Out of Africa | Discussion Questions 51 - 51

What is the significance of the allusion to Scheherazade in Part 3, Chapter 8 of Out of Africa?

In legend, Scheherazade escapes death at the hands of her jealous husband, Sultan Shahryar, by telling him stories each night for 1,001 nights. Storytelling plays the key role throughout Out of Africa, and the narrator adopts the role of Scheherazade for herself. It becomes a major part of her identity and presages the real Baroness Blixen's writing career after she left Africa. When Finch-Hatton comes to the farm, the narrator reveals in Part 3, Chapter 1, he is "starved for talk," as is she. And so, as the narrator says in Part 3, Chapter 8, she plans the stories that she will tell him. When he comes to stay, she sits on the floor before the fire evening, "cross-legged like Scheherazade herself," spinning tales, as if he is the Sultan. At other times, she escapes the troubles of the farm by writing stories. The narrator may not be escaping death by telling stories, as Scheherazade did, but she comes alive at those times.