Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas
explored in a literary work.
The Burden of Memory
Dinah is consumed by the weight of her memories—the memories
of her mothers, her childhood, and the loss of her husband, which
render her unable to move on with her life. What compels Dinah to
narrate her story is the fear that her memories will not live on,
that people will not remember her and that her tragedy will mean
nothing. She would seem to have good cause to worry: her story is
practically a footnote in the Bible, while the stories of Rebecca,
Leah, and Rachel live on, although the Bible does not represent
these women as Dinah knew them. She holds on so tightly throughout
the novel to her memories that when faced with a fresh start and
a new life, she is barely able to experience it, as she is still
living in her past. As the narrator, she relays her ancient story
to a modern reader, giving us her version of the past in order to
release herself from the burden of her memories. According to Dinah,
and contrary to the Bible, her mother Leah was beautiful,
Jacob did love Leah, and, mostly important, Dinah’s
marriage to Shalem was truly a union of love, not a rape.
Childbirth As a Defining Experience
With four central characters acting as midwives—Inna,
Rachel, Dinah, and Meryt—childbearing is highlighted throughout
the novel as a woman’s unavoidable battle with life and death. The
Red Tent vividly describes the frightening and painful
conditions of childbirth in ancient times. Many of Dinah’s would-be
sisters and brothers die, and as a midwife she loses many children
and their mothers. By narrating graphic scenes of women in labor,
being clutched at by their sisters as they tear and bleed in the
process of giving birth, Diamant portrays a world where women must
fear for their lives at every moment during delivery. Dinah might
have lost her own life in childbirth had she not the experience
and presence of mind to ask for a knife and mirror. During many
of the births described, either the baby or the mother almost dies
at least once. The assistance of a midwife was a luxury to women,
and even this assistance offered no assurance that woman or child
would live out the day. Dinah’s narrative as a midwife offers a
startling portrayal of the real and bloody experience of childbirth
in ancient times.
The Power of the Moon and of Nature
In The Red Tent, the moon provides more
than just a way of marking months and seasons to Dinah’s family:
it also denotes the harmony between the women themselves and the
women with the Earth. Diamant’s descriptions of the monthly celebrations
in the red tent illustrate the close relationship with land and
nature cultivated by seminomadic women in ancient times. The women
in Dinah’s family menstruate at the same time, attributing their
cycles to that of the moon, and thus allowing them to celebrate
the lunar cycle together each month. Their dependence on the land
for food, exposure to the elements, and close observations of the
cycles of the sun and moon to mark time forged strong bonds between
people and nature—bond much stronger than those generally possessed
by people today. The women’s worship of the moon’s power also signified the
renewal of their bodies and the gifts of health and fertility they received
from the goddess Innana.
