Difficulty Overcoming Life’s Difficulties

The Cry of Winnie Mandela is a novel written by Njabulo Ndebele about four waiting women. The novel shows these women facing many hardships while waiting for their husbands. Through these hardships, the women become stronger in many ways. Ways of Dying is a novel written by Zakes Mda about a professional mourner. That mourner ends up meeting and living with a friend from back home, Noria. Through the novel, we see Noria telling the mourner about her life and the hardships she has faced.

Through all the hardships she went through, Noria has also come out of them stronger. The novels, the Cry of Winnie Mandela and Ways of Dying both represent how women change and grow due to hardship.

In Ways of Dying, we see Noria’s character develop and grow because of many ordeals. When Noria’s husband kicked her out of the house, this incident became one of the first ordeals that started to change Noria. Because of being evicted, Noria must now get a job in order to support her son.

Noria being forced to get a job is something that starts to make her independent. Noria no longer is able to rely on her husband so, she is learning to rely only upon herself to earn money to feed and clothe her child. Developing independence is a way for Noria to also gain freedom. With her new independence, Noria has gained freedom away from her husband and is not required to obey society’s standards of obeying your husband.

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With being away from her husband, Noria is forced into thinking on her own now, but we do see that Noria embraces it. Noria becoming independent is making her a stronger woman.

Time away from her husband has also given Noria courage and confidence. When Noria was kicked out of her house, she did not fight back, she just accepted it. After two years of living on her own and providing for her son, Noria gained the confidence to go back to Napu. She kicked out the woman living with Napu, and told him she was moving back in by exclaiming, “’Woman, I am back in my house. You collect your rags and go’” (Mda, 91)! It takes a ton of courage and confidence to go back after two years and not demand but state that you are moving back in.

This is a way Noria is fighting back against her husband and showing him that she is not the person she used to be. Noria will not let him kick her out of her own house so easily and is showing him that she will fight back. Some might say that Noria is not relying on her independent strength by going back to Napu but, Noria is not going back for herself but, for her son. Through the ways Noria provides for her son, she is showing strength. Noria is showing that she will do anything for her son. She never thinks about herself, only what will be best for her son.

The death of Noria’s first son, Vutha, is another hard experience that changes her. Vutha was taken away from Noria by Napu and taken to live in the city. After Noria was forced to make another new life for herself in the city, she finds out that Vutha died. When telling this story to Toloki, a friend, Noria states, “I cannot speak about my troubles any longer” (Mda, 139). Noria is probably stating this because she does not want to talk about the difficult subject of her son’s death anymore, but she also could be saying this because through sheer will and strength, she has been able to move past this hardship.