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 Sample Blossoms of The Savannah Excerpts With Questions and Answers

Explain how male chauvinism plays out in chapter one in Blossoms of the Savannah

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Answer Text:
Male chauvinism is a belief that men are superior to women. In the novel Blossoms of the Savannah there are several instances of male chauvinism. Nasila is portrayed as a male dominant society where women
have less say even in matters that directly affects them. We can also point out instances of male chauvinism in chapter one of this novel.
Taiyo watching from a distance their properties being loaded, she flashes back an instance when her father denied her permission to go to Mombasa with other young men and women who had been selected by an F.M radio to attend an extravaganza. Later in the novel we come to learn that he termed this as prostitution and would not allow her daughter to take part in such yet he knows very well that her daughter has passion in music. He is a male chauvinist that’s why he doesn’t give her daughter freedom of choice.
Ole Kaelo hates Resian for being born a girl. When his wife got pregnant for the second time, he prayed for a baby boy who would carry the Kaelo’s name to the next generation.
Against his expectation Resian was born. The very sight of her enraged him and she remains unwelcome and detested. She grows up bewildered and resentful. Self-doubt made her awkward and very difficult to deal with which makes the father detest her even more.
Even the physical appearance of Resian angered her father. Her body had blossomed earlier unlike Taiyo who is skinny and symmetrical. Signs of early womanhood were evident in her so the father thought that the earlier he dispose her the better. He is a male chauvinist that’s why he doesn’t see any value in his daughter and only thinks that marrying her off earlier is more beneficial.
The elders in Nasila terms Ole Kaelo’s decision to remain married to one wife, who has only bore him two daughters, reckless. He is likened to one mono-eyed giant who stood on legs of straw. This shows that a man with a boy-child is esteemed higher in Nasila than those with girl-children.
In conclusion, male chauvinism is portrayed in first chapter of this novel in the instances discussed above.


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