martha quest by doris lessing

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marta quest

Plot Summary
We first meet Martha Quest, the heroine of Doris Lessing's insightful, visionary novel, sitting on the veranda of her parents' farm, listening with irritation to a conversation between her mother and a neighbor. Martha's frown, the intensity of her annoyance, and the fact that she is reading-and bored with-a popular book about sex, set the stage for this extraordinary young woman's coming-of-age story. As Lessing's novel takes her away from her parents' home and into an independent life in the city, Martha will frown almost incessantly; feel irritated by the frivolous nature of her fellow citizens; contemplate deeply the world around her; and read voraciously. In many ways, Martha Quest is a typical teenaged girl. And yet, in so many other ways, she is not. Set in a particular time-the eve of World War II-and in a particular place-the British colony of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe)-the novel offers countless opportunities for the reader to reflect on issues that continue to plague us today: racism and religious prejudice, gender roles and stereotypes, the dominance of one society over another, and the encroachment of modern thinking on established tradition. But it is Martha's own struggles with these issues that give the book its power and insight. Martha is, like many young people, trying to make sense of the conflicts that are inevitable in a country simmering with social unrest, and in a world on the brink of war. She has developed most of her beliefs from books she has read-everything from fairy tales to sophisticated political tracts-but, living within the ********tered confines of her parent's colonial farm, has yet to apply these beliefs to real life.

When Martha does get the chance to put her principles to work, her experience is both heroic and woefully tragic. Like any young person striking out on her own for the first time, Martha is lured by the temptations of material goods, of being accepted by a popular crowd. Nor is she immune to the effects of alcohol or the mystery of sex. With immense compassion Lessing portrays Martha's struggle to balance her strong idealistic beliefs with the realities of adult life, and with the general apathy of her social group. Stunned into confused silence by the brutality she witnesses in her friends' treatment of the Africans and each other, Martha escapes to her rented room filled with remorse and self-loathing. Determined to change the world tomorrow, she throws herself into bed-only to find herself the next morning drawn back to a carefree life of dancing, drinking, and romance. Carried like a twig through the whirlpool and eddies of adult life, Martha ultimately ends up engaged to a man she barely knows. She is determined to be happy, yet she is nagged by an inner voice that tells her she is following in the footsteps of her mother's own unfulfilling marriage. What will happen to Martha Quest? Lessing leaves us wanting more-and does indeed give us more in subsequent novels about Martha. But even if we read only this first installment in the Children of Violence sequence, we have met an unforgettable character, one whose perceptions about and sensitivity to her changing world reflect the burgeoning consciousness of a passionate young woman.

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