Cultural Dilemma of The Arab Woman Expressed through Nature Imagery: An Ecocritical Study of Fadia Faqir’s Pillars of Salt

The Arab community is essentially a patriarchal one with a history of women being subjected to various kinds of afflictions and oppression under cultural, religious and societal laws. Though there is a collective consciousness now regarding the position of the Arab woman in the Arab world, with significant progress being made to emancipate and empower them, much needs to be done still. Set in the mid-20 th century Jordan, Arab Anglophone author Fadia Faqir’s Pillars of Salt portrays the tragic plight of Arab women at the hands of the traditional patriarchal Arab communities of Jordan. Nature plays a significant role in Faqir’s narrative wherein much of the miseries faced by the women characters are conveyed through rich nature imageries and analogies. This renders the novel the identity of an eco-fictional work and provides scope for analysis based on the ecological approaches as perceived in Emerson’s Nature to the more recent theory of Ecocriticism formulated by William Rueckert. This paper explores an ecocritical approach towards the position of women in the Arab society as expressed through profound eco-comparisons, imageries and analogies in Fadia Faqir’s Pillars of Salt .

SMART MOVES JOURNAL IJELLH e- ISSN: 2582-3574 p-ISSN: 2582-4406 VOL. 8, ISSUE 10, OCTOBER 2020 www.ijellh.com 177 Nature's embrace. Maha's deep companionship with Nature echoes Emerson's notion that "every appearance in nature corresponds to some state of the mind, and that state of the mind can only be described by presenting that natural appearance as its picture" (26) from his essay on Nature (The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Nature Addresses and Lectures [Vol. 1]Chapter IV -Language). According to Emerson, it is natural for us humans to associate our mental state to analogous figures or images from Nature -for instance, the association of an angry man to a lion or a cunning person to a fox; firmness to a rock, knowledge to a torch, innocence to a lamb, a snake to subtle spite, flowers to delicate affections and so on. Thus the analogies to the two essentially "Arab" plants give a glimpse into Maha's character at the very beginning.

