Summary
Ramatoulaye confesses that she feels extremely tired, in large part because of her children. She tells Assiatou that she has received her letter, and looks forward to her visit. Daba returns from Mawdo Fall’s school after dealing with a dispute: Mawdo’s philosophy teacher does not want a black student to beat out the white students, so he marks Mawdo down excessively for the slightest of errors. Daba and Mawdo wish to contest, but Ramatoulaye advocates for compromise, leading her to reflect on the differences between her generation and the younger generation.
Ramatoulaye expresses her fear for Daba, particularly with respect to her marriage. Daba shrugs it off, saying that marriage is not irrevocable. She expresses her lack of interest in politics and claims to prefer the work that her independent foundation does. Ramatoulaye wonders at Daba’s ability to reason everything out. Assiatou, Ramatoulaye’s daughter who is named after her best friend, has taken over running the house from Daba. She manages the younger ones. Ramatoulaye occasionally gets sick, but Mawdo Bâ is still there when she gets severely sick.
Ramatoulaye is increasingly concerned because of her older children. One night, she enters the room of three of her daughters (who she calls the trio—Arame, Yacine, and Dieynaba) to find them smoking shamelessly. She is furious at them for having the audacity to smoke. While she was already reluctant to let them begin to wear trousers, she allowed it, but cannot believe that they would go so far. She asks Assiatou if modernism must also mean the lowering of moral standards. After considering it in light of the other freedoms she allows them, like going to the cinema and hanging out with boys, she decides ultimately that because of its harmful effects, she doesn’t mind being a stick in the mud and banning it from her home. It doesn’t stop completely, but they’re no longer so brazen about it.
Ramatoulaye’s evening prayer one day is interrupted by her two sons, Alioune and Malick, coming into the house in tears, injured, followed by a young man who is also injured. The young man confesses that he was riding his motorcycle when he accidentally came upon the boys playing in the street and wasn’t able to brake fast enough, hitting a goalpost, causing his motorcycle to fall on the boys. The boys want Ramatoulaye to reprimand the young man, but she takes him aside and cleans his wounds, instead taking the boys to task for not paying enough attention and playing in a dangerous area. But she agrees that officers should make it easier to play in the compound.
But her misfortune is not over: Ramatoulaye discovers that her daughter, Aissatou, is pregnant. While Aissatou initially hides it from Ramatoulaye, Farmata casts the cowries multiple times to suggest that someone close to Ramatoulaye is pregnant, which Ramatoulaye ignores until Farmata directly tells her to question her daughters. Farmata goes into Aissatou’s room and exposes the truth to a shocked Ramatoulaye, who had thought her weird health was the aftermath of sickness and a desire to be thinner.
Initially, Ramatoulaye struggles with anger and heartbrokenness. Aissatou confesses that she has been seeing a law student, Ibrahima Sall, at the university, who she has fallen in love with, and says that she regrets nothing. Ramatoulaye is incredibly emotional but overcomes it by thinking about how her daughter was there for her during her years of loneliness and by looking to God for help. At that moment, she realizes how close she is to Aissatou, and instead of turning away, she welcomes Aissatou into her arms. Farmata is astonished and condemns Ramatoulaye for what she perceives to be lax behavior that will encourage irresponsibility in her younger children, but Ramatoulaye is sure of herself, asking to meet Ibrahima.
Ramatoulaye meets Ibrahima Sall and is pleased with him. He initiates a conversation by saying that Aissatou is his first love, that he wishes to marry her, and that they will continue with their studies while his mother helps them look after the child. This is exactly what Ramatoulaye wishes to hear, but Farmata wishes to be disruptive and interrogates Ibrahima, who hears her and answers without irritation. Ramatoulaye shares her worries about Aissatou getting expelled from school, and Ibrahima suggests that Aissatou wear loose-fitting clothing for the rest of the school year, since the child is due during the holidays, logic which reassures Ramatoulaye. She does resent, however, that Ibrahima faces no repercussions for his actions while Aissatou bears the brunt of the danger. She feels like Aissatou is being torn away from her to make a new family, but acknowledges that this is a natural path, if a difficult one.
