Anglais, Jumping monkey hill

A. What is the story about?

Jumping monkey hill is a short story about Ujunwa, which is a Nigerian middle classed young woman. We’ll see the development of Ujunwa through a writer’s conference organized by a Western man. This conference is held in a lodge named Jumping monkey hill. During this workshop, eight people from different African countries are meeting for two weeks. We’ll follow Ujunwa and see her opposition, to Edward and some type of Western people in general, growing throughout the story, as she witnesses and experiences their reactions.

We’ll also discover Ujunwa’s experience and life through the short story she writes during the workshop. So the aim of this story is to condemn women harassment, Postcolonial Paternalism, and the preconceptions of Western People on Africa.

B. Narration-Narrative technique:

The narrator is extern (he’s not part of the story), it’s not a first person narration. We always know what Ujunwa is thinking, so we see everything from her point of view. The fact that we can know her advice is really interesting cause we can be aware of her experiences and we really realize what she is going through (because of Edward for exemple.). In this story, there are some direct speech, but most of the speeches are indirect: indirect speech creates a form of distance.

C. Setting

This story takes place In the Jumping Monkey Hill Lodge, next to Cape Town, in south Africa « Edward Campbell had chosen the Resort; he had spent weekends there when he was a lecturer at the University of Cape Town years ago » (p.95 l.17-19)

The Jumping monkey hill resort is a very touristic lodge, that represents a false idea of Africa. The western people who stay here think it really represents Africa even though it’s totally fake. It shows and perpetuate the « glamour » idea of Africa that Western people have.

We know that the story takes place around the year 2000. Edward himself says it when he criticize the Senegalese’s story :  « This may indeed be the year 2000, but how African is it for a person to tell her family that she is homosexual? » (p108 l.12-14). The years 2000, is the time were new subjects appear in society such as homosexuality.

D. Themes and Idea:

Women’s place in society+sexual harassement:

In many short stories of Adichie, the theme of the place of woman in society is very important. In this short story, she condemn the behavior of men towards women. There is many exemples of disrespectful behaviors in « the jumping monkey hill ». In this story some men are shown as very sexist. They feel themselves better than women and they treat them with no respect. Especially Edward with black women

« Edward would never look at a white women like that because what he felt for Ujunwa was fancy without respect. »(p.109 l. 17-19) This quote shows that that white english man see women and especially black women like sexual objects.

« At first, Ujunwa tried not to notice that Edward often stared at her body, that his eyes were never on her face but always lower. » (p.106 l. 1-2)

« « I don’t mind sitting in the sun », she said, already getting up. »Would you like me to stand up for you, Edward?» « I’d rather like you to lie down for me »[…] Edward was grinning » (p. 106 l. 10-14) This comment is totally inappropriate and disrespectful and no man should allow himself to say such a thing. After Edward said such a thing, Ujunwa laughed: « And Ujunwa laughed, because it was funny and witty, she told herself » (p.106 l.16-17), she laughed maybe because Edward is a western woman, or maybe because she’s used to act this way. Maybe she’s used to be fake.

A few pages later, Ujunwa think about this scene again and she realize that she actually hated it, and that Edward is disgusting. We can definitely see an evolution between the scene where it happens and the scene where she thinks about it again.  « She should not have laughed when Edward said » I’d rather like you to lie down for me  « . It had not been funny. It had not been funny at all. She had hated it, hated the grin on his face and the glimpse of greenish teeth and the way he always looked at her chest rather than her face, the way his eyes climbed all over her, and yet she had made herself laugh like a deranged hyena. »(p109, l.3-9) She hated the fact that she faked her laugh and that she tried to persuade herself that it was normal. She was so used of being disrespected but we can see that she’s starting to realize how terrible this patriarchal system is!

We can also see that in the African society, and especially at work, women are not used for their mental skills but for their body. Chioma/Ujunwa and her coworker, Yinka are used as sexual objects to attract customers.

« […] he asks her to sit on his lap and doesn’t she think he’s strong enough to carry her? Yinka says of course he is and sits on his lap, smiling a serene smile. »(p.104 l.25-27)

Women self depreciation without man recognition :

As Women such as Ujunwa are getting used to abusive comportement of men, they are « lost » when men don’t give them attention. Sometimes, they even develop low self-esteem and insecurities because they are stuck in a system where their value is defined by men. In her short story, Ujunwa is Chioma, and so we can see that Ujunwa is quite insecure when men dont give her the attention she's used to, for exemple in her story, when the guy dont see her as a sexual object, she feels bad.Or when Edward says some inappropriate comments to The Senegalese woman, she’s sort of jealous, even though Edward disgusts her.

« She felt upset ,too, to hear that Edward was making suggestive remarks to someone else, and she wondered what her pique meant. »(p.111 l.24-26) In this quote, we can see that Ujunwa is a little jealous, not because she likes Edward, but because she’s insecure about herself without men recognition. This shows the negativity that those men behaviors brings into women lives.

« She desperately wish he would notice her. He doesn’t. »(p.104 l.3-4) « She is used to men’s attention and is sulky that he does not look at her as a man looks

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