Sons for the return home (thinking about the story)

Sons for the return home

Sons for the Return Home is a novel written by Albert Wendt, a Samoan novelist. The novel was published in 1973, and is almost regarded as Wendt’ biography.

The novel begins with a dream of a Samoan family trying to “have good education for sons…and return back as a healer like the ‘papalagi doctor’”, but it ends with a big disappointment when they returns back after twenty years, no papalagi doctor, only their son’s broken heart. The story appears to explain that reality is sometimes quite unexpected, full of resistances and brutal.

In order to explain the reason of no return, Wendt digs deep into the social complex of the time. During the period of the family’s immigration, New Zealand is facing serious problems of discrimination, feminism, and colonialism. The discrimination could be found in words like “Dirty coconut Islander”, and also in the family’s preparation for a papalagi visitor, “mother” has to prepare for the whole week to prove that they are not “ignorant Islanders who didn’t know how to live like New Zealanders”. This explains that the white society has a strong discrimination against the island people. Moreover, with respect to feminism, the article mentions that women need to “obey him all things, give him children” or “disappear in the kitchen”, which stresses that women are only fit for house work and being servants, and may always be inferior to man. The most important thing in the novel is the colonialism. For example, the sentence that “We’d defeated them…in a very un-British-gentlemanly sort of way…make them pay for our war…compensation…we even took large areas form the bribes” sufficiently illustrates the brutality of the war between the white and the local, bloody and unfair. But this might lay a solid foundation of the class division in that society, the white are always higher than the brown, for they are the winners. Thus, this inequality may result in social problems and sometimes even cause personal tragedy.

Because of the above situation, the hero, the youngest son of the family, is intertwined with numerous contradictions with pakehas. In the school, for Samoans are normally quite talented in “rugby”, so, the boy becomes a perfect player, always wins the “the stupid game”. However, to the disappointment of the family, because pakeha often considers that “the brainless Islanders” are not good at “physics, chemistry, and biology”, so, the boy finally fails to meet a doctor’s qualification, which complete destroys the family’s desire of a “papalagi” doctor.

Apart from this, the boy suffers huge attack towards his personal affection because of the stereotypical social influences. The boy has a relationship with a pakeha girl, while, the class difference and social taboo change this beautiful love story into a tragedy. The love story between the boy and the pakeha girl looks like a love romance of their own, but it is actually the relationship between two classes or races. To explain this, the author also introduce the concept of “church”, which implies that religious difference might be the very important factor between them, for the God of pakeha is different from the God of Samoan, just as his mother explains that Samoan God is much earlier than the pakeha God.

No matter how much they love with each other, they may be too weak to overcome the “mountain” between them. This mountain may be the integration of religious belief, social taboos, class division and identities. For example, when she follows him to his Samoan circle, the situation would be that “nearly all people watch her… seem that they had never seen any other papalagi there”. On the other hand, when he goes to her circles, he may be questioned for “an islander…are you invited?”, for pakehas couldn’t imagine an islander being in their party. They are probably the minority, the “odd” people in each others’ group. They should be rebels if they choose to love and get marriage, so, the girl gives up at last, for his mother destroys her final courage. The girl, like an angle, tries to eliminate social discrimination and draws him towards her society, and his mother also manages to keep him in her Samoan circle, they all fail eventually.

Her abortion would definitely happen because of the “mountain”, so, his mother just acts as the starting fire. Just the son finally recalls in the airplane “he has nothing to regret”, he may have forgiven his mother’s deed. The physical girl disappears, but the ideological “girl” rises in his heart. The girl is like a sigh of “home”, while, his home town, Samoa, may be his parents’ home, his root, two of them are all places for him to return. He couldn’t choose where to go, so, he could only be a flying man between two nations.

At last, the family returns back to Samoa, with their disillusion of dream. Life may not always develop along with your desire, but sometimes alter your original desire. They miss the chances of being a “papalagi” doctor, while, they obtain rich life experiences and money. They build a “most expensive house” in the village showing their “success”. Ironically, this “crystal house” may not only express their “achievements” but also hind their sadness and disappointment, because, their beloved son, their incentive of dream, and their excuse of immigration, refuses to return back to Samoa. The novel gives a rich imagination for readers at the end, but I would rather believe that the boy may completely come out of his sadness and face the future with great courage, for, with time passing on, everything will become nice memory, but tomorrow is always waiting him to do. Pakeha and Samoan will become good friends one day.

