“Where We Once Belonged” is a Samoan novel concerning growth and experiences of a teenage Samoan girl by the name of Alofa Filiga. Growing up in the village of Malaefou, main character Alofa Filiga narrates as she navigates through the patriarchal society of Samoa in a search for self discovery. The novel gives incite to the close knit Samoan community and lifestyle in the 1970’s. The author, Sia Figiel, is the first female Samoan published novelist in the United States. Through her life experiences, Alofa introduces many themes including: colonization, self-identity, sexuality and violence.
The novel begins with Alofa experiencing her first period or menstruation.…show more content… Alofa is the most affected by it from the start to finish. “But tell me this once, my little dreamer, did I have a choice? Do you have a choice now that your eyes are opened to the darkness?” ( 239). She shows the most change physically, sexually and best of all her beliefs and ideas. Siniva was instrumental in Alofa finding herself in the darkness. The darkness refers to womanhood and changing society. Siniva received a masters in New Zealand before returning home, Malaefou. Siniva returned with ideas of ridding of colonization and returning Samoa to its “natural form”. The humiliation and rejection became too much for her and she decided to end her life. Alofa read her suicide note and was extremely moved to the point of wanting to carry on her…show more content… Reading the novel allowed me to experience the resistance of Western society in the Samoan culture. The people are afraid of losing their pure traditions and gaining tainted values. According to Stewart-Wither article, “cultural values and societal norms can place a considerable burden on young women to be sexually non-active outside of a marriage…” Mr. Brown, a white man, is a big part of this tainting with his pornography and filthy words. “His favourite words were ‘fucking-fucking-Jesus-Christ’.”(7) Mr. Brown was a representation of colonialism in the village. He had more rooms in his home than he could sleep in and books on the shelves that he has never read. While the community would love to be lifted out of poverty, they didn’t want to sell out their culture and rid of tradition to achieve status. With such a stigma placed on young and single mothers the community would rather not tempt the youth with such media. The struggle of single mothers is widespread in modern societies. The Stewart-Withers article highlights Samoan traditional cultural ideas of unity by stating “‘protocol and values that will ensure single mothers are not isolated as individuals or a social group, and that according to fa’asamoa neither will they be rendered to a fixed category.” Simply meaning single mothers should maintain status within the family and not to be outcast because of
