I think being mute has a more empathetic effect on the reader. The reader would not have been as understanding and moved by the denoument of the novel if the main protagonist/heroine were not disabled. Disability requires a special kind of empathy that not everyone, historically, has been able to provide. Similarly, not everyone in the world has supported the Guerillas and rebels who want to have independence from colonial powers such as Portugal and Spain. On page 138 of the kindle edition, Juan tells Faith that she can “…tell him you’re a deaf mute and that you can’t hear what we’re saying,” and this to some effect helps Faith survive the interrogation by Marcelo and his compatriots. The plot of the story would be altered considerably were she able to speak, which occurs in the ending of the story. This coincides with the semi-positive ending of the novel, since she’s able to make it to safety, but Juan dies in Prison.
In a more general sense, I believe that for Faith to be mute, it adds a musical element to the novel, kind of like John Cage’s silent piece for orchestra that lasts 4:31 seconds or so, in that the narrator does not always convey her thoughts because of a lot of what is missed if she were able to talk. This instills the idea of repression into the reader’s mind in terms of gender (she being a woman) and also her being on the rebel side—the guerillas—by the PIDE and the soldiers.
In “Imaginary Homelands,” Rushdie exclaims that his art and the art of the transnationalist is derived mostly from the past, of the things that one wants to return to out of longing. Similarly, Karodia’s novel, Shattering of Silence, implements her yearnings and longings, because of the act of understanding one’s own life that takes reminiscing and delving into one’s memory somehow. But regarding the broken mirror metaphor in the Rushdie’s essay, the Karodia’s novel is about the author’s broken mirrors of his own path. Because isn’t she the one traveling in a plane back to Mozambique in the prologue in order to return to her homeland? She has written a protagonist who’s white into her novel and so this character is symbolic of the fact that she’s coming from Western civilization and can only write from the perspective, perhaps, from her heroine, Faith, and as a mute. It gives her more leeway as an artist to convey her concern for her country.
Well the Portugueese-run PIDE has been the central enemy to the rebels, (to Faith and her friends), but the Portugueese culture is not painted in a negative light other than its oppressive qualities. Music, on page 190, is a key example of this cross culture analogy throughout the semester, because Fado music, which I have previously unheard, is part of the universality of it. We’re all human, music seems to say, and we all want to enjoy a dance; however, this rarely comes to play or existence when there are far more fundamental problems such as housing, finding foster parents, etc., that Faith has to endure. The enculturation of the Mozambiquenpeople into Portuguese, and thus, European culture, is a question that’s up for debate. While many of Faith’s friends are Mozambiquen (she’s the only white) and they hold similar positions as doctors, then doesn’t this mean that they’ve been assimilated and encultured by Portuguese culture—just not wholly. Also, this assimilation process is largely with their consent, despite the fact that the Mozambiquens throughout the novel want independence from foreign control.
I thought Faith’s diction as largely dreamy and dreamlike. She portrayed with a sort of matter-of-factness, attractive quality, that perhaps, the author envies in a real-life, white friend. The fact that Faith sleeps with an Englishman, David, and then Juan, means she’s successful with men and understand her sexuality even though she states that she questions her sexuality, but ironically, immediately afterwords, sleeps with Juan and they have sex. I suppose this portrayal of a white woman as being particularly positive and we don’t get to see her in her negative light. We don’t get to see her negative qualities, instead, we get the perception of a white woman as what women are expected to be able to do.
Furthermore, the portrayal of Faith as being supportive of the rebel cause in opposition to many higher-up in the power-food chain, like the Portuguese government, pushers her into theliberal limelight. We see her as being for the underdog, the repressed, and the poor. This is something that a PIDE supporter—a supporter of colonialism—would be unable to do. If that were the case, the protagonist would obviously become an antagonist and the novel simply wouldn’t be the same.
The fact that these relationships don’t mature for Faith is evident of what white women do to men—they leave them in the dust without telling them where they went or who they’re with. This is perhaps an overgeneralization and a derogatory remark, however, I have personal experience with this issue. With Juan, he obviously cannot return to Faith because he’s dead—died from being in prison for a year. With David, Faith leaves him for David essentially and doesn’t tell him where she’s going even though she misses him and thinks about him from time to time.
Without the epilogue, I would be left without a strong closure to the plot. The ending would essentially beg the question, what happened to Faith? Did she make it to England and did she meet up with Juan? The ending’s open ended statement, “adious” that came from Faith also signifies a certain healing. This healing is as if it comes from her dead parents in heaven, who wished her to leave that hellhole of a war-torn country and to go somewhere safe. This part to the ending is symbolic of PTSD, perhaps, in that one can become healed under the right environment and circumstances. Being mute is perhaps not entirely a mental handicap, rather, a mental mindset.
