Zabelle
Question one
Zabelle is a heartfelt and nurturing novel with the main character being Zabelle, whose life moves through time and space, explaining the loss of loved ones, life through, and survival. The novel takes place during the Armenian Genocide in Turkey. A lot of events take place for the protagonist who survives the Genocide of Armenian in 1915. Zabelle decides to vacate to the United States to get married and lives to see her grandchildren. However, the First World War occurred in the Ottoman Empire, where many people were killed, described as the Armenian Genocide. The Ottoman Empire was cleared, and the man people and the prominent people attacked were Christians. The country was left with only the Muslim and Turkish populations. The main intention of the Genocide was to majorly attack the Armenian Christians leading to the suffering of other people like the Syrians and Greeks. Another historical event the crime against humanity directed to the Armenian Genocide; it is when Zabelle is replaced from her home and goes to the desert in Syrian and later survives as the only female. The history of the Armenians Genocide is contested, and the stories of the killings are still narrated, although the Turkish state is always in denial of the facts.
Question two
The protagonist always feels responsible for the women and her family that consisted of her children and the grandchildren. She always advocated for the female gender since they faced a lot of humiliation during the genocide. Most of the girls killed themselves in the Euphrates River by throwing themselves. They all proffered to die in the river rather than get raped since sexual violation resulted in a shameful death. The threat of rape was constant, but they felt that shame was the worst experience. The women who chose to survive were the ones who did not throw themselves into the river, and among them was Zabelle.
Question Three
Some of the novel’s conflicts include gender inequality, where the men oppress women through rape. The author expresses gender dynamics by writing a poem which she uses to speak to them, oppressors. Women also faced violence, and it is evident when Zabelle was vacating, whereby the people displaced her by force. Armenian women could not speak their own experiences. Armenian women were responsible for their biological and cultural reproduction, and they always stood against violence for biological and cultural groups. The violation was also done on women’s bodies, which were referred to as a violation of the body politic. The other conflict presented in the novel is the war conflict where the Armenian genocide killed millions of people, and Armenians in the Ottoman cities were arrested and executed. All this experience led to setting a day for commemorating the death of the million people.
Question four
The characters in the novel faced a lot of dilemmas in moral and ethical conflicts. Most women who survived were in the dilemma of throwing themselves in the river to die or to allow rape to be their potion; they will later deal with shame. The situation the women were in was a no-win situation, but to take it for their survival.
Question five
The main character, Zabelle, has significantly been affected by the genocide since she had to vacate after her survival and go to the United States to live with her children and the grandchildren. She had to fight for the female gender by speaking on individual terms for the rest of the women. Expressing women’s experiences through genocide or gender dynamics in the Diaspora would lead to division within the community. Zabella had to struggle for women’s rights through all means.
Question six
The author focuses on different exciting themes in the novel. Through the consequences caused by the genocide unintentionally, Zabelle had to move to Istanbul and then got adopted by a Turkish family where late she vacates to the United States. The theme of language and values is presented when Zabelle through the lands while still holding on to her Armenian identity. Due to the genocide experience, she tries to recollect the identity that is left in her.
Question Seven
Zabelle
Question Eight
- Men in the novel have responded to the feminist movement in very different ways. The feminist in the novel has taken a hard line and are aimed at achieving gender equality. Regardless of raising awareness of women’s oppression, it was difficult for them to stop the oppression. Women struggled to understand the cause of gender inequality and had to fight for it to protect their girls.
- The class of people in the novel led to a lot of difference since the poor were oppressed by the rich. Women saw it was important for men to stand with women and girls in all their daily struggles to eradicate sexual disrespect.