Kenanga is the nama of the main character of the novel ‘Kenanga’. She is a clever, ambitious, and stubborn Balinese girl who dares to sacrifice everything for the sake of those whom she loves. To her, life is a career—which often makes people misunderstand her, including her own family. Her close-relationship with senior lecturer in the university where she teaches, for example, makes people suspicious that she would use any way in order to get her career further.
She also belongs to Brahmana caste—the highest caste in the Balinese culture. Yet she lives alone and never marries even when she is already past the ideal age for marriage. Ironically, she has a blood-daughter named Luh Intan, which she really loves. Intan is the child produced from her sexual encounter with Bhuana, a man who also belongs to Brahmana caste, who, despite his love for Kenanga, later would become Kencana’s (Kenanga’s little sister) husband on Kenanga’s insistence.
Through that background, this novel tries to bring to surface so many secrets in the life of those who belong to Brahmana caste. Especially in such matter as love, marriage, infidelity, lies, and other unexpected things that is done for the sake of pride, cultural custom, and the likes which tie the life of Brahmana caste. This novel tries to describe ‘the rebellion’ of a Balinese woman, which is represented by the character Kenanga. This rebellion starts from the caste issue, the culture, gender domination, till the struggle of women to improve their ideal image in the social life of Balinese people. This is especially visible when Kenanga realizes how important education is to a woman. She is so ambitious in this aspect that she encourages her daughter and other Balinese women to get education as high as they could, because in her opinion, education will shape a woman’s pride.
No comments:
Post a Comment