Possessing the Secret of Joy
Encyclopedia
Possessing the Secret of Joy is a 1992 novel
by Alice Walker
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. Now in the US she comes from Olinka, Alice Walker's fictional Africa
n nation where female genital mutilation is practiced. Tashi marries an American man named Adam then left Olinka because of the war. Tashi chooses go back to Olinka to undergo circumcison because she is a woman torn between two cultures, Olinkan and Western. Instead of feeling free from not having the procedure done as a child it ends up bothering her. She wants to honor her Olinkan roots and has the operation in her teen years, although it is usually performed on female children. Tashi later sees several psychiatrists because she goes crazy due to the trauma she has suffered before finding the strength to act. The novel is told in many different voices, which are the characters in the novel.
The novel explores what it means to have one's gender culturally defined and emphasizes that, according to Walker, "Torture is not culture."
Adam Johnson- He is Tashi's lovingly supportive husband. Adam watches Tashi's downward spiral into darkness with the miserable frustration of being incapable of helping her. His intensely powerful insecurity and fear causes him to indulge in a merely comforting affair with his long time friend, the French feminist, Lissete. As a result of their extramarital union, their son, Pierre is born. Adam is devastatingly heart broken as his affair pushes Tashi further away, and must face the consequences of his actions.
Benny Johnson- Tashi and Adam's adult son- Benny is born retarded due to his brain being damaged during his complicated birth. Benny's limited abilities make Tashi increasingly depressed because she blames her circumcised vulva as the reason for Benny's agonizing journey from her womb. Benny is very curious about the world and is willing to study about it in order to keep up conversations with his parents.
Lisette- Adam's lover and mother of Pierre, Adam's second son.
Dura- Tashi's older sister that bled to death in childhood due to the ritual circumcision. Tashi comes to view Dura's death as a murder, and repeatedly emphasizes that Dura has been "screaming in her ears" since her death. Tashi’s sister bled to death during her circumcision “ceremony”.
M'Lissa- Tsunga of the tribe into which M'Lissa was born. The tsunga performs circumcisions (e.g. excision and infibulation) on the girls of the tribe. M'Lissa performed the circumcision on Dura that caused her to bleed to death.
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by Alice Walker
Alice Walker
Alice Malsenior Walker is an American author, poet, and activist. She has written both fiction and essays about race and gender...
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Plot summary
It tells the story of Tashi, an African woman and a minor character in Walker's earlier novel The Color PurpleThe Color Purple
The Color Purple is an acclaimed 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker. It received the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction...
. Now in the US she comes from Olinka, Alice Walker's fictional Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
n nation where female genital mutilation is practiced. Tashi marries an American man named Adam then left Olinka because of the war. Tashi chooses go back to Olinka to undergo circumcison because she is a woman torn between two cultures, Olinkan and Western. Instead of feeling free from not having the procedure done as a child it ends up bothering her. She wants to honor her Olinkan roots and has the operation in her teen years, although it is usually performed on female children. Tashi later sees several psychiatrists because she goes crazy due to the trauma she has suffered before finding the strength to act. The novel is told in many different voices, which are the characters in the novel.
The novel explores what it means to have one's gender culturally defined and emphasizes that, according to Walker, "Torture is not culture."
Characters
Tashi "Evelyn" Johnson- The main protagonist of the novel. She is haunted by her experiences as a child and on the run from her memories, especially the act of female circumcision that she underwent as a young adult rather than a young child like other children following the tradition of her village. The novel delves into her struggles recuperating emotionally and physically from the circumcision as she is enveloped in revelations about the underlying meaning of her culture. Once she has the procedure done things go downhill pretty quickly and Tashi goes mad.Adam Johnson- He is Tashi's lovingly supportive husband. Adam watches Tashi's downward spiral into darkness with the miserable frustration of being incapable of helping her. His intensely powerful insecurity and fear causes him to indulge in a merely comforting affair with his long time friend, the French feminist, Lissete. As a result of their extramarital union, their son, Pierre is born. Adam is devastatingly heart broken as his affair pushes Tashi further away, and must face the consequences of his actions.
Benny Johnson- Tashi and Adam's adult son- Benny is born retarded due to his brain being damaged during his complicated birth. Benny's limited abilities make Tashi increasingly depressed because she blames her circumcised vulva as the reason for Benny's agonizing journey from her womb. Benny is very curious about the world and is willing to study about it in order to keep up conversations with his parents.
Lisette- Adam's lover and mother of Pierre, Adam's second son.
Dura- Tashi's older sister that bled to death in childhood due to the ritual circumcision. Tashi comes to view Dura's death as a murder, and repeatedly emphasizes that Dura has been "screaming in her ears" since her death. Tashi’s sister bled to death during her circumcision “ceremony”.
M'Lissa- Tsunga of the tribe into which M'Lissa was born. The tsunga performs circumcisions (e.g. excision and infibulation) on the girls of the tribe. M'Lissa performed the circumcision on Dura that caused her to bleed to death.
Trivia
- The novel is the inspiration for Tori AmosTori AmosTori Amos is an American pianist, singer-songwriter and composer. She was at the forefront of a number of female singer-songwriters in the early 1990s and was noteworthy early in her career as one of the few alternative rock performers to use a piano as her primary instrument...
's song "Cornflake GirlCornflake Girl"Cornflake Girl" is a song by American singer-songwriter and musician Tori Amos. It was released as the first single from her second studio album Under the Pink. It was released on January 10, 1994 by EastWest Records in the UK and on May 5 by Atlantic Records in North America...
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