Analysis of Revenge as Depicted in S. A Novel about the Balkans
Uploaded by CaseyP on May 22, 2016
Analysis of Revenge as Depicted in S. A Novel about the Balkans
S. A Novel about the Balkans, by Slavenka Drakulic, is a story about a Bosnian woman, named S., who suffered at the hands of brutal soldiers during the Bosnia war. The novel mainly centers on a series of S.’s flashbacks as she recounts the horrific ill-treatment she underwent. Through telling her story, the author creates a vivid image of how deep and dark human nature is during wartime. The story is a revelation of the terrifying features of war, which include civilian torture, rape and cruel killings by the occupying forces. Both the author and the main character are rising above the awful events, beyond the war crimes and on top of unfairness to show the meaning of human life. Men and women suffer during war. However, women suffer more through mistreatment, sexual abuse, mishandling and irreversible traumas acted upon by the inhumane soldiers. This paper mainly focuses on discussing S.’s disposition in her encounter with the Serbian soldier’s torture along with the effects of war on people’s normal life.
The story begins with a spiteful S. The main character is filled with hate for the just born baby boy she gives birth to in the same afternoon at Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm. S.’s hatred manifests through her actions at the hospital. For instance, she turns her head quickly to avoid a glance of her supposed son. In fact, she feels relief and free that this ‘little being’ has finally come out of her body and there is no any connection anymore. It was like a tumor needing removal, a disease and a burden requiring removal from her system. She hated the child more than everything (5). S. even feels like she could get up any moment and move away. She refuses to pick and touch the infant knowing that it would reflect on the responsibility to her side, yet she wants nothing to do with it. She even feels nothing but hostility for this creature. Her hatred has been there from the start where she had condemned the child to death. She had hated her body because of the deformation the pregnancy caused apart from having no option but to abort the pregnancy.
As the story develops, and takes the readers back to the background on S.’s childbirth, it reveals her aspect of being open-minded. S. is not an individual...