The Red Tent Study Guide & Plot Synopsis

The Red Tent Plot Summary

Preview of The Red Tent Summary:

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant tells the story of the biblical character Dinah, Jacob's daughter and Joseph's sister. In the Bible, Dinah's story is only briefly mentioned. The story says that Dinah was raped by an Egyptian prince. Simon and Levi, two of her brothers, avenge Dinah by killing all the men in the city. After that, Dinah is never mentioned again. Diamant wanted to give a voice to the character of Dinah as well as her mothers.

The novel begins with Dinah's mothers' stories. Dinah explains that because her father Jacob had four wives, she had four mothers: Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah. While Leah is Dinah's birth mother, as a child she learned from and loved her mother and "auntie-mothers." Before Dinah's birth, the women fulfilled their duties by bearing sons, but they longed for daughters. To them, daughters listened to their stories and shared them...
(read more)