Inside/Outside

When I picked up “Kisses In The Nederends” to read it, almost instantly I remembered Dr. Ellis’ comment about how surprised we were going to be by the book. So, I braced myself. To say that I was surprised was an understatement. Instead of the norm of community pride and family issues that we have been reading about, I get a book about a man, who, on the first page, farts in his wife’s face.

The scene that stuck with me the most was when Makarita had to walk through the village to go to the healer’s house and she was being stopped by everyone in the village who seemed to know about Oilei’s problem. With every step she took, she was mortified because she was embarrassed that everyone knew about the things that were going on in her house that she didn’t want them to know. I think this shows that even within the community that is our homeland, everyone, or at least every family ends up building their own community within a community where the people are expected to act differently inside than outside. Most of the novels that we have read, I feel was just us reading about the civilization of a culture and how it affected the people of that nation. We were still at a distance, just sort of on the outside looking in. With Hau’ofa, we actually get a peek inside at how the community operates and how the different people interact with each other. Makarita’s reactions(frustration and anger) when she was on her way to the healer’s house is the result of her not wanting to let the outside community inside to her community for them to find out about what was wrong with her husband.