Voices of gender in "The Death Of Artemio Cruz" and "Woman At Point Zero".

“The boy had known only work on the bank of the river…He’d loved him ever scinse...Lunero fed him in the shack…and he taught him to handle a machete, to make candles... The boy also loved Lunero and didn’t want to live without him”

 It is Lunero’s death and Artemio’s consequent escape from the hacienda which generates the characteristic bitterness of Artemio’s character. This personality  trait is visible through the protagonist’s arrogant  tone and indecorous language, mostly directed towards females .

“Imagine yourselves in a world in which I was virtuous, in which I was humble: Down below were I came from, up above were I am…ah, assholes conceited bitches…while I had everything do you hear me? Power…everything that can be bought and everything that can’t be bought…”

 

  Both protagonists express through their narrative voices a certain revulsion towards the opposite sex, generated by mutual experiences. It is written in such  powerful and overcoming manner, that overruns the reader with the same feeling.

 Firdaus is a presitiguous prostitute, whose interaction with society is confined within  the basis of male persecution.  Such an appalling vision of the male gender is generated by concurring experiences of obnoxious masculine behavior. Accordingly, man is intentionally portrayed by the author as grotesque, gruesome and absolutely hypocritical.

“I would observe them nodding their heads, or rubbing their hands one against the other, or coughing, or cleaning their throats with a rasping noise, or constantly scratching under their armpits and between the thighs”

Not only is man physically abhorrent in quotidian activities, but also in the intimacy of sexual relationships. In the midst of such an ambience, woman is always submitted to the consuming male figure by means of violent acts and debasing language. In spite of such encounters, the protagonist manages to rebel  against such an axiom, revealing spiritual strength and courage against the system which she experiences. As a result, the reader is able to appreciate the male dominance on society and the author’s rebellious reaction towards such phenomena through the potent impelling narrative voice of Firdaus.

“ I don’t want to be anybody’s slave…I want to be one of the masters and not one of slaves…”    

     

   Artemio Cruz conveys the same impression on women. Throughout the novel, the reader clearly perceives the hatred felt by the protagonist towards his wife and daughter. According to him, women are materialist, self- conceited beings.

“Seeing the two of them down on all fours on the mound of jackets and trousers , digging through shoes, showing me their fat thighs, shaking their asses, panting obscenely…”

Not only are they willingly portrayed by the narrative voices as shallow-minded, but also as emotionally anesthetized to human calamities. As such, Catalina and Cristina are only interested in Artenio’s will and thus become particularly interested in his health and well-being during the last hours of existence. Not even Cruz’s long lost love Regina escapes from such a conception. Even she lacks all mental capacity and is emotionally manipulated by Artemio, for she is always following him throughout the Mexican countryside into every revolutionary campground.

   The physical perception of the opposite gender from both protagonists overlaps with descriptions of voluptous and obese figures. Such an association between fat and repulsive obeys to the traditionalist cultural rejection towards the overweight. The obese population has been considered a socially unacceptable disposition throughout the decades. This may be reflected both in Firdaus and Artemio’s interpretations of their own ghastly and repulsive encounters with  undesired individuals. (In both cases, fat is a symbol of overindulgence and materialsm)

 

Although Artemio’s female description absolutely juxtaposes with the female self in “Woman at point Zero”, Firdaous male perception complies with Carlos Fuentes depiction in “the death of Artemio Cruz”:

“I discovered that all these rulers were men. What they had in common was an avaricious and distorted personality, a never ending appetite for money, sex and unlimited power”     

Artemio’s ambitious nature is the protagonist´s principal characteristicc. Throughout the novel, the reader demonstrates not only the economic thirst, but the power craving nature of the protagonist, exemplified through land acquisitioning in Pueblan territory .

“An entire wall of your office is is covered with the diagram of the vast network of businesses you control…real state investments-…Guadalajara, Puebla, Guaymas, Acapulco….”

