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Summary Of Pramoedya Ananta Toer's This Earth Of Mankind

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In Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s book This Earth of Mankind, the depiction of the Natives in this novel permitted the author to expose the effects of colonization by the Europeans in Indonesia. Throughout this novel, the Natives are consistently portrayed as the social group, who is deemed inferior in comparison to the Europeans, which contributes to their oppression. The two characters that represent this attribute are Nyai and Minke. Additionally, the emotions, and the relationships of the characters alludes to the effects of the colonization, which aids in the development of the protagonist. Nyai Ontosoroh is one of the central characters in this novel and she is described as a formidable Native woman, “...this Nyai Ontosoroh who was talked about by so many people, whose name was on the lips of everyone in Wonokromo and Surabaya...”(29), despite her backstory and status as a concubine for Herman Mellema. While she does stand out from the ordinary Natives as a Nyai, she’s also considered different due to how she carries herself as an authentic European woman, “....who had graduated from an English boarding school” (34). However even with her behaviour, she is considered to be inferior to the Europeans because of her looks and her affair with Herman Mellema. “ ...Had I become a Dutch woman with brown skin? I didn’t dare answer, even though I saw the backwardness of the Natives around me. I didn’t mix very much with Europeans...” (91). Consequently she is differentiated from

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