The latter point is illustrated by the sacking of Shechem. Anita Diamant, on the other hand, adopts the opposite attitude, namely, that the paganism of Rachel, Leah, as well as other women in Jacob's family, is a humane and natural form of spirituality in contrast to the bloodthirsty Yahwism of Jacob and his sons. The path toward modern humanist values comes from the likes of Jacob and Joseph rather than Rachel and Leah in Mann's novel.
Thomas Mann creates a dichotomy between the backwardness of the pagan female realm and the progressive nature of the monotheistically-oriented patriarchs. Both authors note the presence of implicit pagan tendencies among the women of Jacob's clan (Gen 31:19 35:2) and develop this subtext for their respective ideological purposes. The result is a beautiful, thought-provoking novel.This essay deals with two retellings of Genesis: Thomas Mann's Joseph and his Brothers and Anita Diamant’s The Red Tent. Seeking to preserve not only her own remarkable experiences but those of a long-ago era of womanhood left largely undocumented by the original male scribes and later Biblical scholars, Dinah breaks a male silence that has lasted for centuries, revealing the ancient origins of many contemporary religious practices and sexual politics. Moving panoramically from Mesopotamia to Canaan to Egypt, The Red Tent is robustly narrated by Dinah, from her upbringing by the four wives of Jacob, to her growth into one of the most influential women of her time. Lost to the history by the chronicles of men, here at last is the dazzling story of Dinah, Jacob's only daughter in the Book of Genesis. That is why I became a footnote, my story a brief detour between the well-known history of my father Jacob, and the celebrated chronicle of Joseph, my brother.' The chain connecting mother to daughter was broken and the word passed to the keeping of men, who had no way of knowing. An international publishing phenomena, this beautiful and thought provoking novel tells the story, lost to history by the chronicles of men, of Dinah, Jacob's only daughter in the Book of Genesis.
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