This Earth of Mankind is the first book of the Buru Quartet series, and probably the most famous of the four. Although, personally, I don’t find the first book exceptional at all compared to the other three. In fact, I find the love story between Minke and Annelies quite shallow. But, isn’t all love stories are?
The story starts with the narrator introducing himself. However, rather than revealing his real name, he let readers know the name people use to call him: Minke. At first, readers are puzzled with name especially because Minke claims to be a native, but the name Minke is not a common native name at all. Luckily, there is one special chapter in which Minke explains how the name comes about. It turns out that the name was born at a time when his teacher was angry at him for not being able to answer a question he asked. The teacher meant to say MONKEY, but realising that it’s inappropriate to insult a student in a class before other students, he then quickly changed it into Minke. So, Minke is actually a derogative term, but only later that he understood that.
Minke was among the only two natives who were privileged to have been enrolled in Surabaya Hoger Burger School (HBS) or the equivalent of Senior High School. The other one was Robert Jan Dapperste who was admitted because he was adopted by a Dutch preacher. Likewise, Minke, too, was admitted because he was the grandson of a Bupati (regent). Indeed, during the colonial time, no natives are given access to education, unless they are the children of important people.
A bit of context, the book begins in 1898. By this time, the Dutch had ruled Indonesia for over 200 years. This quartet, therefore, is a great historical fiction to show Indonesia’s colonial history. We get see how the natives were being treated by the Dutch colonialist. Most important of all, we get to see how big a failure the Dutch had been in influencing Indonesia culturally. It appears that unlike other colonial doctrine that believed colonialism was a way to enlighten the so called “savages”, the Dutch’s only goal was to exploit the resources and the native people for their own benefit.
The Dutch’s biggest failure for me is the fact that the Dutch did not introduce education to the Indonesian native, or if did it was obviously failed. What is apparent is that Indonesian people had to fight for it. It is no surprise that after ruling Indonesia for 250 years, no trace of Dutch language left in Indonesia. Unlike the former British colonies, they all adopt the English language either as their official language or as their second language. This is not to say that British colonialism was better than the Dutch. No. No form of colonialism is justified.
Back to the book. At the surface, the story seems to centre around a love story between Minke and an Indo girl, Annalies. An Indo is a term used to refer to Dutch-Indonesian mixed person. But, as we dig deeper, it is obvious that Toer, or Pram as Indonesians fondly call him, only uses the love story as a foil to talk about issues that are much deeper and much more serious such as colonialism, segregation, slavery, psychology, capitalism, feminism and many more.
The lead character of the book is obviously Nyai Ontosoroh. Nyais are an important part of Indonesian colonial history, beautiful native women bought by colonial officials to be their concubine. These women were often ridiculed and outcasted by other natives. But, as Nyai Ontosoroh’s story, they are victims of the circumstances.
We are introduced to Nyai Ontosoroh as Minke and his schoolmate, Robert Suuroof, was visiting the Hellema’s estate. As Minke was smitten by Annalies’s beauty, readers were smitten by Nyai Ontosoroh’s unusual charm. A nyai has the reputation for being a sex slave. However, nyai Ontosoroh is different. She is fluent in Dutch and she is literate. Later, we also discover that she manages the entire Hellema’s business empire - something that’s quite extraordinary for a native woman to do at the time. Probably her most powerful charm is her progressive way of looking at the world. Although she is a nyai, she doesn’t look down at Minke. Rather, she welcomes him and does not pay attention to his nativeness.
The love story between the two continues, but it terms of storyline we know that it is so just to draw Minke closer to nyai Ontosoroh and the Mellema family who will take the story to a whole other level. Personally, I don’t like how Pram portrays Annelies’ character. He describes her as a beauty beyond compared, but she is very fragile and sentimental. This is quite contradictory, considering that she started working with her mother quite early on. My point is that, you can’t be mature but immature at the same time. I suspect that Annelies’ character is not important at all. She is just there as a foil so that we get to see more of nyai Ontosoroh.
Ontosoroh was made into a nyai when she was quite young. It was her father who sold her to a colonial official (Tuan Besar Kuasa), Mr Mellema, so that he could be promoted into a higher position. Because of this, she holds a grudge against his family. She refused to acknowledge them and to meet them ever since. At first, Mr Mellema was a nice gentleman teaching Ontosoroh everything from hygiene, reading, writing and even managing a business. It was Mr Mellema therefore who transforms Ontosoroh into a “modern women”.
However, Mr Mellema stops being a gentlemen (at least according to nyai Ontosoroh) after one day a man came to their estate which turns out to be his son from his legal marriage back in the Netherlands. That man confront Mr Mellema for deserting him and his mother. Ever since that day Mr Mellema no longer the person he used to be. Later in the story we learn that he has been staying at a brothel next door and spends his time drinking. Amidst all of this, nyai Ontosoroh takes over the job in managing the estate and the businesses. That’s how she becomes a truly independent business woman.
Minke was invited to stay with the Millemas but he did not know how to react. After a long consideration and because Annelies was madly in love with him to the point that she would get sick just being away from him (I hate this part), he finally gave in. However, little that he knew this is the beginning of all troubles that he is about to encounter. What are those troubles? I think this is the part where I should leave you. Please get the book and read it. It’s so worth it.
What can you expect from the book?
- You get to see life during the colonial time. You get to also see the narrator’s perspective about native’s responses to colonialism. For example, we are given two contrasting responses to colonialism. One, that of the the Javanese, who gives in to the colonial regime. More exactly, the Javanese rules, who cared only about themselves. So long as they are safe, they do not think about the common people. While the kings and sultans kept their place, the common people suffered. Meanwhile, we also see how the Acehnese responded to colonialism. They fought and fought even though they knew they would fail. Regardless, they have the courage to fight. It had proven that the Dutch spent the most money in this war, an evident that Acehnese was not easy to defeat.
- You get to see how the Dutch treated the natives. What’s great about Pram is that he did not generalise all Dutch. Instead, we also see Dutch people with good intention like the de la Croixes, Ms Magda Peter, and many others. But what’s clear is that, the colonial administration systematically oppressed the natives.
- Feminism at its best. Nyai Ontosoroh is a champion of feminism in the book. Kartini’s name was mentioned but not to a great detail. Nyai Ontosoroh’s character is progressive. She thinks about nationalism before the term even coined.
- Narrative style. If you are learning about creative writing, this book can be a good way to learn about the different ways to narrate a story. In this book, Pram uses the diary-like technique. When we read the book, it is as though we are peaking into somebody’s private diary. We almost always told a story about an encounter and how that encounter affects Minke personally and intellectually. That being said, the narrative style is quite Dickensian in nature, in that Pram goes deep into details. I personally don’t like classic realism for its sometimes unnecessary details. But it’s a personal reason. It doesn’t change the greatness of the books at all. Apart from the realism, we also see Pram uses stream of consciousness and metanarrative.
- Reminisce the time when newspaper was everything. In this first book, we will witness a court case between a native and a pure (a term used for European). Since natives always fail before the court, Minke tries to influence the court’s decision via newspaper. Because of it, though, the case becomes public. This my favourite part. I won’t any justice to summarise it, so go read it!
- So many other reasons to read it, but I will leave with the 5 now. I hope you do read it!
Adhari's bookshelf: buru-quartet-marathon
0 comments:
Post a Comment