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An obvious reference to the practice of honour -killing is evident here. Maha is certain that if she is caught sneaking out at midnight, her brother Daffash, who, very ironically, is a shameless rapist and debaucher, will kill her like a 'tiny rabbit.' Maha reminds herself that she "was a virgin ---white as a dove ---as pure as dew drops ---a virgin ---honey in its jars." (13) and thus succumbs to cultural norms with a heavy, aching heart, reflected thus through  " (55).This sort of nature-imagery and description resonates Emerson's perception of Nature that "at the call of a noble sentiment… the woods wave, the pines murmur, the river rolls and shines, and the cattle low upon the mountains." (Emerson,(31)(32) This very Nature that was dancing to Maha's marital bliss turns dry and dead when Maha is unable to conceive just after five months of married life. Her "barrel" is said to be "empty"(67) by her community of Bedouins, empty just after five months of marital relationship. Maha's sadness and yearning for a child is depicted through deep, dark, negative Nature-imagery. Maha compares her state of barrenness to "dry tree trunks", "sacks of dry hay" and "stretches of arid sand dunes" (68). The Dead Sea, which was a happy witness to the love between Maha and Harb, suddenly turns "too salty", "too stinging to give any chance for life to develop. The Jordan River tried too hard with its fresh water to sweeten the stubborn sea… to shake it back to life to no avail."Moreover, the Dead Sea is said to have "died years and years ago…The whole region was childless and arid." (68).
The 'dying' imagery of the Dead Sea has deeper, ecocritical connotations. From an ecocritical perspective Faqir seems to be calling out for the preservation of the 'dying' or receding Deas Sea. The 'salt lake', as it is called, has diminished to the size of a pathetic pond, with a surface area the size of what it was a century ago. There is a rapid drop in its water levels at the rate of one meter every year. Over-exploitation of the Dead Sea minerals by cosmetic and chemical industries, over-use of water for desalination and large scale agricultural activities in the surrounding regions of Jordan and Israel are the causes of this swift fall in its water levels. The rapidly retreating shoreline of the Dead Sea has given rise to numerous environmental casualties like sinkholes, which has destroyed residential areas, damaged roads and endangered the lives of people in the Dead Sea area. Faqir also appears to be hinting at the restoration of River Jordan to its former purity and vigour which can help save the Dead Sea. Faqir seems to lament the statistical reality of just 50 mcm of the Jordan water reaching the Dead sea currently as opposed to 1.3 billion cubic meters fifty years ago.
She mourns the Jordan River's helplessness despite trying 'too hard with its fresh water to sweeten the stubborn sea… to shake it back to life to no avail..' The author's ecocritical concerns and appeal for conservation of the Dead Sea ecosystem are explicitly voiced here, loud and clear.
We observe that Faqir has depicted Maha's character to be one with Nature. When she is happy, Nature is joyful and full of life; when she is sad and childless, Nature is "childless and arid" as well. Maha'slonging for a child is so strong that she sees "rounded babies" in "sparkling rounded oranges"; her craving so intense that she involuntarily "rubbed" her "breasts when" she "saw a camel breastfeeding its calf.' (68)she laments.Such analogies with Nature and Nature's aspects appear togo onendlessly in the narrative, "I was besieged by fertility; ripe fruit and children playing in the yard all day long" (68) The pain of being labeled as barren (just after five months of marriage) leads Maha to accept the agonizingly terrible anguish of cauterization. Maha's account of the cruel act of cauterization, "A blazing iron bar passed over my head and landed on my belly digging its way down my skin" (92) her flesh "tearing itself apart" (93), and the metaphor of "a pack of wild dogs chewing at a shot fox" (93) evoke a deep sense of pathos in the reader. Even in moments of excruciating pain Maha's comparisons are nature-related. Nature's cruelty is further expressed with phrases such as "the cursed zaqqam trees," (93)"boiling sea of sand" (93), "mud-houses with washed-out eyes" (93), the sun referred to as "merciless, scorching everything it touched: the old walls, the scattered palm trees" (93) and Maha herself.. Once again, Emerson's ideology is proved here when he says that "to a man laboring under calamity, the heat of his own fire hath sadness in it. Then, there is a kind of contempt of the landscape felt by him who has just lost by death a dear friend." (11) Another Another analogy is drawn between Arab women and ants who toil laboriously all their lives for their family and at last are dead and forgotten. "The women of Qasim were running around busily. Black spots which looked like active ants, no more, no less. All their lives, they sweat and dig the soil to build nests for their men and children and at the end they die and are forgotten. Ants without names, past or future." (145).
To quote Emerson, "It is easily seen that there is nothing lucky or capricious in these analogies, but that they are constant, and pervade nature. These are not the dreams of a few poets, here and there, but man is an analogist, and studies relations in all objects." (27 Recovering from the beatings and physical atrocities hurled at her by her brutally insensitive brother, Maha makes a comparison between her village Hamia; which represents the society that imposes unjust laws and torture on the Arab woman; and Nature which is above these unfair, man-made laws, providing comfort and solace to women and men equally. "Save me from that village with its narrow alleyways and tiny-eyed mud houses. A leech sucking the mountainside. Unlike earth-worms which are blind but sensitive, the village was blind and thick-skinned." (171).The village with its laws, blind to justice, insensitively sucks the blood of its very nurturers -Nature and the Arab Woman. Both Nature and the Arab Woman blindly accept the oppressions inflicted upon them by the Man, the powerplayer, their tormentor.
Finally, when Maha is forced to marry the elderly Sheikh Talib, who has an ailing wife and has now his eyes set on Maha; Maha, with the aid of her two confidantes, Nasra and Murjan, escapes during the wedding ceremony, into the mountains, into the arms of Nature, her protective friend and nurturer. They take refuge for a short while in a cave in the mountains but are forced to run further to escape the "procession of torches" that "climbed up the mountain like a glowing snake." (211). With muscles aching, eyes watering and feet hallucinates about "the strong scent of thyme and mint," envisions "a herd of black stallions with gleaming bodies galloping towards the morning sun," and then she wishes that her "soul could gallop to its creator" -a death-wish, so that , "after all these gray years" (222) she could be with Harb, the twin of her soul. She wishes her "heart could fly away to Hamia to embrace…Mubarak," (222) her son, the apple of her eye. We observe that even Maha's delusions are centered around Nature-scents and Nature-visions. Emerson writes that "The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood."(9). Emerson would agree that Maha, in the truest sense, proves to be the true lover of Nature.
We observe that the pantheistic presence of Nature is intrinsically woven into the lifestory of Maha, the Bedouin, but not in the story of the urban Um Saad. Faqir has so crafted the plot that Nature appears to be the country-girl's companion but not the city-girl's. My luck is like scattered flour. On a windy day, they ask barefooted men to collect the flour. The wind is howling and whirling in the deserted thornfield. My luck is like scattered flour. (223) "All writers and their critics are stuck with language, and although we cast nature and culture as oppo-sites, in fact they constantly mingle, like water and soil in a flowing stream." Maha is 'an open land where every shepherd could graze his sheep' (5).She is the 'dry tree trunk", the "sack of dry hay', the vast 'stretch of arid sand dunes' (68) when she is labelled as barren. Maha is the 'childless and arid' (68) Dead Sea, dying, receding, depleting, banking on River Jordan to save her. But Faqir is hopeful of the Dead Sea's future "As long as the Jordan was beside me I would be fine." (162).Like Nature, tormented by Man, the victimized, cauterized Maha becomes "the cursed zaqqam tree," (93) the "boiling sea of sand" (93). She becomes the 'merciless' sun 'scorching everything it touched.' (93). Maha is the 'brownish-pink' earthwormsqueezing, twisting, sliding, winding, curling and straightening under excruciating pain. Maha is the 'flour', 'scattered in a thornfield' (106) and 'on a plain ' (14). Maha is the orchard with the orange trees, struggling to save herself from her tormentors. Maha is all these aspects of Nature and more. Maha is Nature herself.
At the same time Maha is the Arab woman, tortured and trapped in her tyrannical Arab culture. She is at the risk of being honour-killed, ironically enough, at the hands of women-torturers and rapists; she has no scope for forgiveness whatsoever, if she ever fails to protect her virginity or her chastity.Maha is the slaughtered sheep, "waiting to be slain." (32).
Maha is the ant "without name, past or future", the sheer "black spot", representing the lot of those forgotten Arab women who, "all their lives…sweat and dig the soil to build nests for their men and children and at the end they die and are forgotten." (145).
Thus, Maha is Nature, Maha is the Arab woman and her culture all mixed into one tortured being. At the conclusion of the narrative, Faqir recreates an image of a caged Maha who embodies Nature and Culture, in confinement at the hands of their ultimate tormentor, characterized by the English doctor. Faqir, through this pitiful depiction of a deranged Maha, reiterates the ecocritical imploration to save the Arab woman and thus, to save Nature.