 From his death bed, Artemio repeatedly boasts about the opulence of his position and the hard work which has been required to achieve it. Nothing but material posessions like money and power are able to satisfy his needs; not even the betrayal of the great Mexican Revolution of principles and ideals. His portrayal is identically faithful to Firdaous conception.    

 Vocabulary is another differentiating feature of  gender narrative, as it explicitly guides the reader into the protagonist’s mind.  Saadawi’s  imagery and metaphorical significance is veiled under Firdaus simple vocabulary and eloquent narrative. The repeated  use of symbolic colors throughout “Woman at point Zero” (ie. Green red and white) intend to show different aspects of the protagonist’s life successfully delivered to the reader. An example of such pictographic symbolism may be found at the beginning of the novel,  where juxtaposing black over blue is used to reflect the way the author’s  feelings instantly metamorphose into rejection not only from an individual but from the world itself.

“The sky also had undergone a change; its color had turned to black, like that of the earth and it was pressing upon me with its added load” 

 The juxtaposition of colours is also seen through Firdaous eye description, where eyes are the most significant icons of Saadawi’s narrative, as they illustrate not only crucial themes within the novel, but also the character’s most intimate longings and life contemplations. Through such a symbolic literary device, Firdaus reveals an unceasing quest for ultimate revelation, constantly sought through the eyes of impelling, resolute characters. The aforementioned technique is used by the author to portray the both negative and positive themes through  Firdaus interpretation of gaze. An example of such a phenomena is seen through the following passage, where the eyes are utilized as a symbol of female compliance towards masculine domination:

“I was always watched by two eyes gazing into my plate to see how much food I took. Ever since I was born those two eyes had always been there, open, staring, unflinching, following every morsel of food on my plate”

Male eyes always embed some sort of piercing, intimidating look which intends to aminorate Firdaous inner strength. Through sexually appetizing gazes, the author wishes to potray a primitive masculine mentality based upon mere erotic attraction .

“I felt his lookland on my head , and then dr to my body like cold water, the blood rushed to my head...I looked into his eyes. They clearly said, ‘You’re a poor miserable...unworthy of esteem...”

Symbolic devices such as the eyes are used by Saadawi to represent the sense of inestability and universal untrustworthiness. Eyes are therefore the fundamental piece needed to fully comprehend the message which El Saadawi intends to imply.

  In the same way as Saadawi reflects female voices of her culture through writing, Carlos Fuentes also demonstrates a distinct narrative voice demarked by his masculine gender. The author uses three male narrative voices which serve as first, second and third person narrator in the novel. There is no female voice represented in the whole narrative. Females are therefore always envisioned through the masculine eye as obscure mobid characters. Although far more complex in content and narrative technique, Fuentes employs an utterly different series of symbols and metaphors.As a result, Artemio’s style and language is far more crude and less elaborate than Firdaous. This is demonstrated through the use of colloquial vocabulary and vulgar expressions.

“Eggs? I’ve already got mine- he joked, patting his crotch…” 

Artemio’s crude expression of reality is a shocking narrative device used by the author to create an impact on the reader upon a Mexican reality often ignored and misconceived by history.

   “The Death of Artemio Cruz” and “Woman at Point Zero”, with its blatantly sexist narrator and its purpose of challenging the chauvinistic Arabic mentality, are two novels written by one male and one female writer in totally different cultural circumstances. The reader therefore inevitably obtains a different level of insight into the protagonist. However, despite this, no one can deny that both texts provide a fascinating view of the complexities and confusions of both masculine and femenine mentality.

        

Bibliography

• EL SAADAWI, Nawal. “Woman at point Zero” Translated by Sherif Hetata. Zed Books Ltd. London, UK (1999)

•  FUENTES, Carlos.“The Death of Artemio Cruz” Translated from Spanish by Alfred Mc Adam  Farrar. Straus and Giroux. New York (1991)

        

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