Why did Mariatu try to kill herself and the baby? What was she thinking when she tried to kill herself?
Well if you are asking yourself these questions while you read this part of the story I will answer them for you. Mariatu tried to kill herself because she thought that all her family was dead and she didn’t see why she should live when they died. She had also just found out that one of the men in her village had raped her and she was going to have his baby. She didn’t want to have his baby because she hated what he had done to her even though she didn’t know at that time what he had done. What she was thinking when she tried to kill herself I’m not totally sure but my guess would be that she thought that because she had been raped she wasn’t worth anything now. She probably felt very unloved because of what had happened to her. If I was ever raped I bet that I would want to kill myself to. I would feel that if someone thought that low of me to do that to me then if I’m that low. Then why should I be alive? If I was pregnant with that man’s child my first reaction would be to get rid of it as fast as I could, but if I thought about it I would realize that the child I am carrying is a precious life and it should have a chance to live. A quote that I found showed that she really wanted to die was this “Take Me Allah. Take my baby and me. I want to die.” pg71. If she hadn’t been stopped I have no doubt she would have taken her’s and her baby’s lives.
Do you agree with Mariatu's decision to try to take her life? While I don't think suicide is a good thing, I can't blame her for wanting to end her life after what happened to her. What happened to her was terrible, and like you said, she most likely did feel unloved and worthless. I wonder if the suicide rate is high in Sierra Leone, especially because rape is such a prominent issue there amongst young girls.
ReplyDeleteWhile suicide is never worth it, it really would not have been worth her killing herself while she was pregnant.As dark as it is, Abdul ends up dying anyways from disease. While this still upsets Mariatu, she saved her life, and gave Abdul a chance to live.
Good connections to how she was feeling and how you would have felt if you would have been in the same situation. I personally don't think that she should want to kill her self but I totally understand why she did. She went through a very traumatizing experience. I agree with what you said about her not wanting to have her baby because she hated what had happened to her and saw that the baby was the result of it. The baby could have been a daily reminder to her. How would you support someone that went through. similar situation as Mariatu?
ReplyDelete