Female Characters in Short Stories Written by Female Prisoners

It is interesting when women life stories
are written by the women who lived behind bars.
A compilation of 32 short stories under the title
“Titik Nadir Penantian” (The Nadir Point of
Waiting) illustrated the twists and turns of
women lives from various perspectives. Different
themes of women’s life in the stories depict the
true experiences and life journey of the writers.
There are twelve themes of women lives found;
(1) lost love, (2) drug abuse, (3) drug mobster
victim, (4) husband betrayal, (5) parent divorce
adversity, (6) negative stigma of fatherless child,
(7) women patience in facing problems, (8) hope
for beautiful love, (9) hopes and dreams of a
child, (10) family affection, (11) longing for
family, and (12) regrets. All stories are told from
the first-person point of view; the writer poses as
a person directly involved in the story. With
restricted freedom, writing short stories became
a medium for these women to express
themselves, their experiences and their feeling,
thus easing their burden. The inner feeling of
women depicted in the short stories contains the
feeling of (1) sadness due to tragedies, conflict,
serious problems, bitterness of life, frustration,
betrayal, dishonesty, and possessiveness, (2)
happiness shown from joyfulness, enjoyment,
high spirit, sharing, and romance, (3) sincerity
illustrated from the attitude of contentment,
awareness, wisdom, strength, and religiousness,
and (4) responsibility, shown from the attitude of
independence, firmness, spirit to improve,
resilience, and openness.