[Professor]
During the World War II, all able bodied men Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan were enlisted to fight for their country. Women, elderly and the disabled on the other hand stay in the village and help in the war in their own ways. Jamila, a short story written by Chingiz Aitmatov was inspired by the scenes in the villages in Central Asia when the war was on-going. It revolved around the story of Siet who has a sister-in-law named Jamila, an industrious young woman who assumes even the chores that are supposed to be done by young men (Aitmatov, 107). However, able bodied men left for war and they have nothing to depend on but their selves. Jamila was assigned for a bread hauling task. She was accompanied by an ex-soldier named Daniyar who became limp after joining the war, Seit also joined in the hauling task to safeguard his sister-in-law (Aitmatov, 123). As Jamila knew Daniyar closely including his singing passion and prowess, she fell in love with him without thinking of other peoples’ judgment. Eventually, Jamila and Daniyar elope and were never seen again by the villagers (Aitmatov, 146).
The story has some similarities with other stories in terms of Jamila’s falling in love with another person despite the fact that she was married to another. The story however reflected much on the livelihood of families during the war which has particularity in Kyrgyzstan and in Central Asia as a whole. Women during that time were responsible to almost everything concerning the village affairs. Women are allowed to lead tasks in economy. It appears that despite the horrors of the World War II, the communities were well managed women.
The character of Seit in the story revealed how strict the people in their villages are in terms of addressing people. Seit cannot address Jamila on the first name basis instead; he is compelled to call her jenei which means sister-in-law. Likewise Jamila no matter how playful and straightforward she is, she is not allowed to address Seit in the first name basis instead; she is calling him kichine bala which means younger brother-in-law (Aitmatov, 108). For them, it is a sign of disrespect if the aforementioned characters address each other in first names. Moreover, horse riding in Kyrgyzstan is not monopolized by men. In fact, women are encouraged to learn how to gallop horses as they are useful in hauling supplies in times of soldiers’ hunger.
Because it is a culture that Kyrgyz and Kazakhs communicate more to their parents compared to their spouse, Jamila feels unloved by her soldier husband as she only see her name as postscripts in the letters sent to their families. This gave her unimaginable sorrow and emptiness that was filled by Daniyar. She was drawn to Daniyar’s songs that depict his love for mother earth and to their native land.
On the other hand, The First Teacher who was also written by Aitmatov spoke of how the life’s direction of every youth in the village which was a former part of the Soviet Union changed when education was introduced. It depicted the difficulty of the first teacher in the village to encourage parents and the whole village to let their children study (Aitmatov, 153). The said teacher tirelessly opened the minds of the villagers that education is a right of every child. It explained why the peasants were not interested of education before. Children before were directed to help their parents in their farm work and eventually end up in farming when they raise their own families. For the parents, education is no use for the peasants’ children as they will eventually age as peasants. The First Teacher coming from the Communist Party encouraged the parents to enlighten their minds through education.