 

 

'I remember, I remember' by Prem Banfal (Presentation)

Prem Banfal’s I remember, I remember deals with many issues such as migration, cultural identity and the idea of losing something you once had and gaining something new in return. All these three major themes are depicted through Banfal’s reminiscence of her childhood. In her story, she tells us her childhood memories with her late mother. She then reveals us the ups and downs of her life when her father remarried twice after her real mother died. She also shows how studying for a scholarship to go to New Zealand made her distant herself away from her family and culture, “My three years at Suva Grammar school led me to a new awareness of myself, a further estrangement from my father and a growing alienation from my own community.” Moreover, during her school years, she starts to put make up on and shave her legs. To me, these kinds of habits are mostly practiced by people who are from Western countries. Therefore, by practicing these habits, she is losing parts of her Fijian image and is conforming to the idea of being a New Zealander. However, despite the changing variables in her life, there appears to be one consistent figure that continues to support and care about her, her Grandmother. In my opinion, this suggests how important it is to have someone who cares about you no matter what you’re going through. Preparing to move to a foreign country requires a lot of positive thinking and can be a life-changing experience. At the end of the story, she gained a scholarship to go to New Zealand for a better education. Simultaneously, she also lost fragments of her Fijian identity, only to be replaced by a New Zealand identity.

What I also loved about this short story is the narrative structure. The story is written through the use of first person narration. Through this, I was able to compare my previous experiences with her experiences. Although my experiences prior to leaving for New Zealand may be different from hers, they somewhat relate to each other. I also loved how the paragraphs in her story are structured; they seem to alternate between positive and negative feelings. Because of this, I was able to get the impression that the reason why Banfal did this is to show the readers how in our lives, people go through many ups and downs, and sometimes these are the experiences that shape us into the individuals we are today.

To conclude, I think the reason why Banfal decided to write about her childhood memories is to show the readers the importance of not forgetting where you came from. It may sound cliché, but it is quite true. Where you came from is what defines you and one that makes you different from others. In the Filipino culture, we have a saying, “Those who do not know how to look back to their origin, will not reach his destination.”

A womens role, a response to Sons for the return home.

Women in society are know as the carer, a mother, a person who can do no harm which of course is not true. Women just like men can commit murder in cold blood. I'm not saying that the girl in the story commit murder but the person that lead to her making the decision the abort her child is the mother of the boyfriend. A christian who told the girl to abort a live that God gave. To me she commit the ultimate sin against God. Even in the Bible it said that Jesus love the little children and told his disciple to let the children come to him and that we adult should be like children in order to get to heaven. I don't know why she persuade the girl to abort her grandchild but what even her reason is I can never accept it. As it can be seen later on in the story the girl regret her decision and refuse to come back to New Zealand, leading to lost love. Me being a huge romantic person who love to read roman book this to me is such a sad story. I love the story with it depth of culture, it stories of their ancestor, its love, it religion, and it breaking away, I love it all. At the end the guy break away from the control of his mother and hit her. Even though it was wrong to hit a elder or your mother I was so happy. I wish I was in the story so that I can see it in real life.

Response to Wild Dogs (Presentation)

Avia was born and raised in Christchurch, but is of Samoan and Palagi descent. She published her first collection of poetry, Wild Dogs Under My Skirt, in 2004 and her second, Bloodclot, in 2009. She is also a performance poet and the author of two children’s books. Avia spent ten years travelling the world and teaching in Samoa, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa before returning home to New Zealand. She’s won a variety of awards, more recently being the Janet Frame Literary Trust Award this year worth $5000.

Avia’s work, among other things, is mostly about Pacific themes. It also explores the defining lines between custom and contemporary ideas, and many of her poems have a personal touch to them.

We can safely assume that Wild Dogs is set in Samoa, due her talking about how being tattooed by a tufuga or a tufuga ta tatua (master of tattoo). From looking at her other work, it’s clear that the poet has a strong sense of cultural identity. For example, Alofa also appears to be set in Samoa, as well as the string of poems centred on a girl called Nafanua. These feature ones such as: Nafanua is Surprised at Her Birth, Nafanua Talks About Her Body and Nafanua Relates an Incident From Her Childhood.  She also uses a variety of Samoan words constantly in her writing, such as palagi (foreigner) and alofa (love).

 Wild Dogs Under My Skirt seems to be a kind of denial of typical femininity. The author says she wants to “frighten” her lovers, rather than attract them. This is also a reference to Samoan culture, where it is common for women to get a malu, a traditional tattoo covering both legs. It could be a comparison between that and Western culture, where a woman with her legs tattooed is considered unattractive and unusual. Avia could be showing her preference for Samoa’s view on femininity over New Zealand’s.

