Tales of Juha, Part 2

     After I finished reading chapters two through four of Tales of Juha, I have to admit that I was very confused. How could Juha, a character presented with so much wit and cunning in the first chapter of the book, have turned into a male supremacist and then a dumb simpleton in the next three chapters?

     I mean, really. This part of the reading took me on a roller coaster. After reading chapter two, I felt insulted. Juha presented women as stupid people that should be valued less than the average man. We all know that this isn’t true. Women have just as much potential to be as smart as men do.

     Then I got to thinking about the culture these stories are presented in. It’s common knowledge that in the Arab/Muslim culture women are seen as inferior to men. Women often don’t receive the level of education men do, and therefore end up having less knowledge. Still, that doesn’t make these stories any less insulting to me. Even though Muslim women may not receive the same education as men do, that doesn’t mean they don’t have the potential to be as smart as men. Those women just don’t have the same opportunities as their male counterparts. I felt it was wrong for women to be made fun of for a problem that’s caused by males. Males keep women out of the educational system; therefore, males cause women to have inferior knowledge.

     By the time I turned to chapter four, I came down off my frustration and entered into a state of confusion. I started reading stories in which Juha was the butt of the joke. Juha had lost all of his wit and cunning and was even sometimes rendered incapable of doing simple things like counting donkeys properly. It seemed impossible that the same character could embody three different personalities: witty scholar, male supremacist, and simpleton. I decided to go back to the book’s introduction to find an explanation. There, I found my answer.

     The introduction, titled “The Unforgettable Juha,” explains that the character of Juha represents characters that have provoked laughter across many different communities of people over different periods of time. Juha “embodies a world of multiple signs” and “cannot be forgotten because he sums up, in himself, a complex, intricate human universe that endures through time and is unaffected by change of place.”

     Juha is just a name, a blank slate. Juha is a character that has been transformed by many different communities within the Arab culture over a great period of time. What the author tries to show us in Tales of Juha is how this character can transform and still remain static. Rather, the author shows us how Juha can change personalities but still keep the quality of being humorous to the community he’s presented in. This book is a study of humor across the entire Arab world. It strives to show us the many different types of humor offered in that culture, from witty cognitive shifts to sexist jokes. Once I realized that, I appreciated this book even more. I’m no longer confused about the character of Juha, and I realize why we’re reading this book. Juha, as the author notes, is an unforgettable character because he provides a unique look into the Arab world.