Taboo and Ambivalence: A Cultural Study of Miriam Toews' All My Puny Sorrows

Abstract

Miriam Toews is a Canadian writer, who is known for her powerful writing out of personal events. Her writings generally deal with the anomalous culture of the Mennonite community, sisterhood, trauma and the extent to which trauma is passed down through generation. All My Puny Sorrows deals with the free spirited and intellectual Von Reison sisters Elfrida and Yolandi living in Mennonite community. This paper seeks to analyze, how the taboos constructed by the community, religion and family controls people from what they really are. In such situation people are torn between two different options. This affects their mental and physical wellbeing and results in their inability to take decisions and struggle to have a clear state of mind. This paper also stresses on the importance of subverting the established values and replacing them with which are more amenable to human nature, which promote happiness.