Please help me with my discussion !

Sample Student Response: Dikeledi's Dilemma in "The Collector of Treasures"

     If Dikeledi had committed spousal castration in 1993 in the United States, she may have had the chance for a fair trial and been found not guilty due to post traumatic stress syndrome. That’s what happened when, after years of abuse and rape, Lorena Bobbitt severed her husband’s penis and tossed it out the car window into a field as she fled the crime scene. In contrast to Garesego’s demise, Lorena’s husband did not die from the wound. Both women were pushed over the edge of sanity by abusive husbands.  Dikeledi had no chance of being found temporarily insane. She was, after all, an African woman in 1966 Botswana before women’s rights, women’s studies, and women’s advocates arrived.

       Dikeledi knew she would be put in prison for life if she assaulted her husband, but he was a despicable person. He abused her when they lived together, and continued to humiliate her and their children when he moved out of their home. He had become one of the “success men” (Head 57) who did not manage his new wealth appropriately. He was a womanizing drunk who did not pay any attention to his children emotionally or financially. To further his control over her life, he would not give Dikeledi a divorce so she could build a new life. Instead, he kept her forever tied to him in humiliation and hate as she struggled to support her family.

     Dikeledi believed that all men were like her husband. Later, when she went to prison, she met women who had murdered their husbands for similar reasons, and one in similar fashion. Prior to the crime, she met one man, her neighbor Paul, who showed her kindness and appreciation. She shaped a content life with Paul and his family as close friends, and built a good reputation in her community as a helpful, faithful woman. These “treasures of kindness and love” (61) meant everything to Dikeledi, and she wanted to protect her treasures at all cost.

     Paul and Dikeledi did not have a physical relationship, but there was affection between them. When Garesego accused them of having an affair, the added insult of this accusation coupled with his refusal to help pay for their son’s education distressed Dikeledi so much that she formulated her plan to dismember, and almost certainly kill, her husband. Just prior to the assault, she looked in on her sleeping children one last time. Garesego may have saved himself if he had shown some kindness toward the children, but he was too self-centered to acknowledge them. This selfishness seemed to have sealed his fate (63).

     It is almost easier to question what took Dikeledi so long to murder her husband than wonderwhy she did it if she knew she would never return to her children. It would have been better for everyone if she would have never contacted him to ask for money in the first place. Maybe she had the false hope that her husband could change and be more like Paul. There is no mention of spiritual conscience in this story as Dikeledi was neither sorry for the crime nor worried about eternal damnation for unrepentant sinners. Perhaps the strong friendship with Paul and his wife gave her the strength to leave her children with the hope that they would be cared for in her absence, although she did not have certainty of that until after the crime. Realizing that she could not escape her husband who told her to prepare for his visit, and fearing his insistence on sex, she felt trapped.

     Another question is why slash the genitals? Why not use some less messy and more discreet method of murder? Head described an evil kind of man, prevalent in society, animal-like, and in a constant state of orgasm as if “he was the only penis in the world” (44). Clearly, Head equated the penis with male power over women in this society.  When Dikeledi severed Garesego’s penis, she took control and stripped him of his power over her life.  Lorena Bobbitt probably felt the same way. The difference is that Lorena went free, and Dikeledi did not.

Works Cited

Head, Bessie. "Collector of Treasures." To Stir the Heart. New York: Feminist Press, 2007. 36-65. Print.