"Allegory of War" by Peter Paul Rubens, http://www.oceansbridge.com/oil-paintings/product/2248/allegoryofwar1628
The Sand Child features a narrative style which challenges western minds to misunderstand everything they may think they understand about the pattern in which stories are told. Described as “sensuous and visual”, Ben Jelloun is said to “wreak havoc on established literary genres and styles” (Abdel-Jaouad 36). Ben Jelloun uses language to juxtapose the chaotic and violent with the poetic and beautiful to order communicate the contradictory nature of colonization. The Sand Child is used as an allegorical tale of the effects which colonization can have on a nation by recounting the life of a young woman whose gender is usurped by her tyrannical father and portraying the inevitable effects of this identity confusion (Sunders 136-137).
Ben Jelloun's Allegorical Novel
The Sand Child features a narrative style which challenges western minds to misunderstand everything they may think they understand about the pattern in which stories are told. Described as “sensuous and visual”, Ben Jelloun is said to “wreak havoc on established literary genres and styles” (Abdel-Jaouad 36). Ben Jelloun uses language to juxtapose the chaotic and violent with the poetic and beautiful to order communicate the contradictory nature of colonization. The Sand Child is used as an allegorical tale of the effects which colonization can have on a nation by recounting the life of a young woman whose gender is usurped by her tyrannical father and portraying the inevitable effects of this identity confusion (Sunders 136-137).