Symbolism In Pramoedya Ananta Toer's This Earth Of Mankind

Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s, This Earth of Mankind, written while he was imprisoned by Indonesian dictators, examines postcolonial Dutch East Indies and the awakening of Indonesia through the allegory created by the characters. Taking place in 1898, the main character Minke, the only Native boy in a primarily Dutch school, transforms into a man and realizes that he, and the people he represents, have been imprisoned under the mindset that they are secondary to the Dutch. Toer’s extensive use of symbolism, irony and narrative perspective exposes how colonizers abuse and oppress human rights of those they deem inferior, and how the colonized are slowly realizing that they are being subdued. Annelise Mellema symbolizes how the Dutch has made the

Herman Mellema was one of the fully Dutch characters who played an important part in the book. Because of colonization, he was considered to be on the highest level of the social hierarchy. His full Dutch blood let him claim his half Dutch children so they would get the benefits of Dutch rights although it was his nyai, Nyai who had been the one who had pretty much raised them especially Ann. However, by the end of the book, Herman’s death is one the most ironic things to occur. The man who had been placed so highly on a pedestal by the Dutch standards, ends up the lowest character. Minke describes the discovery of Herman Mellema as “the body of a European lay in the corner of the dining room. The body was long and big, fat large-stomached…His throat and neck were covered in yellow vomit. The smell of liquor filled the room. His shirt and pants were filthy, as if they hadn’t been washed for a month” (270). Herman Mellemas death is associated with things that society considers degrading; his body being found near a brothel, most likely infected with syphilis, smelling like liquor and filthy. The man who everyone should aspire to be like, according to the European standard, is dirty and covered in his own vomit. This explains why Toer emphasizes the fact that it is a European body that is found in this condition rather than someone like Nyai who has been judged and degraded throughout the book for her position as Herman’s concubine. Herman’s death is the beginning of the natives realizing what their worth is in the eyes of the the Dutch and how it is wrong. For example, Minke realizes that “all that glorified european science and learning was a load of nonsense, empty talk. Empty talk! In the end it would all be nothing more than a took to rob us of all