The Faraway Bride · Question
How does The Faraway Bride develop the theme of Exile and Displacement?
Answer
The Faraway Bride by Stella Benson develops Exile and Displacement across the chapters the companion marks for this theme.
The White Russian characters live as refugees in Manchuria, stripped of their homeland and social standing, mirroring the exiled Jews in the Book of Tobit, which the author explicitly parallels.
The author explicitly compares the exiled Jews of Tobit's day to White Russian refugees, emphasizing rootlessness, loss of political standing, and the struggle to survive in a foreign land.
Seryozha's journey to Seoul and Anna's abandonment highlight the physical and emotional displacement experienced by the characters.
The Russian characters are far from home, burying fellow exiles in a foreign land; Old Sergei imagines the dead men's children 'picking flowers in the darling forests of Russia.'
Evidence in the book
- Author's Note
The author explicitly compares the exiled Jews of Tobit's day to White Russian refugees, emphasizing rootlessness, loss of political standing, and the struggle to survive in a foreign land.
- The Faraway Bride
Seryozha's journey to Seoul and Anna's abandonment highlight the physical and emotional displacement experienced by the characters.
- I
The Russian characters are far from home, burying fellow exiles in a foreign land; Old Sergei imagines the dead men's children 'picking flowers in the darling forests of Russia.'
- III
The family's precarious existence in a foreign land, marked by poverty, reliance on missionary charity, and the son's dangerous journey to Seoul, underscores their displacement and loss of homeland.
- V
The Malinins' poverty and reliance on a debt in Seoul highlight their precarious existence as Russian exiles in China.
- Tobit's Anxiety and Tobias's Return
The Ostapenkos' reliance on a foreign legal ceremony in the absence of Russian religious rites underscores their status as exiles adapting to new circumstances.
- I
Tobit is led captive from his homeland to Nineveh, living among Gentiles while striving to maintain his faith.
- IV
Tobit's concern for marrying within the tribe and preserving the faith underscores the challenges of maintaining identity in a foreign land.
