The Whale Rider

566 Words3 Pages
In traditional Maori society women are discriminated as Koro the chief of the traditional Maori tribe, believes his leadership should be passed on only to a ‘male heir’ because of his traditional beliefs “The trouble was that Koro Apirana could not reconcile his traditional beliefs about Maori leadership and mana with Kahu’ birth”. Thus he never expects Kahu to retrieve the stone nor saving the whales when none of the villagers can rescue them. Simply because she is a girl. His negative attitude towards Kahu shows he is blinded by the traditional beliefs. The key idea of gender role expectations is important is an important idea in the text because it highlights the unfair treatment given to women by the patriarchal society. Through Koro’s disappointment at Kahu’s birth as he expects his leadership to be passed on to a male. His dialogue ‘I won’t have anything to do with her. That Porourangi better have a son next time’ the reader understands women are looked down upon and discriminated according to the traditional values. This is important as it shows the favour of male over females’. In some traditional society like Middle Eastern and Asian a female are view as inferior. Just like Koro’s disappointment, the birth of a female is a major cause of female infanticide. These clearly highlight how gender role expectations treat women unfairly. The idea of gender role expectations is important in the incident when Kahu retrieves the carved whale tooth because Koro’s reaction, when Nanny Flower shows the stone to him affirms the idea that Koro does not expect any girl to retrieve it. As his quote suggested” which of the boys?” retrieval of the whale tooth by Kahu symbolically foreshadows that Kahu is going to achieve thing in future that male in her tribe would not be able to. This is important because in traditional society women are seen to be incapable to be bread
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