The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

The Red Tent

Overview and Analysis

The first fiction novel that Anita Diamant wrote explores the lives of women in biblical times. In The Red Tent the main character Dinah, the only daughter in Jacob’s tribe, narrates her perception of life within Jacob’s family. She discusses the roles of the men and women in the community and how the women have had a major impact in her life. As the only female offspring in her generation, Dinah is pampered and given much attention to by her mothers and the women in the tribe. The power of the relationships between the female characters in the novel influenced Dinah’s future.

Later in the novel Dinah falls in love with the Prince of Shechem, named Shalem. This is the famous biblical story known as the “Rape of Dinah.” But in this fiction novel, Diamant portrays that Dinah is in love with the prince and that she was not a victim of a horrible crime. Two of Dinah’s brothers murder Shalem. This upsets Dinah so much that she curses her family and moves to Egypt with her mother-in-law. There she gives birth to Re-mose, son of the prince. After a time, Dinah remarries to a carpenter named Benia. Dinah becomes happy with her new family and is also a renowned midwife in the town. She lives out her days and dies a happy woman.

This novel holds many themes that relate to our course. It addresses patriarchy and the male-centric perspective of the Bible, gender roles in that society, and essentialism. The book, even though it was not an attempt to fill in the gaps in the Bible, provides the woman’s viewpoint of the stories in the Bible. This avoids the male-centric narrative by replacing it with the narrative of Dinah, the only daughter in Jacob’s tribe. Within this patriarchal society, Dinah found refuge with the women in the family. She escaped from the male canon to explore the female relations that helped hold the family together. This can be related to the gender roles that were present in the Biblical times. In the story and in the Bible, the female members of the community were required to cook and run the family camps while the males tend to the flocks or farms and provide the income for the family. The women also cared for the girls in the family while the men cared for the boys. The boys would play games that were meant for boys and they would learn how to tend to the flock or become an apprentice in their father’s line of work. The same process was used to rear the girls. They would follow their mothers around and learn the trade secrets of keeping the camp and cooking for the family, much like Dinah did in the novel. This also plays into the concept of essentialism. Women were supposed to give birth and care for children, while men were supposed to be source of income for the family. The idea was that the women had the personality and skills for being at home to be caring and loving for the household while men had the strength and capacity for gaining financial and political success. It was biologically imprinted into the society for the separation of gender within the community.

These multiple themes can fall into the broader category that has been studied throughout the course. This is social construction. All of these ideas came out of the social construction of the authors of the Bible. Diamant takes these ideas and transforms them through the eyes of a female character who must follow those rules of society. It is an interesting book because it takes the this female perspectives and gives an interpretation of Biblical stories. It is another way to view the Bible and is an innovative and influential piece in literature. 2