife, Binetou. The narrator and her daughter’s
worlds are shaken by the news as they have never
thought of Binetou’s ‘sugar-daddy’ to be Modou. They both
feel humiliated and powerless as they experience Modou’s
rejection
RESOLUTION The narrator finally gets a chance to unleash her bottled
anger on the 40th day of mourning her late husband,
Modou. Tamsir’s announcement of his intention to marry
the narrator makes her speak out. She deals with the initial
abuse and brings back her power and independence as a
woman. She decides that no man will ever decide how she
must live her life.
CHARACTERIZATION
The narrator She is supportive – she supports her daughter’s
education.
She is brave / emotionally strong – she puts on a brave
 face when her husband marries a younger wife.
She is calm – she does not allow her husband’ betrayal to
get the better of her.
She is defiant and fearless – she boldly displays her
independence from her in-laws and defies culture by
refusing to be inherited by Tamsir.
Modou He is patriarchal – he does not consult his wife in his
decision to marry his daughter’s classmate.
He is secretive – he marries Binetou without consulting his
wife.
He is cunning and deceitful – he uses money to lure the
poor Binetou to marry him.
Binetou She is insecure and shy – her poor background makes her
feel inferior.
She is untrustworthy – she betrays her friend Daba when
she does not disclose the name of her sugar-daddy.
She is naïve – she gives in to her mother’s manipulation
and marries Modou.
Binetou’s mother She is manipulative – she convinces Binetou to marry an
older man to improve her own lifestyle.
Tamsir He is supportive – he supports Modou when he remarries.
He is opportunistic – he tells the narrator that she is his
good-luck charm.
He is brave – he boldly tells the narrator about his
intentions to marry her.
Imam He is brave – he is the one who is brave enough to break
the news about Modou’s wedding to the narrator.
Daba She is caring – she allows her friends to come and study
at her home.
She is supportive – she supports Binetou when she tells
her about her relationship with her sugar-daddy. She
seeks advice on her behalf from her mother.
She is protective – she openly shows her fury toward
Binetou who marries her father to protect her mother.
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
Simile “just like laurels thrown at my feet of my lord and master.”
The narrator compares the pride resulting from the
success of her children at school to praises given to her
husband.
Metaphor “I asked with the cry of a hunted beast.” The narrator’s
behaviour resembles how prey would cry for help.
“The word were glowing embers in his mouth” The narrator
describes the speed of the Imam’s explanation of the
status quo to the embers in a fire that he has to get rid of
as it causes pain.
“I acquiesced under the drops of poison that were burning
me” The narrator takes in the words compared to poison
as if they burned her like poison.
“…was a lamb slaughtered to the altar of affluence” – she
was like an innocent killed at the altar of wealth.
Hyperbole “I acquiesced under the drops of poison that were burning
me” The narrator agrees to the words compared to poison
as if they burned her like poison.
The narrator exaggerates her accepted shock/
heartbreak / pain like poison causing pain.
Rhetorical question “But what can a child do, faced with a furious mother
 shouting about her hunger and her thirst to live?” The
narrator questions Binetou’s opinion about the marriage
though she knows that Binetou has little to say about the
matter.
POINT OF VIEW
The story is narrated from the first-person point of view in the form of a letter or
diary that is written to a friend. The narrator is an Islamic wife who enjoys her
married life at the beginning of the story. She is a round character as she both
experiences her inner and outer conflicts.
STYLE
A formal register is mostly used in this story. There is some dialogue within the
story to portray the character’s feelings and emotions. The dialogue brings the
story to life. The reader gets to know the characters better through what they
say. The use of contractions also brings an informal register, especially when
the narrator speaks to her daughter and Aissatou [the friend to whom she is
writing the letter.]
TONE
Gloomy The narrator uses this tone when the story begins. Her first
Down-hearted words in the story ‘MY OWN CRISIS CAME…’ create the
Depressed depressed atmosphere.
Enraged Daba is furious at her father who took her close friend to
be his second wife.
Cheerful Binetou changes from being a shy girl to being lively after
getting an old man after getting an old man to buy her
expensive clothes. The tone becomes exciting when she
thinks she is in control of the situation
MOOD
Sad, angry, emotional – initially.
Happy, optimistic – at the end.

QUESTIONS:
 1. Why does the writer start the story with, “MY OWN CRISIS CAME…”?
2. Where does the narrator say her problem came from?
3. In the second paragraph on page 52 give the characteristics of Binetou as we
meet her here.
4. What was Modou’s ulterior motive in taking Binetou home?
5. Why did Binetou undergo a metamorphosis?
6. What was the “serious problem” that Binetou conveyed to Daba?
7. Why does the narrator say “None of that is worth the capital of youth”?
8. What does Daba convey to her mother about Binetou’s mother?
9. Why was there no reception at Binetou’s wedding?
10. What did the men come to do at the narrator’s home?
11. “Some things we may find to be sad are much less so than others…” Explain
the use of the ellipsis.
