An Author on the Top Shelf & Her Strange Ways

I have read hundreds of books and thoroughly enjoyed many, so it take a lot for a certain book or author to really stand out. I can recall only a handful of authors that I really look up to as a kid looks up to his sports' superstar. Bill Bryson is one of these authors, an absolutely hilarious one at that. I have read five books of his. Jared Diamond is also one of my favorite authors. Although I have only read one of his books, it continues to be the most thought provoking one that I have ever read. If you want to read about the history of the world in a different, fascinating, but thick-read style, then you must read "Guns, Germs, and Steel." After Diamond, Botswanan writer Bessie Head makes the list. I have read two books by Head, including "When Rain Clouds Gather," and the very disturbing "The Collector of Treasures." Currently I am reading Head’s "Maru." One of the reasons why I find Head such an interesting author is because she has created her own style that is different from anything else that I have ever read. One way that she does this is by creating complex characters that are not straightforward and predictable. This essay will analyze four characters in "Maru" and will also suggest some reasons as to why Bessie Head portrays these characters the way she does.

First, there is Maru himself. It is said of Maru that he is a "born leader of men," (1), a king of his remote village in fact. Maru is the type of person that can get anything that he wants because of his high status in the village and his personality: "So simply and precisely did he translate his dreams into reality (3)." Maru has a beautiful, loving wife in Margaret Cadmore (The Younger). However, there is also a dark side to Maru, in which his personality turns darker than Shakespeare’s "The Tempest." During these mad outrages every word of his is "a sharp knife (4)." Before marriage, it is said of Maru that he had many love affairs, but that his heart would shatter at the end of every single one. However, it was worse than heartbreak for his lovers, as most of them died of strange diseases directly after the affair!

Moleka is similar to Maru in that he is high up in the village hierarchy and can sleep with almost any woman he wants (and he does!). Furthermore, the two are great friends. However, Moleka goes about his business quite differently than Maru. While Maru falls in love with his sex companions, Moleka treats them more like whores. Moleka is only concerned with "what were her legs like (28)." Moleka not only treats women poorly, he’s arrogant. A perfect example of this is of him driving his car fast and expecting all the villagers to move out of the way. "He was royalty, the son of a chief. He’d grown up making goats and people jump," Head writes (24). However, once Moleka meets Margaret Cadmore (The Younger), he turns humble and smitten over her. Indeed, the relationship between Moleka and Margaret Cadmore will play a large role in this book.

Margaret Cadmore Senior (written as Cadmore Senior hereafter) is also a key character in the novel. Cadmore Senior is a British missionary living in Botswana, who is abusive to almost all Botswanans. She is severely racist. She is also a large woman but with a fierce-looking face that makes her the authority. Cadmore Senior lives life in the fast lane, or rather how Head puts it, "at the speed of a boat shooting over the rapids, (9)." However, she contains this speed boat by being an avid drawer. While working in a hospital, she finds a newborn baby whose mother has died in childbirth. She names this baby Margaret Cadmore, and takes her under her wings.

This Margaret Cadmore (The Younger) is also a key player in the novel. Margaret is quiet, relatively reserved, and I picture her as being absolutely beautiful. Margaret belongs to a minority tribe known as the Masarwa, a tribe that is looked upon as being inferior to the "normal" Botswanan. However, Margaret is different than an ordinary Masarwa or Botswanan because she was raised by a British missionary: "Her mind and heart were composed of a little bit of everything she absorbed from Margaret Cadmore. It was hardly African or anything but something new and universal, a type of personality that would be unable to fit into any definition of something as narrow as tribe or race or nation (11)." Margaret is also very friendly. When she meets Moleka, she is instantly in love with him as he is to her.

Why does Head have two characters named Margaret Cadmore? Why does she show Moleka and Maru as good friends that are very different? There are several possible answers to these questions. Head's novel is designed to be confusing and difficult at first just as her own life was. The reader is supposed to lose their balance, their frames in fact. However, soon the book and its readers gain their bearings. "Maru" can be thought of as a river; starting off steep and dangerous high up in the mountains, becoming gentle and floating in time. There are two Margaret Cadmore's because Head is trying to challenge the way we see the world. Why can't there be a white, British Margaret and a black, Masarwa Margaret? Regarding Maru and Moleka, Head was a diagnosed schizophrenic, being prone to sudden mood changes. Maru and Moleka are similar in character, but different in personality, mood.

Bessie Head's "Maru" will become less confusing with time. Maru, Moleka, and Margaret Cadmore (The Youngest) play main roles in the novel, and their characters will continue to unfold as we learn more about them. These characters are not "typical," but rather stylistic of Bessie Head's writing. If Hollywood movies today are characterized by sex and violence, then Bessie Head's novels ate characterized by confusing yet thought provoking characters.