Mostly however, I think this poem is about repelling men. In Nafanua’s Sister Talks About The Family, she writes about how she (or the character in the poem), was abused by her father verbally and physically, how her uncle possibly raped her mother, and she expresses a lot of hatred towards them. In another poem, Nafanua Goes To Bed With Her Cousin, she talks about sleeping with her cousin and suggests it is forced. Whether these are based on personal incidents or not, a certain degree of wariness towards men is evident in Wild Dogs.

In this poem, she may even be talking about wanting a pe’a, the tattooing males get on their legs. This is a much larger and more defined tattoo, and goes from their hips to their shins. It is also extremely painful, as is a malu. In this case, Avia is not just saying she wants to scare men, but become one in terms of equality and power, thus removing her femininity entirely.

The exact origin of tattooing is unknown, although the Samoans credit the Fijians, and the Fijians credit the Samoans. As said before, it is an extremely painful process and can take up to a couple of weeks. In Samoa, the tatau is a sign of both woman and manhood. Women get a malu before they marry and for men, getting a pe’a shows you are ready to protect and take care of your family. Men without a pe’a are often referred to as telefua or telenoa, which means “naked”. As well as that, men who cannot continue with the pe’a due to the pain are branded cowards, and this shame will extend to his sons. Women are not allowed to have a pe’a, as stated in the Samoan myth of how the tatau came to be.

Wild Dogs’ tone is overall a rough and aggressive one, which matches the author’s desire to appear so as well, which is apparent in the poem. She uses imagery such as wild dogs, the mangy kind that bite strangers, black octopus, that catch rats and eat them and centipedes, the black ones that sting and swell for weeks. These are all things that are either scary or grotesque, that repel us physically and make us wary, which is how the author wants to be. She doesn’t say she wants to be beautiful like the stars or the moon or anything, like most women want to be. I think she expresses the idea that beauty is over prioritised. And that probably, it’s more prioritised here than in Samoa. She says that after it’s done, she wants “the tufuga to sit back and know they’re not his, they never were.” Which I think is her way of saying that instead of conforming to this traditional idea or demand of beauty, she’s retaining her independency and individuality. And that her body is her own, and no one else’s. 

Response to Sons For the Return Home

Albert Wendt’s Sons For The Return Home outlines both the definition and struggle for cultural identity through the immigration of a Samoan family to New Zealand in the 1970s. His story shows the contrast between the two cultures, and closely examines the perceptions each has for the other. The novel encourages many thought-provoking questions on the much debated topic of culture, and inspires readers to open their minds to never-ending array of ideas.

The story follows the relationship of a young Samoan man and his Papalagi girlfriend in New Zealand. Their relationship is the perfect way to show the comparison between the two ethnicities, and to examine the real differences between them. It also serves as the catalyst which allows us to see people’s reactions to this relationship. While the boy’s father is accepting, having had significant friendships with Papalagi people himself, his mother is nothing but. While she is polite in the girl’s presence and treats her with respect, her tolerance for their relationship is thin. She tells her son that while she likes her, the girl is “not for him” and wouldn’t fit in in Samoa – despite the girl’s enthusiasm and eagerness to learn about the culture. She is also convinced that her own parents would always look down on them and regard them as inferior. While to many, including myself, it may seem clear that regardless of race, gender and class, it’s never wrong for two people to be together, the boy’s mother simply does not agree. Although it is evident in the book that the two love each other deeply and that her son is very happy with his girlfriend, none of this seems to be relevant in her mind because the girl is not Samoan.

The book also voices some of the negative stereotypes of the two ethnicities. His mother constantly tells her children that Papalagi people are rich, selfish and cruel. Although she has met none, she declares the children to all be spoilt, naughty and have no respect for their parents. The women slept with strangers before they were married and the men were lazy, and both lacked religion looked down on Pacific Islanders. Samoans in comparison were respectful, hard-working and faithful. Interestingly enough, the racism she feels is directed at her in turn makes her just as bad. Throughout the book she despises Papalagis for looking down on her (although we never see this), while really, she looks down on them. She is completely oblivious to the fact that Samoans also pride themselves above others, as is her son, who deems the Maori people to be a lazy race who do nothing but gamble, have sex, drink and fight. He however, learns to think otherwise, after examining this stereotype and realising that ironically, it is the same one the Papalagi assign to Samoans. Previously however, he had been raised to think that Samoans were the only true Pacific Islanders left – a very racist and elitist idea. At the start of the novel, he also avoids involvement with Papalagi people altogether due to disliking all of them in general based on the few he has met.

