Women at Point Zero Analysis
The novel Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi, tells a story of a woman, Firdaus, born in Egypt who suffers through many hardships in her life. There were very few insistences where Firdaus found joy and contentment in her life. Her childhood brought her neglect and void of love. Her family did not support her in getting an education. She married a man who could be as old as her grandfather. She ran away and became a prostitute. Firdaus gave that up and tried to be a “respectful women” by working at an office. After being played by men again, she returned back to her old occupation. In the end, nothing was ever right in her life and chose death in order to escape it. This novel is perfect example for a lot of previous written essays on women studies. Essays such as The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir, The Traffic in Women by Gayle Rubin, and The BITCH Manifesto by Jo Freeman addresses the issues and theories presented in Women at Point Zero.
Women in the novel are treated similarly to de Beauvoir’s description of the “second sex”. The men in Firdaus’s society sets themselves up as the “Subject, he is the Absolute”, while the women as “the other” (de Beauvior, 33). Most of the women in the novel are treated as servants or slaves by their husbands. The women must prepare meals for them, take care of the house, raise his children, and give him sexual pleasure. Firdaus explains how her father would always have supper. Her mother would always have food for him, even if it meant starving her children. “My mother would hide his food from us” (Saadawi, 18). If things don’t go accordingly to her father, like having a son die, he would beat up his wife. Firdaus’s father knew “how to beat his wife and make her bite the dust each night” (Saadawi, 10). When Firdaus married a much older man, she had to do the exact same duties. Firdaus had to do what he says. If she doesn’t finish her food, her husband would beat her for wasting food. At one point, “ he got into the habit of beating me whether he had a reason for it or not” (Saawadi, 46). At night Firdaus has to submit to his kisses and touches, no matter how repulsive he is to her. But once she left, she had no one to turn to for help. Her uncle would not take her back, saying that “all husbands beat their wives” (Saadawi, 46). In the end, her husband is the only one that is willing to support her. This complex is explained by de Beauvoir as “master and slave”. “Master and Slave, also united by a reciprocal need” (de Beauvoir, 35) According to de Beauvoir, the master has the power and does not necessary need the slave, however, the slave is solely dependant on the master, and needs the master no matter what. In Firdaus’s case, when she went back to her husband and tried to eat something, he immediately jumped at her, saying “Now you realize I’m the only person who can put up with you, and who is prepared to feed you” (Saawadi, 47).
The kinship system, according to Rubin, is “the exchange of goods and services, production and distribution, hostility and solidarity, ritual and ceremony, all take place within the organizational structure of kinship” (170). In order to expand the social networks of one’s family, the daughters/women are used as gift in exchange to other families as wives to their men. This exchange is between men, women have no say in this. In the novel, Firdaus’s uncle did not know what to do with her. His wife absolutely refused to take care of Firdaus while her uncle tries to find her a job in the mean time. His wife complains how “life is expensive” and “she eats as twice as much as any of our children” (Saadawi, 36). She also finds other excuses to not keep her around, such as not being able to cook right, and slow around housework. In the end, his wife suggested to marry Firdaus with her retired Uncle Sheikh Mahmoud. In exchange for offering Firdaus to marry her uncle, Firdaus’s uncle’s wife intends to ask for a big dowry of at least a “hundred pounds or even two hundred if he has the money” (Saadawi, 38). Both parties received something in return in the exchange. Sheikh Mahmoud would get Firdaus as his wife, while Firdaus’s uncle would get a large amount of money for giving Firdaus to him. Firdaus cannot refuse because she has no place in her uncle’s home anymore. Even if she doesn’t like the man at all, she has little choices to choose from.
After dealing with all of this, Firdaus has had enough and decided to take her life into her own hands. Firdaus’s family has never paid much attention to her needs and wants. Even though Firdaus has managed to get a secondary school certificate, she wanted to learn more and continue with her education, but all of that was ignored. When her uncle was trying to figure out what to do with Firdaus, her uncle absolutely refused to send Firdaus to a university, saying that “to a place where she will be sitting side by side with men? A respected Sheikh and man of religion like myself sending his niece off to mix in the companty of men?!” (Saawadi, 37). But despite all Firdaus shortcomings, she has managed make her own living, first as a prostitute and then as an office worker. According to Freeman, a “Bitch” is the complete opposite of a woman. They do things that other men would do and not “lady like” at all. They work with other men, seek knowledge, and voice their opinions. They are exactly what society fears and wants to get rid of. After working as a “respectful woman”, Firdaus refused any offers of sex for money. “A Bitch takes shit from no on” (Freeman, 214). Even at the work place, Firdaus has not bowed down to any men. “It was also said that none of the men had succeeded in breaking my pride and that not a single high-ranking official had been able to make me bow my head, or lower my eyes to the ground” (Saawadi, 83). After falling in love with another coworker, she finds out that he has only been playing with her. Firdaus was just an easy laid for him, where he doesn’t even have to paid her for it. Firdaus finally had enough of it all and went back to prostitution, where she meets the Prince. Firdaus did something that no other women have done yet. “So I lifted my hand high up above my head and landed it violently on his face” (109). The police took her away and sentenced her to death. Freeman determines that “a Bitch is a threat to the social structures which enslave women and the social values which justify keeping them in their place” (215). Firdaus has stepped out of the line and endangered the structure her society has set in place. She denied the Prince of sex and even dare to hit him. “She is dangerous” (Freeman, 215), so society decided to disposed of her before more damage can be done.
Women at Point Zero demonstrates many issues and theories presented by feminist writers. Firdaus society is structured strictly as man as the top figure and women as the “other”. Women must do what she is told. Without men, women can not survive for long. Women are easily exchanged as gifts to other men. Those who tried to break free from society rules, they deemed as a danger to society, and are condemned to death.