Social criticism in literary works is always intriguing. Pop
and romance themed novels and literature are often put on the popular section
in Indonesia’s bookstores, meanwhile social
themed literature are waiting to be picked in some dusty corners. These kinds
of books are maybe written
with
vulgar language as a way to
criticize the society explicitly
rather than being polite. I personally prefer books with social critics themes than the
romantic one,
therefore I choose a prose by Emha Ainun Nadjib entitled “Lelaki Ke 1000 Di
Ranjangku” which sparks my interests to response to. The story goes around the perspective of a prostitute
who bluntly think about her life and its ups and down. Here, I am going to
response how to see a life of a prostitute from their own
perspectives.
“BH”
by Emha Ainun Nadjib is one
of his
prose collections,
and “Lelaki Ke 1000
Di Ranjangku”
is one of the stories. Within 10 pages, a prostitute leads the reader going through many thoughts inside her head, with her own
narration; starting from how she ends up as a hooker, to how she finally
accepts her condition as a sex worker. There is so much going on in this short
story, besides the actual plot in which she tries to sleep after a long day of
work serving for numerous men, but her minds are rambling into many other
related stuff; how she thinks of those men who used her, how she thinks that
being a prostitute is the same as Kiai on some levels, how she blames
people for her current job. Until the next day, still lacking of sleep, the 100th
men came to her room. Apparently, the man is a journalist and put her on the
cover of a newspaper afterward, which takes her to the top.
Personally, this short story is
fascinating in so many ways. Firstly, as a usual college student and a
daughter, the perspective of a prostitute is so intriguing. I have never been into the “dark” side of
life and I do not
really want it, so this is a new point of view to think of. Secondly, the main
character, the sleepless prostitute, has so much irony in her way of thinking.
For example, she likes finding herself on the cover of the newspaper which
makes her the number one prostitute in the area, but in the end she said that she
could end up her life whenever she wants to, which shows some kind of
depression. Third, the fact that she keeps
numbers of her visitors also shows
how desperate she actually is, while counting days to lament but also cheering
to. Lastly, the fact that she compares her work with Kiai’s
just shows how human she is; wanting to show their good nature despite how bad
her job seems to be.
When I read this prose, the first
thing that came to mind is another author who often uses vulgar language and
rather brought up sexual themed stories namely Djenar Maesa Ayu. Still on the
same page of Emha, Djenar also has one prose entitled “Namaku….”. It tells the
story of a prostitute, but from the perspective of the daughter. A girl grew up
with her mom as the role model, by seeing how her mother would react to things; she started to implements it on her
life. There are a few things; similarities and differences that I can pinpoint
from the two proses. First, they share the same theme about being a prostitute,
but rather different because of the perspective or point of view; the
prostitute herself, and the daughter of one. The humanity value that they have
is practically the same; they want to feel some rights in what they do. The one
in Emha’s likes to think of herself as good as Kiai on some levels, meanwhile the one in Djenar insists that the
main character’s mom and her friends do the job because that is what they can
do to feed their children. Another relevant aspect is where both prostitutes blame
other men for what they are currently doing, in this cases it was their husband
who left them.
The last point from the last
paragraph is what I want to highlight in this response; patriarchy in
Indonesian family system. First
of all, patriarchy, according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary is a noun defined
as a family, group, or government controlled by a man or a group of men, and a
social system in which family members are related to each other through their
fathers. To be more specific, in study.com,
McCallister as the instructor, defines a partriarchal system as a system “where men are in
authority over women in all aspects of society.” Patriarchal in the aspect of
family itself, according to Kraemer in his book “The origins of fatherhood: An ancient family process”, “the fathers (or father figures) hold authority
over the women and the children. Looking from another perspective, the feminist
theory, claims that patriarchy is “an unjust social system that enforces gender
roles and is oppressive to both men and women It often includes any social
mechanism that evokes male dominance over women.” For short, patriarchy is a
system where experts and sociologists believe that men dominate women in every
aspect of life. Now, relating it to the two novel that I am responding to, both
of the prostitutes in both novels blame men for making them selling themselves
and hate them because of that. In the context of Indonesia, most men are
automatically being put on the highest throne of a small organization that we
can call as family. Here, men are responsible for making money and providing
foods and other essential life stuffs for the rest of the family, and for me
that is exhausting. This exhausting system is a way that makes women dependent
and rather spoiled. It is true that men have the responsibility for their
children and have to support their life, but the way women blame on them is too
much. For me, an individual have to be independent regardless of their gender,
and that is why blaming men is not an answer at all. Women do not need to sell
their body to trade it with food, in fact no one needs to, but I think this
phenomenon happens for another reason. Women in Indonesia still do not
have much privilege like men do in terms of work. People still think that women
belong to the kitchen, and men belong to the office. This system is so
destroying because does not only makes women lost their way to get jobs and to
depend on their men, but also leads to the next step of self-destruction by
women. I am
not saying that it is
all on men’s fault, but it is
more to our system as a whole for each gender.
The two short stories that I choose
for this response essay, “Lelaki Ke-1000 Di Ranjangku” and “Namaku….”, are such
intriguing material for my critical thinking, by talking about one same theme,
from different perspectives, but also with some relevant matters that we can
actually relate to the real world.
My Writing Process: A Response to “Lelaki ke 1000 Di Ranjangku” by Emha Ainun Nadjib
“I had to review something cool” was
what I had in mind when I started doing this assignment. The term cool in my
mind mean underrated literary works, not the popular ones or what would they
call mainstream. Popular literary works are not really my thing, and also I
want to share a perspective about some must read-unpopular literary works to my
friends who would read my response. Rushing to my bookshelves, I picked some of
my books to see what would be interesting to give response to, and the theme of
a prostitute’s life in Indonesia caught my attention. So, after I re-read the
two short stories, I started the writing process and ended it in about three
days, but the process after it was something else.
I felt a sense relief when I printed
the first draft, even though I knew that it still lack of many aspects and I
still have to revise it. But, it also means that I still have more room to
improve my writing and I looked forward to see how my friends responded to it.
When my friends were reading my
draft and commenting on the back of the paper, I couldn’t help but to be
curious. I was wondering things like, ‘what are they going to comment?’, ‘do
they find my writing shallow?’, ‘I am so sorry that they have to read numerous
grammatical errors’, ‘it is kind of embarrassing’, ‘is it boring?’. After all,
I just set those minds aside by thinking that their comments would bring the best
of my writing, and I would openly discuss with them.
To be honest, I do not feel any
extravagant feeling when writing my friends’ drafts, besides learning one and
two things from their writing. One thing that I noted was how my friends’
writings developed. We have been on the same class for three years, and I am
quite familiar with their style of writing and speaking, I saw that they all
have better and well-written drafts now. Some people even shocked me with how
they put their ideas into their writing, and I couldn’t help but proud, because
it means that we are growing together.
At first, I had no idea at all how
is the discussion will going. Apparently, it went smoother that how I expected
it to be. I realized the things that I have to work on; grammatical errors
which are my eternal enemy, the placement of words and dictions. After I get
out of the room, I felt like I just had a counseling session for my paper. Not
in a frustrating way, but more in an enlightening way.
Overall,
the whole process of making this response essay is a journey. Not only I
learned how to write well, but also learned how to help my friends, so that we
can develop together.