Then there is the question of cultural identity. The title of the story provokes some intriguing thoughts – in the story, the parents decide to move to New Zealand so that their sons may receive a good education, before returning to Samoa. This plan for their sons to “return home” is consistent throughout the book, the whole point being that the main character, the youngest son, does not know where his true home really is. His parents however, never seem to realise that this could be an issue. Growing up in New Zealand, the boy only remembers his birthplace through glamorised stories of Samoa, but he is told (both audibly and psychologically) that he is a Samoan, and Samoa is his home. Unable to be completely at ease in New Zealand, he returns to his motherland with the assumption that he will feel at peace there. Although when he arrives, he realises that cultural identity is not so simple and “home” is more an idea than a physical place. At the end of the book he goes back to New Zealand, ready to start a new life without a single culture to define him. He realises that he might not be Papalagi or Samoan, but both. 

A monologue response to 'Sons For the Return Home'

Background: This is told through the boy’s perspective, which takes place years after he left his family in Samoa.

What and if- two simple words yet they have the power to haunt you for the rest of you entire life. What if? They are just two words that will make you want to tear down the wall of past and wish you didn’t put the smaller brick under a much bigger brick. It’s funny how sometimes in life, you think about the things that could or might have been if you didn’t do this and did that instead. 

Like, what if she didn’t abort the child? We could have been blessed with a beautiful half-caste. I wonder, if it had been a girl, what she would look like. She would have been the complete replica of her beautiful mother; eyes so green and natural, hair so soft and silky, shoulders broad and firm. It wouldn’t matter if she had a fair or dark skin because she would be my daughter and probably the most beautiful girl my heart could ever see. What if her mother didn’t go through the abortion? She could have been like those little girls I see strolling in the park every afternoon. But what if it had been a boy? Well, I would raise him like a strapping young lad. I’d teach him how to play rugby and let him play at school. 

But I guess it all comes down to me and our decision to move to New Zealand. What if I stayed in Samoa all these years? I would probably be still living in our village and helping out my family. I would probably still feel the same way about Samoa. She and I would never have met each other and I wouldn’t be in this situation right now. But then I think to myself again. What if I stayed in Samoa? I wouldn’t have had the chance to go to a better school. I wouldn’t have been able to gain myself a BA in History, or learned English. If only I knew then what I knew now, my life could have been a lot merrier.  They say, “Always look on the brighter side.” But I don’t know which side is brighter anymore because the bright side is also the dark side.  

point of no return (for presentation)

Point of no return post

Point of no return was written by Tongan famous writer and social anthropologist Pesi fanua. The story describes the things happened during the time period of 1980s to 1990s, when Tonga was experiencing the big wave of immigration.

Fanua uses “no letter”, “no money”, and “no return” to reveal the reality of immigration. Migrants moved out for earning money and mailing back, but, they may stop the action at anytime, for, everything might happen to the outside migrants at that time: losing job, being put into prison for illegal immigration, marrying with other people to keep staying outside or others. In the article, Fanua uses “what the stupid man is doing in Hawai’i” to explain people’s guessing, for that might be very common situation for immigrants.

With “no return” happened, all kinds of contradiction appeared: family broken, children alcohol abuse, women working at night. This situation could also be found from a another family: kalipa’s family, his father married to a New Zealand’s woman to obtain an immigrating qualification, and deported the son, who had to become a beggar back to Tonga. These serious social problems seemed endless, for many more families were going to move out again. According to Kalipa, there were another two couples who were going to hold farewell parties.

All people were planning to go out, while, at that moment, the writer turn to describe that there were somebody else, who still held the country’s identity: Uasi and a few of their people. In the article, the writer seemed to describe a drunker, Uasi, but, it was this drunker, who claimed that he was upholding the country’s identity. It appeared that no one would believe the words of a drunker, while, the voice from the drunker was really clear “drink a lot of kava, for you will soon going out, and you will lose this precious liquid”. Uasi tended to imply that if people went out, people may forget their identity and the tradition of the country. These words gave readers a shock, the drunker was actually sober, and he just used kava to anaesthetize himself, for he couldn’t face the fierce reality, and he needed to vent his disappointment.

In this short novel, the author didn’t write who the father is, and what the family is going to react to the “no return”, however, he suggests some implication: no job for the boy to find, low wage in the country, women would find night job, the friend is begging…all the signals indicate that the only way for the boy is still immigration, following the father’s footmark. Therefore, the “no return” is just the beginning of the migrant, this “no return” would still continue in the near future.