Analysis Of Widows By Ariel Dorfman

Ariel Dorfman’s story, Widows challenges the idea of nationalism in his story of European widows challenging the government in protest for their extermination of their village’s husbands, fathers and sons. Anti-nationalism is defined as the view against identifying yourself by only a single community, whether it is a town, a province, though most of the time a nation; encouraging a peaceful outlook onto the world where all humans do not divide themselves against each other and look at humanity as a singular unit. It is an idealist view which sponsors against classism and sexism, being in contradiction of the use of military aggression and chauvinism. This message is encouraged throughout the novel, from the expository preface to the ambiguous ending. It is not just to the story and the characters, it is even the disjointed narrative style which encourages the principles Anti-nationalism. Before the story, it is important to know some of the context that went into writing this story. The story’s two prefaces depicts the harsh environment Dorfman grew up in the nationalistic military state of Chile. Dorfman fled from Chile when his life in danger for holding liberal views against a rising military power responsible for the disappearance of thousands of Chileans. Dorfman Wanted to write about the injustices that were occurring in his birthplace and wanted to exposed this injustice to not only Chile, but the world. Instead of simply writing about Chile, he wanted to bring a