Campus News

I will be discussing the history of Algeria and the social context in the early to late 90s. Around this time was one of the biggest if not the biggest event in Algerian history. The Algerian Civil War took place at this time between the Algerian government and Islamic rebel groups. Not to get confused with the war of independence that happened after France chose to invade Algeria which occurred through the late 1840s to early 1960s. The Algerian Civil war, otherwise known as the dirty war, because of how many civilians were killed along journalist and some foreigners. The war came about when the FIS party defeated the ruling about the FLN. The elections were canceled after the first round and the military effectively took control of the government, forcing pro-reform president Chadli Bendjedid from office. Estimated body count estimated between 100 to 200 thousand. The social context around the time involves men trying to prove their masculinity in every way they can. The story takes place early 90s to early 2000s. Men in this novel showed masculinity in very aggressive ways, and sometimes in very toxic ways. We talked about different ways men were talked about involving their masculinity, Zane the dwarf was talked down on in various situations because of his height. He was seen as unmanly and mistreated because he was below the average height for a male. He was never given a chance because of this despite his personality or how smart he was. Although he is small he is one of if not the most intelligent character in this story, but has never been looked at in that way because of his disability. They somewhat touched on the topic of the importance of having sons, making it seem as if having daughters was a burden or was not a blessing. A male in the novel was blessed with nine daughters, but was made fun of for it, the character said that he should find a new pair of testicles or a new wife. Showing how characters in this novel seen women. Toxic masculinity also came from two of the main characters named Tej and Kada. They were out for revenge. Tej felt as if he had no choice but to do what he did. In which the community drove him to, they talked badly about his father because of his political status. Kada seeked revenge on a man named Allal because of envy, he had the girl he wanted, and the social status that he seeked to have.