Out of Africa / Shadows on the Grass by Isak Dinesen

The fact that she was able to incorporate the elements of both the African and the European cultures made Karen Blixen to become a brave woman she had become. The book ‘Out of Africa’ focuses on Karen Blixen as an artist who survived and enjoyed the contradictory demands of the colonial Kenya.

However, these powers seemed difficult to understand as they were the source of her troubles such as the financial collapse of her coffee farm Characteristics and events from Karen Blixen’s life that made her a fearless and brave woman This ability implies that the author acquired some unprecedented powers as a female boss (Dinesen, 1989). The author is also shown to have the means of curing, educating and guiding natives who lived on her estate. Karen Blixen is shown in ‘Out of Africa’ as a person who is capable of overcoming challenges that arises. This book constructs Africa as a place where social and gender freedom exists. It however dwells les son Karen Blixen’s divorce from her husband and the sexually transmitted disease she contracted from her husband. These two books dwells more on the attachment she had developed with the land and its native people. Karen Blixen’s ‘Out of Africa’ which was published in 1938 and Shadows on the Grass which was published in 1961 examines the record of her life during the colonial days in East Africa.

This line has the effect of setting the sad tone of the book because it introduces the loss theme (Dinesen, 1989). The book opens with a sentence ‘I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of Ngong Hills’ and this makes it to be one of the famous lines of the 20th century. Her writings are concerned with the loss of her farm as well as her lover. Karen wrote the literature under the fictitious name of Dinesen.

Out of Africa / Shadows on the Grass by Isak Dinesen