Good Example Of The Abuse Of The Women And The Children By The Men During The Times Of The War And The Peace Essay

Sentence by sentence notes of the above copy-pasted two pages from Baker’s novel

During the war in Spain, in the hostile and freezing environment, James craves for things he had never cared for at home back in the pastoral settings in England. Here in Spain James wants nothing more than “a warm bed, a cup of milk” On the road to San Tirso, tired and hungry, James comes across a starving girl carrying a hungry child. Out of sheer sympathy he gives her a piece of bread that he has with him. The dirty girl puts down the child on the ground and starts taking-off her clothes for sex. James hands her the piece of bread and leaves. As he looks from the corner of his eye both the mother and the child are devouring the bread he has given them for free. Though he has done a good deed still James feels ill at ease and guilty. He is outraged at the sight of Pye, his sergeant, as he is busy abusing the sick, the dirty, and the hungry women and children. Pye has sex with them just by giving them some pieces of bread to eat and ultimately because of his recklessness gets venereal disease. The inhumane behavior of Pye makes James mad but there is nothing he can do. Hungry and “ragged” James has difficulty sleeping. Only two nights before the Christmas the soldiers are ordered to move to the next destination. Baker portrays the hard wartimes with a realistic detail that is full of pathos. The inner psychological conflict of James is also shown with great mastery. The villainy of Pye and most others soldiers is also portrayed in vivid and horrifying detail.

Reflections

The main theme of the novel by Baker is the villainy of men in exploiting the weak, especially the women and children. The novel opens with the misery of the house-maid that Mr. Benet, the feudal lord has impregnated. Mr. Benet, though, is ready to bear the expenses of the child but is not willing to give him his name. This the first instance of the exploitation, abuse and the eventual betrayal of the women by the men. The position of the impregnated maid-servant is not much different from that of the black slave girls in the houses of southern slaveholders in the United States. Henrietta Jackson’s autobiography about a young slave girl growing up in the house of a southern slave-owner in the United States resembles the situation of the maid servant in Baker’s novel. The exploitative and the abusive atmosphere is not an attitude that has changed with time but is a living practice in the feudal societies of Pakistan and India even today in the 21st Century as it was in the 19th Century England and the United States.
When James, the natural child of Mr. Benet, attains the age of maturity, in search of his identity, runs away from the village and joins the army. Mr. Benet can but does not help find James as such a conduct might sully his good name and the good reputation and the high status he enjoys in the society. James leaving the village is also the first instance of desertion. Like betrayal, the desertion is a theme that is discussed time and again through-out the novel.
In Spain, James initially oblivious of the hard realities of life enjoys his stint in the army as it gives him a feeling of belonging and of self-worth. The feelings of self-esteem and of self-worth are very important for James because these feelings make him confident and engender in him a sense of being someone. All this euphoria, though, is short lived as James quickly learns the horrifying and the completely inhumane aspects of war. Soon, and for his own benefit James comes to realize that there is nothing glorious about war. The episode of the wild sow darting towards the soldiers and in the process being killed by Pye is an important symbolic moment in the novel. This instance exposes the villainy of men in a symbolic or allegorical manner. The sow is trying to save her litter. On a symbolic level this episode once again clearly exhibits the exploitative nature of men especially in relation to the women and the children.
James is punished for deserting the army, though in fact he never did or intended to do so. James is not a typical exploitative man like the majority of male characters in the novel but he too is guilty of deserting and in a way abusing the women and the children. James deserting the Spanish family, composed of the three females, the grandmother, the widow and the girl, who help him recover from the dead, is an instance of exploitation and desertion. During the war James often remembers the farmer’s wife who took care of him at the cottage in the village, and fondly refers to her as the “Old Misery.”
Baker’s perspective is men are villainous beasts that oppress, tyrannize, exploit, and abuse the weaker sex. The domestic rape is a major theme of the novel while rape during war is a natural corollary of the wars. Furthermore, Baker hints at the social stigma associated with domestic rape. Baker is vocal in her painting the woes of the ostracized victims and their progeny. The children like James who are born-out of wedlock are always insecure and are haunted by a sense of void in their lives. Such children always try to make a name for them so that they can fit-in the society that treats them as pariahs and out-casts. James’ move to leave the village and to join the army is a step on his part to earn respect and be considered someone in order to fill-up the void. Baker is very convincing in the true to life portrayal of life during the 19th Century in the patriarchal and the feudal England. The patriarchal and the feudal societies all over the world have this peculiar trait that the women and the children, especially the female child, are treated very badly. The women and the children are exploited and abused on any conceivable occasion and on any pretext. The exploitation and the abuse is not an attitude or a bygone memory of the centuries past. Instead this discriminatory practice exists unabated on the planet earth wherever the cultures have not attained a level of sophistication necessary to condone such behavior that blatantly violates the fundamental human rights to life, happiness and dignity. The exploitation of the women and the children is not limited to the under developed and so called less civilized societies and cultures. The exploitation of the women and the children is a sensitive and controversial issue that exists even in the developed post-modern and post-industrialized societies of the world, though, it might seem like all is well so on the surface. James, the protagonist, unconsciously considers himself a part of the helpless and oppressed elements of the society. He abhors the attitude of other soldiers who seem to cherish and even in ways relish the inhumane treatment of the weak and the helpless. James, on the other hand harbors a secret sympathy for the oppressed and helpless women and children. James does not openly show his sympathy for the downtrodden out of fear that the other soldiers might laugh at him and consider him soft and therefore unfit to be a soldier.
In conclusion, Baker’s novel, on different levels and on countless occasions hints at the brutish nature of men. Baker’s novel lays bare the essential beastly nature of man vis a vis the weak, especially in relation to the women and the children. The instances of rape during the war and of rape of the female servants the pervading theme of Baker’s novel. Though, James, the protagonist, and Mr. Hill, the butler at Mr. Benet’s household are not typical examples of their specie still they are essentially men and on occasions if not intentionally out of mere carelessness becomes an instrument of exploitation the women and the children.

Work Cited

Baker, Jo. Longbourn. City, Publisher. 2013. Print