So, this occurred to me today at the end of class when the question was put on the board asking how Colette's "The Secret Woman," and Freeman's "Old Woman Magoun" related. The other story we have discussed so far is Cheever's "The Swimmer,"and even though it has a far less feminist message than the other two, it got me wondering about how the protagonists send messages.
In "Old Woman Magoun," the feminist message is epitomized in the protagonist and namesake of the story, Old Woman Magoun. She is a force to be reckoned with and refuses to submit to anyone; she is only dominated by Nelson Barry and even still his will is not completed. The story itself contains many elements, including but not limited to Benjamin-esque binaries, parent-figure and child relationships, definitions of maturity and growth, and gender roles, but despite these different themes the most apparent one is brought about by Old Woman Magoun herself. Her presence shifts the focus to her role as a woman in society and at a personal level, and sparks critical thinking about the other characters in the novel in relation to her.
"The Secret Woman," on the other hand, is from a man's perspective, following a costumed husband whose name we never learn. Despite the ambiguity of his physical character, the man's perspective of what's going on around him really brings out the prominent focus of the story, which is the sexual expression of women, particularly his wife. The last paragraph best describes his transforming feelings, and even if the reader had gone the whole story reading into the themes of mystery, betrayal, deceit and anonymity, which are all important in their own right, the main character's thoughts and perceptions brings out one of the central topics of the story.
"The Swimmer" is fairly different as it only really follows one character, Neddy, and his journey, but the way Neddy perceives things and chooses to delude himself makes the focus of the story about his mental state and the lapse of unknown time, rather than just the social interactions, drinking, or strange choice of swimming in pools. Again, although there are many important themes, Neddy forces into attention a main theme of the story.
So, essentially, regardless of the varying themes and topics throughout the short stories, each story possesses a main character who brings to the readers' attention a central focus of the story. We have yet to read a story without one or two primary characters, and I'd be interested to see what that would look like.
Rachel- I agree in that in "The Secret Woman", the unnamed man really brings to light the idea of sexual expression, especially for women. I think that, although it isn't sexual in nature, the relationship in "Old Woman Magoun" between Old Lady Magoun and Nelson Barry also represents another MALE/female binary that shows that women have the ability to be powerful and dominating in a relationship just like men. These two examples from the reading illustrate a trend of depicting women as fully capable of what is presumably a male quality. Whether it be domination or public sexual expression, the women characters symbolize the fully human side of women rather than just the idea of women as objects or subordinates to males.
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DeleteI really like how you illuminated the apparent feministic messages in both stories. I think it is unique how Colette and Freeman present two strong women who both express clear individuality in times when women had less freedom. However, in response to Marissa's comment, although Magoun was clearly not afraid of Barry and represented a powerful woman in a society controlled by men, I don't think that she dominated the relationship.
ReplyDeleteWhen Barry showed up to Magoun's house, he made it clear that he was going to take Lily for reasons that were not at all fatherly. Though Magoun was appalled by this idea, by the time of his departure, she recognized that unless she could convince lawyer Mason to adopt Lily, she would have to submit to Barry.
I'd argue that while it is true that Magoun recognizes a different option to keep Lily from Barry(by taking her life), in the end, they both end up alone, and Magoun is actually in a far worse mental state. It may appear that Magoun "won", but on the image that Freeman ended the story with, the force of her character is greatly diminished and she appears alone and fragile as opposed to powerful and dominant.