National Allegory in Relations to the Novel 'This Earth of Mankind'

This essay discusses the question of whether the bildungsroman is an allegory of national consciousness. The topic seems to be very broad; therefore, this essay focuses on Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s novel This Earth of Mankind, in particular with the moment in which the protagonist's one of the very first reflections upon the second character seems strangely uncertain and full of contradictions. This essay posits that the allegorical functions of this novel are not merely limited to the colonialism era, but it also represents how perceptions about social life in the late 19^th century in Indonesia, regardless of its being a colonial third-world society, were largely shaped under the paradigm of traditional values. 

The allegorical function of this novel goes beyond colonialism. From the early pages of the novel, Minke's very first acquaintance with Nyai Ontosoroh is significantly blended with contradictory values in Minke’s perception. Minke finds Ontosoroh a very pleasant woman who is never angry, and so, highly resembles the Mother. However, Minke cannot equalise Ontosoroh to the Mother, because “[s]he is just a nyai, living in sin, giving birth to illegitimate children, low in moral character, selling honor to live easily and in luxury. And I couldn’t say she was ignorant. Her Dutch was fluent and polite. Her attitude toward her daughter was refined and wise and open, not like that of Native mothers. She behaved just like an educated European woman” (32). For Minke, Ontosoroh has gathered some opposite characteristics. On the one hand, she is unethical, dishonourable, and sinful; and on the other hand, she is calm, wise, polite, and utterly good behaviour. This is a full-fledged paradox. The way in which this paradox affects Minke’s development may suggest some allegorical qualities in the process of nation becoming, such as the confrontation of customs and post-modern life. Nevertheless, such allegorical function inevitably reflects further on historical backgrounds such as ethnicity and traditional beliefs. In any allegorical representation of national consciousness, the traditional roots are major determinants and matter to a greater extent. For instance, the woman who has sacrificed the native pride for a prosperous life has predominantly been condemned by the Javanese traditions and not by the rules of Dutch colonialism. Therefore, the bildungsroman has some allegorical functions of national consciousness, but more significantly it should be traced back deep into the history of Indonesia and to the values of local traditions. Despite the fact that a significant proportion of the novel reflects upon life in a colonised society, its allegorical aspect is not necessarily restricted to the colonial era.  

The story is mainly narrated from Minke’s individual perspective, but the narrator himself is part of a society in transition which leads his Bildung to be relevantly complex but meanwhile utterly unique.  It is bounded by the specific era of the late 19^th century and has occurred in the particular society of Indonesia colonised by the Dutch empire. As Bakhtin explains, the becoming of a character in a realistic novel is not a “private affair [because] [h]e emerges along with the world” (23, italics in original). Likewise, Minke’s uncertainty about Ontosoroh at the beginning of the novel and his awakening experience of being separated from Annelies at the end vividly illustrate the reality in which his character has been developed.  Therefore, it can easily suggest various allegorical qualities about the development of the Indonesian nation under the Dutch colonialism. Its allegory may correspond to the fact that the native intellectuals are equally punished like the other indigenous if their interests come to oppose colonial interests and rules. Nevertheless, what seems more important about Minke’s becoming is that its uniqueness and the narrative’s limitation to specific time and situation does not allow its allegorical functions to correspond the overall process in which the national consciousness is being developed. For example, Minke comments that Ontosoroh has ‘illegitimate children’ but later he suffers from being forcefully separated from Annelies, who has been one of those illegitimate children. This transition in the individual story suggests us to correspond it to a larger transformation such as the national consciousness.  Nevertheless, national consciousness itself is a transitional process, and in a tumultuous era of colonialism, it is always subject to change because of the past historical inherent and the contemporary socio-political burdens.

The uniqueness of Minke’s Bildung suggests that the history and the socio-political characteristics of Indonesia, which have provided the overall landscape for the plot of the novel, are entirely inapplicable to any other part of the third-world countries including those of colonised societies. While the individual story and the plot are significantly restricted to Indonesian society under the Dutch colonialism in the late 19^th century, its allegorical functions may correlate to some human collective desire such as liberty, passion, and fairness throughout the history. The praise of knowledge and education is firm and does not change throughout the novel. Minke reflects upon Ontosoroh as ‘I couldn’t say she was ignorant. Her Dutch was fluent’. It is an obvious connection not only to universal values but to a primordial element of national consciousness in the modern history of Indonesia.  This brings us to Fredric Jameson’s speculative thesis on “National Allegory” where he asserts “the story of the private individual destiny is always an allegory of the embattled situation of the public third-world culture and society” (1986, 69; italics in original). Various scholars have objected to this essay. Aijaz Ahmad, one of the Marxist comrades of Jameson contends that the third-world is a polemical term which does not have a singular formation with unitary sphere of ideology (nationalism) and cultural production (the national allegory) (3-4-22). Nevertheless, it seems possible to suggests a further clarification on Jameson’s claim that the story of individual may allegorise the collective situation of any society where the plot has been set on and not necessarily and merely of third-world societies.

In conclusion, Mike’s becoming over the course of the novel allegorically reflects upon the Indonesian national consciousness to some extent, but its allegorical function is rooted back in history and is not necessarily limited to the colonial era. 

Reference

Ahmad, Aijaz. “Jameson's Rhetoric of Otherness and the "National Allegory" Journal of Duke University Press, vol. 17, pp. 3-25.

Bakhtin, Mikhail. M. “The Bildungsroman and its Significance in the History of Realism (Toward a Historical Typology of the Novel), in, Speech Genres & Other Late Essays, Translated by Vern McGee. University of Texas Press, Austin, 1986. Print.

Jameson, Fredric. “Third-World Literature in the Era of Multinational Capitalism” Journal of Duke University Press, vol. 15, pp. 65-88.

Toer, Pramoedya, A. This Earth of Mankind, Penguin books.1996. Print.