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Originally Posted by gmw
There was some of the expected racism, sexism and classism - all coming together in the description our Princess Aouda: "from her manners and intelligence, would be thought an European." But no more than expected, it seemed to me.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by astrangerhere
I was particularly bothered by the treatment of Aouda throughout. As per normal in the adventure literature of the time, she was there to be threatened, rescued, and married. She is there to prop up and move forward the story of the male protagonists. I suppose that I should find it somewhat novel that she proposed marriage to him, but that did not make up for it for me.
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Aouda was an underdeveloped character, but I was OK with that. I thought the description of her as seeming "European" simply indicated that she and the men were part of the same cultural framework and therefore shared the same sensibilities; she fit in, so we didn't need to deal with culture shock.
What's wrong with her being a secondary character to the men in an adventure story written in the 19th century? Her rescue lets us see Fogg as principled and heroic, when to that point he's been quite a prig. She could easily have been left in Hong Kong, as she served little purpose in the story till she was needed again for the plot at the end, but so what? Most of the men in the story are marginal as well, there only to provide obstacles or assistance as needed to advance the story.