Embassies (symbol)
In the tenth letter, Ramatoulaye mentions the foreign embassies that appeared in Senegal shortly after she got married. While many welcomed with open arms the idea of progress, others were more skeptical and even saw the embassies as being negative aspects affecting their country. For them, the embassies were a symbol that showed that the Senegalese culture was slowly dying and that it was being replaced by Western ideas.
The last to find out (motif)
A common motif in the letters is the idea that the first wife is the last to find out when the husband decides to take another wife. The first case we find about is Ramatoulaye who found that her husband took another wife only after the rest of the family was informed. Another character who was the last to find out that her husband was going to get married is Aissatou, who found that her husband took another wife at his mother’s instances. Thus, we find the practice to be a common one regardless if a pair was happily married or not.
The power of parents (motif)
Another common motif is the idea that parents can influence greatly the decisions their children take in regard to a partner of marriage. The parents often pushed their children to marry people they considered as being suitable matches for them and they would often disregard their children’s feelings and other emotions they might have for another person. This happened for example in Aissatou’s case, when her husband took a second wife just because his parents pressured him to. Even though he admitted that he loved only Aissatou, he still married the girl chosen by his parents.
Women as childbearers (motif)
Another motif in Ramatoulaye's letters is the idea that women are considered valuable primarily to the extent that they can produce children. Thus, women feel inadequate if they are unable to produce any children, and consider this as being a sign of the fact that they were not good women.
Familial Duty (motif)
Another motif found in the letters is the idea that a woman must do her duty as a wife. Even though Ramatoulaye felt betrayed by her husband, she still did her duty as a wife and made sure that everything was in order. She took care of the next wives’ relatives and when her husband died she took care of the funeral rituals. The reason why Ramatoulaye did this was not because she loved her husband but because she knew that it was her duty and that it was expected of her to do those things.
