Human Sexuality in Kelemo's Woman

Response Paper

        Molaro Wood’s Kelemo’s Woman gives an insight into the struggle of being a woman and a political refugee in times of despair. Throughout the story the author sows a story of despair and yet also strength through the actions of Iriola. The world of Iriola, and her husband Kelemo, and my life in a America seem worlds apart yet they occur at the same time meanwhile being unaware of each other. Throughout the story both Kelemo and Iriola struggle with finding their independence and speaking out against an oppressive and unjust government, an act considered completely abstract and foreign to most people living in the Western world.

        Iriola’s struggle to support her husband and at the same time find her independence is apparent throughout the story. Reading the story I kept referring back to what her mother said on her death bed, “… this country of ours cannot be helped... Iriola, I beg of you. If the house is falling or the boat is sinking, secure for yourself a safe landing. A comfortable patch.” The words of her mother can be heard continuously throughout the story in Iriola’s mind. Although she supports her husband Kelemo, she begins to realize that this life of hiding in the shadows cannot continue. She begins to seek her independence once she realizes this. As she says in the story, “The hiding underground, the imprisonment without charge, the dicey, precarious life we had lived in our four years together. A life to which I was vicariously sentenced. I had grown weary of it.” Reading the story through Iriola’s eyes the clash between her independence and supporting Kelemo becomes obvious. The reader is kept on their toes wondering if at any moment Iriola claims her independence and leaves her husband Kelemo. This moment finally occurs when Iriola is captured by the army for being a supporter of the resistance to the newly installed government. Even in this moment the author makes apparent Iriolas dissatisfaction with her situation when Iriola says, “I wished I had not had to go on the run with him, but where else would I go?... It was Kelemo or nothing. I was his woman.”