Eve and The Red Tent
Dinah has finally found the love of her life. She’s married and out of her mothers’ stifling presence. Until the day she wakes, gagging in a river of her husband’s blood, with her own family cutting down the men of her husband’s city. She’s stolen from her bloody bed to be kidnapped by her own family, whoshe curses with death and poverty for their killing. It seems like a normal morning for Eve, until she finds her favorite son, beaten and bloodied until dead.
The two books I read, Eve and The Red Tent, were entertaining, while also managing to be very thought-provoking. These characters from the bible, which we tend to think of in vague, angelic terms, are really brought to life. The books are great portrayals of women’s lives at the time: how they lived, how they thought, and how, when you think about it, they are just like us. The two stories, while very unique in the details, both bring forward some similar themes. Both of the characters, Eve and Dinah, are subjected to subservience to men. They and the women around them are expected to serve their men however possible. Their lives are undeniably hard, yet throughout these stories they react with a resilience you see in people today. Further linking them to people today are the basic human flaws and struggles that you can see in anyone, myself included.
The point of view of the biblical woman was interesting to me. It was something I’ve never seen before, and it gave me a whole different perspective on the bible stories. You see how the women are expected to be deferent to men much clearer than when reading the original stories of the Bible. Besides that you also see relationships, even love between men and a woman, which is something discussed rarely in the bible stories. In Eve, she and Adam start out as equals. They love each other, and support each other in navigating the path of creating the human race. However, as time goes on you begin to see the deterioration of their relationship. Adam is put at the head of the family and begins treating Eve more as a servant than an equal partner. Right from the start in the Red Tent you see the women’s lowly status. As daughters, Dinah’s mothers have no control over their future, and are promised to Jacob without being consulted. Two of her mothers are designated to be his concubines, and cannot do anything about it. Dinah realizes at a young age that she is not the equal of her brothers, however much she might want to fit in.
Their resilience to the trials they go through is apparent in both books. Not that this is anything particular to the women of the books, or women anywhere. It’s part of what makes them, and the rest of us, human. They are subjected to many similar trials, the most notable being the strife between their loved ones. Eve sees one son killed by the other, and Dinah sees her beloved newlywed and his family slaughtered by her own family. They both rise from this, just as we see happen all over the world. People rise from impossible circumstances throughout history. It’s part of the amazing things that make us human.
Another thing I liked about both of these books is how they showed the very human flaws and struggles of the characters. They go through many things that we ourselves do, and explore the roles of mother and daughter in a way that is both relatable and totally foreign to our lives today. (The emotions are similar, experiences, etc., but the situation they are in is completely different). In Eve especially, you can see how very human she is. She is actually portrayed as a very flawed person. She cannot get over her past in the garden, and it taints her relationships in the present. Adam and her daughters resent her for focusing on the past, when they want her to focus on her family she has now. All of this made the characters more relatable, and the stories more interesting than the cut and dry bible tales.
These themes come through as you follow the characters through their stories. Dinah: before and after the massacre, and Eve: before and after her son’s death. Their personal tragedies make their stories similar. The cause of these tragedies was strife in their family, specifically the men, which they could do nothing about because of their subservient position. They dealt with them with the same resilience that we see all over, all while trying to deal with their own human flaws. This portrayal of women’s lives during the time is informative, while also appealing to that common thing that makes us human.
Dinah has finally found the love of her life. She’s married and out of her mothers’ stifling presence. Until the day she wakes, gagging in a river of her husband’s blood, with her own family cutting down the men of her husband’s city. She’s stolen from her bloody bed to be kidnapped by her own family, whoshe curses with death and poverty for their killing. It seems like a normal morning for Eve, until she finds her favorite son, beaten and bloodied until dead.
The two books I read, Eve and The Red Tent, were entertaining, while also managing to be very thought-provoking. These characters from the bible, which we tend to think of in vague, angelic terms, are really brought to life. The books are great portrayals of women’s lives at the time: how they lived, how they thought, and how, when you think about it, they are just like us. The two stories, while very unique in the details, both bring forward some similar themes. Both of the characters, Eve and Dinah, are subjected to subservience to men. They and the women around them are expected to serve their men however possible. Their lives are undeniably hard, yet throughout these stories they react with a resilience you see in people today. Further linking them to people today are the basic human flaws and struggles that you can see in anyone, myself included.
The point of view of the biblical woman was interesting to me. It was something I’ve never seen before, and it gave me a whole different perspective on the bible stories. You see how the women are expected to be deferent to men much clearer than when reading the original stories of the Bible. Besides that you also see relationships, even love between men and a woman, which is something discussed rarely in the bible stories. In Eve, she and Adam start out as equals. They love each other, and support each other in navigating the path of creating the human race. However, as time goes on you begin to see the deterioration of their relationship. Adam is put at the head of the family and begins treating Eve more as a servant than an equal partner. Right from the start in the Red Tent you see the women’s lowly status. As daughters, Dinah’s mothers have no control over their future, and are promised to Jacob without being consulted. Two of her mothers are designated to be his concubines, and cannot do anything about it. Dinah realizes at a young age that she is not the equal of her brothers, however much she might want to fit in.
Their resilience to the trials they go through is apparent in both books. Not that this is anything particular to the women of the books, or women anywhere. It’s part of what makes them, and the rest of us, human. They are subjected to many similar trials, the most notable being the strife between their loved ones. Eve sees one son killed by the other, and Dinah sees her beloved newlywed and his family slaughtered by her own family. They both rise from this, just as we see happen all over the world. People rise from impossible circumstances throughout history. It’s part of the amazing things that make us human.
Another thing I liked about both of these books is how they showed the very human flaws and struggles of the characters. They go through many things that we ourselves do, and explore the roles of mother and daughter in a way that is both relatable and totally foreign to our lives today. (The emotions are similar, experiences, etc., but the situation they are in is completely different). In Eve especially, you can see how very human she is. She is actually portrayed as a very flawed person. She cannot get over her past in the garden, and it taints her relationships in the present. Adam and her daughters resent her for focusing on the past, when they want her to focus on her family she has now. All of this made the characters more relatable, and the stories more interesting than the cut and dry bible tales.
These themes come through as you follow the characters through their stories. Dinah: before and after the massacre, and Eve: before and after her son’s death. Their personal tragedies make their stories similar. The cause of these tragedies was strife in their family, specifically the men, which they could do nothing about because of their subservient position. They dealt with them with the same resilience that we see all over, all while trying to deal with their own human flaws. This portrayal of women’s lives during the time is informative, while also appealing to that common thing that makes us human.