Ibrahima Sall comes around every day after that and is accepted by everyone except Farmata and the trio. Farmata informs Ibrahima’s parents, who also come around to check in on Aissatou’s health. Ramatoulaye, worried about the trio, talks to them about sexuality and respecting themselves, a conversation that marks another change from her generation to the next. However, it appears that the trio aren’t surprised by anything she has said, and Ramatoulaye wonders what they already know, but she feels a great relief having talked to them regardless.
To close the letter, Ramatoulaye expresses her excitement at seeing Assiatou once more. She is not indifferent to the way in which the world is currently changing for women. She rejoices every time a woman finds her place in a world where the way forward for women is still incredibly unclear. To her, men and women still belong together, and love remains the way human beings are supposed to relate to each other. Familial success is made up of how the couple feels about each other, and the nation is made up of families.
Ramatoulaye tells Aissatou she’s counting on her showing up to the door in a tailored suit and demanding a Western dinner setting, but she refuses to indulge her and will lay out a traditional dinner. Ramatoulaye refuses to give up on wanting to refashion her life. She feels new life, new growth, and will go out in search of new happiness. She ends the letter simply with her name: Ramatoulaye, and it is the first and only time the reader sees her name.
Analysis
That Ramatoulaye chooses to end the letter by focusing on her children speaks volumes about where her love lies: with them. As Ramatoulaye reflects on Mawdo's situation with her philosophy teacher, she acts as both as a mother for her children and as a mother within the greater young nation of Senegal. Her desire to raise her children well connects with the desire to see the young Senegal grow into a proper maturity, influenced by the knowledge that it is her children's generation, not her own, that will see this change come about. The difference between these two generations is seen even in the way they want to respond to the philosophy teacher, where the older generation is more inclined to focus on compromise while the younger generation is more direct. Daba, for example, loses hope in politics and seeks alternative measures to deal with the issues she sees with the country.
On the other hand, the younger generation presents behavioral differences that challenge pieces of tradition that Ramatoulaye values. While she doesn't regret the independent upbringing they were given, she does resist them doing things she sees as unwomanly, like wearing trousers or smoking tobacco. Beyond just dealing with things like education, Ramatoulaye is beginning to realize that the advancement of women's freedom also means questioning traditional morals. But that doesn't mean that she can't be the disciplinarian sometimes, showing how the older generation's wisdom can be balanced with the younger generation's new perspective.
The younger generation still brings its own troubles with it, though. Ramatoulaye shows herself to be a fair and levelheaded mother by acknowledging the fault of her own sons rather than blaming the motorcyclist for the accident. Simultaneously, she shows compassion for her children by acknowledging that they should have a place to play in the compound. The true test of her compassion, of course, shows in her reaction to Aissatou's news. This reaction is more a rejection of tradition than anything else Ramatoulaye has done throughout the novel. Her choice to console Aissatou without judgment proves her to be a caring mother who is not afraid to defy society for her children. Even in the face of the ultimate representation of tradition—Farmata—Ramatoulaye remains resolute in her decision.
Her sorrow at Aissatou's pregnancy ends up being a mother's natural sorrow at seeing her daughter leave her house. Ibrahima Sall is also a recipient of Ramatoulaye's kindness, being welcomed into her family despite getting her high-school-age daughter pregnant. She is able to extend this kindness even despite her lingering resentment that he suffers none of the material consequences from this child that Aissatou will. Again, Ramatoulaye proves that her capacity for forgiveness is immense.
Appropriately, the book ends with another affirmation of the friendship between Aissatou and Ramatoulaye. All of the topics discussed—the way forward for women, relationships between men and women, the success of the nation—all of these are things that inform their friendship and make it even richer. Ramatoulaye's love of tradition is expressed in her love for her friend, but she will not let anything hold her back from the most important love: a love of herself. She is determined to find happiness for herself not in spite of, but because of, the odds that are presented to her.