12. Why did the narrator think the men were dressed well?
13. What did Tamsir say was the narrator’s fate?
14. What does Tamsir say Modou praises the narrator for?
15. What does the narrator now realise about Modou’s absences from home?
16. Why is the narrator recalling the suits Modou tried on and let slip to the floor?
17. At this point in the story, does the narrator know the name of the second wife?
Quote to prove.
18. What were the reasons people now came to tell her about the wedding?
19. What does the narrator now realise that Binetou had told everyone except
her?
20. Why was Daba so angry?
21. What does Daba expect from her mother?
22. Why could her mother not do what Daba expected?
23. What is the narrator’s opinion now of marriage which she relates in her letter
to Aissatou?
24. What did the narrator do to try and figure out what went wrong with her
marriage?
25. Why do you think the narrator, cries for Modou?
26. What is the custom in the narrator’s culture after someone dies?
27. What did Modou and Tamsir do that was the same? Why?
28. What does Tamsir say to her, were the reasons, when asking for her hand in
marriage?
29. What did the narrator say after Tamsir’s declaration of her hand in marriage?
30. Explain, “Thus I took my revenge for that other day when all three of them had
airly informed me of the marriage of Modou Fall and Binetou.”

ANSWERS:
1. Her crisis, is the turning point and main focus of the story. We need to read the entire
story, to understand what her crisis is.
2. Her problem was Modou himself, her husband.
3. A young girl, a bit shy, frail, uncomfortable in her own skin due to their poverty.
4. He intended to make her his wife.
5. Modou afforded her his money. She was now wearing expensive dresses, and told
Daba she had a sugar daddy with extreme confidence.
6. The sugar daddy wanted to marry her.
7. She does not think any wealth in the world is as expensive as one’s own youth.
8. Binetou’s mother cried for her to marry the sugar daddy, to give her life a happy end, in
a proper house, so she had to accept the marriage proposal to keep her mother
happy.
9. Binetou could not bear the mocking of her friends when they find out she married an
older man.
10. They came to inform her that Modou married Binetou.
11. The Imam stops speaking and leaves the reader wondering what the news is that he is
about to convey to her. Is it good or bad news?
12. They were dressed in their Sunday best. They were dressed perfectly as if to inspire
confidence in her.
13. It is fate that decides men and things. God intended Modou to have a second wife.
14. That Modou praised her for 25 years of marriage, that she gave him all the happiness
a wife could give to her husband, and he thanks her for the respect she gave to
himself and her family-in-law. She will always be his first wife, a mother and friend for
Modou.
15. He was absent most days, all day long. She thought he was late because of his trade
union meetings, but he was spending time with Binetou.
16. She realises that he was trying on suits to impress Binetou and seduce her in
becoming his wife.
17. No, “I forgot to ask for my rival’s name…”
18. Some of them did so out of pure friendship, while others did it out of spite and jealousy,
to hurt her.
19. Shy Binetou, told everyone except her that she was about to become her co-wife with
Modou.
20. Her pride was wounded, the nicknames Binetou gave her father, and yet she married
her father, in secret, she gave in to her mother’s requests for wealth.
21. She asked her mother to divorce her father, Modou.
22. She did not have the courage at her age, to start all over again, after living with one
man for 25 years and having twelve children.
23. Marriage is never smooth. It stresses the differences in character and capacity for
feeling in both husband and wife. Some marriages struggle with women who cannot or
won’t speak their minds. Others struggle with alcoholism, gambling and physical or
emotional abuse.
24. She tried to figure out what her weaknesses were. What did she do wrong? She knows
she gave freely to Modou. She loved her home, she is soft-hearted and she loved
Modou dearly.
25. She remained faithful in her love for Modou, the man and husband of her youth, and
she cries for him and there is nothing she can do about it.
26. The husband or wife has to stay in mourning for forty days after the death.
27. They made the same twitches, something they inherited from their parents.
28. She suits him as a wife, he inherits her as the younger brother according to their
custom, she is his good luck charm, he did not want to marry Binetou, she is too
young.
29. She asks Tamsir if he ever loved his brother, Modou because he already wants to
marry her when Modou’s is still warm after his death. She stresses that she has a
heart and mind and not an object to be passed from one to the other, that marriage is
an act of faith and love, the total surrender of oneself to the person one has chosen.
Tamsir’s other wives have to work to support him and his lifestyle. She will never marry
him.
30. She got back at them, for the day they came into her house, telling her that Modou had
just got married to Binetou, and that there was nothing she could do about it. She got
back at them, for staying quiet at Modou’s new bride, Binetou.