The Cleft

Doris Lessing, The Cleft

In her 2007 novel The Cleft, Doris Lessing retells the story of our human kind through her much imaginative, mythological tale. Categorized as a post-colonial work, the highly symbolic title suggests the overall strong feminist undertone within the narrative. Even though Lessing herself does not want to be referred to as feminist writer, her works constantly deals with feminist ideas. Told from the remote beginning of human existence, the tale arouses the long forgotten memory about how the two sexes come to know each other, and how, along the way, the two groups became inseparable.

Finding the concepts through a scientific article, Lessing based her tale on the speculation that the very basic and primal human existence is of the female sex, and that male found its existence much later. Through the narrator, a Roman historian, we are told the very first tale about our ancient ancestors. The “Cleft” that titles the novel is a pre-historical group of women who lives a self-sufficient life on the rocky sea shore. Conceived by nature, these ancient women gave birth only to its own kind. The tale begins at the time when baby boys, being called as “monster” or “squirts”, start being born to this maternal group.

“Man does, woman is.” The opening quote from the poet Robert Graves sets the overall tone of the novel. Men, except their physical strength, are being described through the tale as somehow incompetent and inferior in logical and sentimental thinking compared to their female counterparts. Their insistence on the “venture out” despite the warning from women not only proves their impulsive disposition but also reveals their inconsiderate nature.

Lessing found a narrative at the time before reason enlightens our very ancient ancestors, who act according to their instincts. The story then reveals a description of our human nature in its earliest form. Readers are told, therefore, that human beings are capable of cruelty, compassion, jealousy, and above all, love. The novel does not dwell on the negative side of humanity; on the other hand, it carefully finds a balance between our virtues and faults.

This reinterpretation of history is framed with meta-narrative, more widely known as “story-within-story”, in which a historian talks about the “past” through the reading of a set of ancient relics. The greater frame of the novel belongs to the historian narrator. Acting as the medium between the reader and the meta-narrative, the historian shows how history is put down and then interpreted, and thus reminds the reader of always a different perspective on reading history, and to always question its probability.

The Cleft is a successful reinterpretation of human origin; it offers a different perspective and celebrates the possibilities in history that still awaits even more different, possible readings. It also reminds us that human beings are gregarious, and that it is only through union can we prosper and be content.