Dinah's Stories

Welcome to my second post! In this post, I am going to tackle something that the other people reading The Red Tent have already tackled in their last blog post: characters. This is a difficult topic because there are so many of them. Just in case any of my descriptions are unclear, feel free to reference their blogs: Clara-fying: The Red Tent and Seeing Red (Tent) by JW.

All the characters can be hard to keep track of because there are so many of them. In this second section, a great number of characters are introduced and the characters from the first section continue to play a prominent role. Because of the sheer number of characters, I am only going to discuss the ones that I think are most important at this point in the book. But first, I am going to put a picture of the family tree that is included in the book, just in case visuals help.

(I also took this picture, so I don't need a citation)

Although I said I am only going to discuss the most important characters, there are still alot of important characters, so bear with me.

I'll start with Dinah, the narrator of the novel and the daughter of Jacob and Leah. She is extremely likable from the beginning. As I discussed in my last blog post, she addresses the audience and made me feel really welcome, so I automatically had a good feeling about her. As the book progresses, she has proven that the feeling I got about her is well deserved because she is obviously a caring and strong individual. When she finds Ruti (a character who is not important enough to discuss, but what you need to know is that she is not really Dinah's favorite person) dead, she has a lot of difficulties dealing with what she sees: "I stared, trying to understand where Ruti had gone. And although I didn't realize it, I was holding my breath" (Diamant 97). Although this may not seem like a big reaction to some people, her reaction is distinct compared to Ruti's sons' reactions, which could be classified as no reaction at all: "They threw a blanket over their mother's face without so much as a sigh" (Diamant 98). You would think that her sons would be more upset by their mother's death, but instead, Dinah is the one who cares. She is also very adventurous. I noticed this when she and her family start to journey away from their home to visit Jacob's brother, Esau. Dinah "liked the sights of the road" (Diamant 113) and she likes the feeling of the river: "The current felt like a caress on my knees and thighs" (Diamant 111-112). She is definitely meant to be a character that the readers like and enjoy following.

Joseph is one of Dinah's many brothers. Although he does not play a very large role, he is the brother who is closest to Dinah. They explore the river together and Joseph tells her about things that she does not experience herself. For example, "he would sometimes run over to get a closer look at a particularly strange animal or costume. I was too shy to go with him, and my mothers would not have permitted it. My brother described what he saw and we marveled over it all" (Diamant 113). He understands Dinah, and they are very much alike. Although they are close in the beginning and toward the middle of the book, it seems like Joseph and Dinah start to drift further apart throughout this second section that I read. 

Leah is Dinah's biological mother. Dinah also considers Leah's sisters (Jacob's other wives) Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah to be her mothers. Leah has the most influence on Dinah, but all the sisters share a very motherly presence. When they hear about what happens with Ruti and Dinah, they are all very comforting: "Leah searched my face and covered it with kisses. Rachel hugged me close, and laid me down on her fragrant bed. Zilpah sang me a lullaby about abundant rains and luxuriant harvests while Bilhah rubbed my feet until I fell asleep" (Diamant 98-99). They each take a slightly different role and try to make Dinah feel better. In addition to being comforting, they are also very clever. When they have to depart on a long journey to go stay with Jacob's brother, they don't want to leave their teraphim of gods behind, so Rachel steals them from their father and takes them with them. When their father comes for them, Rachel says, "'the teraphim of our family now bathe in my monthly blood, by which your household gods are polluted beyond redemption" (Diamant 118). This is clever because she knows that this will revolt her father, and he will not make her show him the proof of what she says, so Rachel and her sisters are able to keep the teraphim. All of Dinah's mothers are characters that you root for. They are good examples of strong women for Dinah to look up to. 

Jacob is Dinah's father and the husband to Leah, Bilhah, Rachel, and Zilpah. He treats his children and his wives well. He is also very clever like his wives; when he plans to leave Laban's (Leah's father) household, he tricks Laban into thinking that he got the best deal when in reality Jacob did. Jacob offers to only take the animals that are not purebloods and do not yield pure white wool or evenly tanned skins, but "what Laban did not know was that the 'poorer' beasts were hardier and healthier than the animals that yielded the fancy wool and the pretty skins" (Diamant 94). This is very clever of him because he will be able to grow his flock again once he has settled in one place.

In this second section, we also meet Jacob's brother Esau. Although we are originally led to believe that Esau is going to be absolutely terrible and try to kill his brother, "the unthinkable happened" (Diamant 129). Esau is extremely pleased to see his brother and "threw his arms around" Jacob (Diamant 129). Though many people ignore the lesser wives and their sons when introduced to them, Esau does not and instead "approached the lesser sons just as he had my other brothers, going to Dan, Gad, and Asher, taking their hands in greeting" (Diamant 131). Through this interaction, we can see that Esau is a very respectable man. 

Another new character that we meet becomes Dinah's new best friend, Tabea, her cousin. They have an instant connection, and Tabea seems very similar to Dinah. They both enjoy sharing stories and wandering. They immediately seem comfortable around each other and "compare what was happening to their bodies" (Diamant 133). Although neither of them are yet women, they "laughed until our eyes filled with tears, which made us laugh even more until we were rolling on the ground" (Diamant 133). Although they have to part after Dinah's journey, they know they will see each other again when they go to meet the Grandmother. When they meet again, Tabea is a woman, while Dinah still remains a child. The Grandmother finds out that Tabea's mother, Adath, locks Tabea away in solitude when she has her 'first blood,' and causes her to cast out Adath. Tabea begs for the Grandmother to let her stay: "'Take my name and call me Deborah, too. Make me the least of your servants but do not banish me. Oh please, Grandmother. Please. I beg you, I beg you'" (Diamant 156). The Grandmother ignores her pleas, and it is unclear whether or not Dinah will ever encounter Tabea again. Even so, she is a good friend and cousin to Dinah in the time they are together, so I thought it would be important to mention her.

And that brings me to the last character I am going to discuss in this blog post, the Grandmother, also known as Rebecca, the mother of Jacob and Esau. She is a very complex character. As mentioned above, she banishes Tabea like it's nothing, even though Tabea does not have a choice in how her mother treats her. This is what makes Dinah hate the Grandmother, but Leah explains to her why the Grandmother's actions were necessary: "'It was not her intention to harm Tabea. I think she loved her well enough, but she had no choice. She was defending her mother and herself, and me and your aunties, you and your daughters after you'"(Diamant 157). This makes the Grandmother's actions a bit more understandable because one must defend the traditions that they have. The Grandmother also asks Dinah to stay behind after her family has left, which is an honor. While Dinah is there, the Grandmother is not very kind about Jacob's and Esau's wives, but at the same time, when the townsfolk visit the Grandmother for advice or help, she is very kind and understanding. One woman who visits is particularly noteworthy: a mother carrying her son who is old enough to walk but is not because "his legs were withered and his feet were covered with sores, raw and oozing, and painful to see" (Diamant 164). The Grandmother takes him, rubs salve into his wounds, and lets him sleep. The Grandmother is a character who brings up conflicting emotions because sometimes she seems cruel and cold-hearted, like she is with Tabea, and sometimes she seems caring, like she is with the boy. After Dinah leaves, it is not clear whether the Grandmother continues to play a role in the story, but I look forward to finding out whether or not she does.

Thank you all so much for sticking with me through my description of all these characters. I apologize for the length of this post, but thank you again for reading it all. I'm excited to continue to explore Dinah's stories. Until next time!