This Earth of Mankind by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
"This Earth of Mankind" is the first novel in the Buru Quartet by Indonesian author Pramoedya Ananta Toer, written during his time in a penal colony. The narrative is set against the backdrop of the decline of Dutch colonial rule in Indonesia and follows Minke, a young man from a minor aristocratic Javanese family with aspirations of becoming a writer. His education at a high school attended primarily by students of European descent exposes him to the harsh realities of colonial inequality, shaping his worldview.
The story introduces Nyai Ontosoroh, an Indonesian woman who occupies a precarious social position as a concubine to a Dutch man, Herman Mellema. Through Minke's relationship with Nyai and her children, the novel explores themes of identity, love, and the complexities of colonial society. Minke's love for Herman's daughter, Annalies, leads to a brief marriage, but Dutch law ultimately tears them apart, highlighting the tragic consequences of colonial oppression.
As the Buru Quartet progresses, Minke evolves as a character, shifting from writing in Dutch to Malay and becoming involved in nationalist movements. The subsequent novels examine his journey towards political activism and personal growth in the face of colonial challenges, making "This Earth of Mankind" a significant work in Indonesian literature and history.
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This Earth of Mankind by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of World Literature, Revised Edition
First published:Bumi manusia, 1980 (English translation, 1982)
Type of work: Novel
The Work
This Earth of Mankind was the first novel in the Buru Quartet, a series of historical novels that Pramoedya composed while in the Buru penal colony. It opens Pramoedya’s fictionalized history of the end of Dutch rule in Indonesia. The hero of the novel, a youth named Minke, is from a minor aristocratic family of Java. Minke has aspirations to be a writer, and a number of his works have been published in Dutch-language periodicals. His talents and his somewhat privileged social position have enabled him to attend a high school where all of the other students are of at least partly European ancestry. The snobberies and rejections Minke experiences at the high school begin his movement toward an awareness of colonial inequality, and they also give Pramoedya a means of dramatizing this inequality for readers of the novel.
Minke becomes acquainted with an Indonesian woman named Nyai Ontosoroh. She occupies a position at the margins of both Indonesian and colonial Dutch society because she is the concubine of a Dutch man, Herman Mellema. The Indonesians look down on Nyai Ontosoroh as a concubine. For the Dutch, she can never be a wife or hold a recognized position in the household.
Nyai runs a dairy business and has two half-European children by Herman Mellema, a son, Robert, and a daughter, Annalies. Robert comes to hate Minke, but Minke falls in love with Annalies. He also forms a close bond with the mother, and Nyai urges Minke to follow his own ambitions and become a writer.
Minke and Annalies marry, but Herman Mellema decides to acknowledge his children. While this saves them from being condemned to be natives, it also means that Nyai loses all control over her own children. Annalies is taken away from Minke, their marriage not recognized by Dutch law, and she is sent to the Netherlands to live with her Dutch relatives. When Annalies dies, this is the great tragedy of Minke’s life, but it is also a stage in his growing understanding of the world around him.
The two books that follow This Earth of Mankind in the Buru Quartet, Child of All Nations and Footsteps, continue the story of Minke. He begins to write in Malay (Indonesian), rather than Dutch, and he learns about events in the wider world, particularly the emergence of Japan as a world power. He marries a second time, to a Chinese woman. He founds a native organization and a nationalist newspaper. In the final book of the quartet, House of Glass, Minke appears as an opposition leader, but the story is told from the point of view of Pangemanann, an Indonesian with a European education who is charged with destroying opposition movements.
Bibliography
Ali, Nur’ainy. Pramoedya Ananta Toer: Selected Early Works, 1949-1952, an Interpretive Study. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 1999.
Chudori, Leila S., and Dewi Rina Cahyani. “On Translating ’The Mute’s Soliloquy.’” World Press Review 46, no. 11 (November, 1999): 12.
Day, Tony. “Locating Indonesian Literature in the World.” Modern Language Quarterly 68, no. 2 (June, 2007): 173-193.
GoGwilt, Chris. “Pramoedya’s Fiction and History: An Interview with Pramoedya Ananta Toer.” Yale Journal of Criticism 9 (Spring, 1996): 147-164.
Tong, Sebastian. “Unexpected Convergences: Bakhtin’s Novelistic Discourse and Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s ’Epic’ Novels.” World Literature Today 73, no. 3 (Summer, 1999): 481-484.
Vickers, Adrian. “Reading Pramoedya Ananta Toer and Writing Indonesian History.” New Literatures Review 22 (Winter, 1991): 82-102.
Vltchek, Andre, and Rossie Indira. Exile: Conversations with Pramoedya Ananta Toer. Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2006.