‘Instructor’s name’
Compare and Contrast the characters of Catherine and Latifa
This essay aims at evaluating the similarities and differences between the characters of Latifa of the novel “My Forbidden Face” and Catherine of “A View from the Bridge”, a play written by Arthur Miller. Catherine is the niece of the tragic protagonist Eddie Carbone, who harbors a lust for her, and tries to keep her away from other male suitors. They are an Italian American family living in the Red Hook community of New York of the 1950s, which is known for its Italian immigrants.
Marco and Rodolpho, who are cousins of Eddie’s wife Beatrice, arrive at their doorstep, which complicates things. Rodolpho and Catherine get romantically involved, and a desperate Eddie warns the immigrant officials (betrayal is dead against the Italian traditions) who arrests Marco and Rodolpho. But despite this Catherine remains strong in her decision and gets engaged to Rodolpho. This engagement bails him and Marco out of the jail and the story end with Eddie being killed in a faceoff with Marco.
Latifa on the other hand, comes from a religious yet liberal family of Afghanistan, and dreams of becoming a journalist one day. Her dream and the entire family’s hope are destroyed by the Taliban occupation of Afghan. Girls are no longer allowed outside the house, schools are shut down, family heirlooms are ceased and chaos and anarchy run along the streets of Kabul. Shattered at first, the family slowly recovers to start helping the neighborhood in any small ways they could. In the end they escape to France by the help of a French-Afghan resistance group, and Latifa dreams of returning one day to her homeland and doing her bit to the community.
Both these characters are heart and soul of their respective stories and strong personalities. They both undergo male oppression in one form or another. With Catherine it is an overprotective uncle, and in Latifa it is a chauvinist Taliban force. While Eddie tries to influence all the decisions of Catherine in the name of a love, the Taliban sets the rules of Latifa’s life in the name of religion. Both girls love music, like dressing up and are in their late teens. Catherine is submissive to her uncle out of her own willingness, as she sees him as a father figure who gave her a home when she was orphaned. Latifa meanwhile did not have any other choice but to abide by the laws set by the Taliban, as going against them would mean definite catastrophe to the entire family.
Both girls wanted to break free of the shackles that bound them. For Catherine, it was to escape the role of a subservient Italian girl, who acts according to the whims and wishes of the men of the house. For Latifa, it was to break away from the tyranny of a group and their fanatical misinterpretation of her religion. But while Latifa is a strong character who accepts her fate with dignity, and has the courage to stay hopeful in the face of adversity, Catherine is portrayed a little meek and her character lack complexity. While Catherine’s turmoil is mostly concerned with matters of relationship and emotions, Latifa’s plight is literally about life and death situations and ideologies.
Both characters are teen age girls who are desperate for their freedom and are caring for their loved ones. While one fights for love the other fights for ideology, and they do it in a silent lady-like manner without much fuss, but strong-willed nevertheless.
References
Latifa. (2001) My Forbidden Face. Little, Brown Book Group. Print
Arthur Miller. (2011) A View from the Bridge. Penguin, UK. Print.
