"This Earth of Mankind" tells about an idealist and smart young man, called Minke, who faces colonial era and racial division in his youth. A tale about how maturity gradually opens the eyes of affection. A complex feeling of Minke towards mankind, cultural differences and his surrounding. The list of Minke's deepest thoughts of humanity and his sweet love-story.
Minke, the central character and the narrator of this book, is a son of B town regent who studies in a Dutch high school in Surabaya, Indonesia. He is clever native student with confidence and uphold on his beliefs amidst the social strata.
His life begins to change as one of his friend invited him to visit a house, owned by a mysterious family. To a place where he meets his first love, a mix-blooded blossoming flower Annelies Mellema and the owner of the house, Nyai Ontosoroh who later becomes Minke's mother in law is a concubine of a Dutch man named Herman Mellema.
At the very first time of meeting, Minke is mesmerized by Nyai Ontosoroh's strong and graceful characters. For, as that time, an ordinary native woman especially a concubine like her usually does not have wide knowledge and enchanting pride. Later, explained by herself that she has a harsh experience in the past, Minke knows that Nyai gained knowldege and learnt to read by his husband, Herman who later proves worthless. Altough Herman is no longer accepted in that house, what he have done in the past helps Nyai to develop other languanges and even run a business and stand with her own feet to continue her life.
Nyai becomes the person who influences Minke to be independent and brave with his idealist beliefs.
Minke who finally feels the love at the first sight, get surprised about the pureness of Annelies' minds. And Annelies adores Minke with the whole of her honest heart. And finally they are married under the Islamic way.
As they relationship grows deeper, the bad rumors spread along the town. Leading the well-educated Minke to the court. To proof that the racial division is not fair, Minke starts to write many articles about justice and humanity.
But, the problem has not end yet. His marriage is threatened because Annelies is a mix-blooded. The Dutch do not accept it because they think Annelies has married without the permit of her guardian.
Later, this book ends with the failing Minke and Nyai to keep Annelies' right. And the Dutch takes Annelies to sail back to the Netherland.
However, their last lines in the novel show that they have not lost anything, but rather gained.
Eventhough their loved one is temporarily taken away from them, they know that they have achieved
their goal. After setting a great example to the public, they know that they’ve shared to others the importance of voicing out opinions for their rights and justice.
At the very beginning of reading this complex book, I was surprised about how Pram let his story pours down by the naration of Minke. As if I could know the real thoughts of a smart student like Minke, Pram represented liberation and justice on Minke's way of thinking. How the way Minke critizes and regrets about the unlucky lives of native, about how he hates to know that everything that breathes in the land has to divided in strata.
And the most heart-clenching part of this book is when finally they come to take Annelies' back to the Netherland. How Annelies broken-heartly closes his heart to accept that she will no longer stay with her beloved Minke and becomes weaker and weaker to face the unfair truth. And she does not even look back to wave Minke and her Momma goodbye :_:
For a 18 year old girl like me, this book is very complex yet interesting. From this book I can imagine the colonial lives that I never thought about. I can imagine how hard the life of native people in the colonial era, how poor they become to live in a such racial phase. How poor they are to live in their own region but led by the cruel. How unfortunate
the unjust life of the Indonesian people during the Dutch colonization period when social status was led by the amount of European blood running through their veins.
Daddy also asked me if I understand why this book titled This Earth of Mankind. This meant the situation about our country in the Dutch colonial era. Daddy explained that most of the native that lived at that era didn't even realize that they were being treated unwell in their own country. It was a pity for the poor native to had no right to go to school and even had a proper job instead of being a farmer or the European's workers. Minke was lucky because he was the son of a regent, he even had the chance to go to Dutch school. And what hurt most? it was pathetic to see a native walk by crawling with his head down because they did not allowed to face their (also) native boss. How some rich and lucky natives succeed to have a connection with the European government and they did not even want to help the other poor natives but end up acted and treated the poors like they were the real European.
Minke's situation as the son of a regent did not make him become arrogant. He was one of the small group of natives in his school (though the others were half-blooded) and faced some racist comments from his friends and surrounding. With his brilliant achievement in school, he ranked top over the other students. But, everything changed as he met Nyai Ontosoroh, a native concubine that made him surprised with her ability to write and speak in multiple language ( she's only a concubine). It made him realize that even the poorest native have the chance to live properly. The conflict got real as he fell hard for Nyai's daughter, Annelies ( she's mix-blooded). This is what Pram wanted to share with us. About a place where many cultures and nations live there (though, it's unfairly). About what kind of things that can happen among those people and the unjust story that occur inside it. To make us understand that it is, it is the earth of mankind.
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