Category Archives: New Woman

Rhys vs. Feminism

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I found myself puzzled by Rhys. In class we discussed that she was considered to be a major feminist. She was “rediscovered” by second-wave feminism in the same way that Zora Neal Hurston was. However, in her writing, Rhys is hostile to her female characters. Her protagonist is the modernist new woman though struggling with class issues. However, it seems that every other woman in these stories is vicious, trying to tear other women apart without much provocation. Frankie is described as a bitch and vilianized by both the men and Petronella. It feels almost as if Frankie is kept around for entertainment, Not having a full role within the group. The neighbor woman in “Let Them Call It Jazz” is cruel and mean. She is seen as a woman who hates based on race and class. This woman is the villain who creates most misery.

This hatred of women seems counter-intuitive to most understandings of feminism. It’s not that women can’t be mean. The idea is to write complex and deep characters. To look at all parts of a person as well as humanity. To characterize every woman either as a mean and slutty bitch or as an uptight and repressed hag is counter-productive to a larger goal of seeing women be valued in society. I am both curious about and frustrated with this characterization of Rhys as a strong feminist writer.

Interplay of dialect and descriptive prose

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As I read Hurston for this time, as with the short story of hers that we read, the novel’s parallel regional dialect and more formal descriptive prose struck me. It occurred to me that reading these two tones of language alongside each other is like listening to a symphony: first, you might hear the more expressive, upbeat, jolty part of the music, and then it slows to a flowing, more pensive section that somehow seems to explain or contextualize the first. For example, Janie’s utterance to her grandmother that “‘Ah wants things sweet wid mah marriage lak when you sit under a pear tree and think. Ah…'” is very evocative of her sense of mourning in and of itself (24). However, this feeling of mourning and disappointment is enriched by the text that follows shortly after, which I find absolutely transcendent:

“She knew things that nobody had ever told her. For instance, the words of the trees and the wind….She knew the world was a stallion rolling in the blue pasture of ether. She knew that God tore down the old world every evening and built a new one by sun-up. It was wonderful to see it take form with the sun and emerge from the gray dust of its making….She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman” (25).

Janie “knew” all of the above, but she couldn’t say it all to her grandmother; neither would her grandmother want to hear it, nor might Janie be able to communicate this newly acquired wisdom to anyone other than herself. I love the way Hurston lets us into Janie’s conscience here, without necessarily breaking down that divide that still exists for her between her inner self and the characters around her.

Becoming a Woman

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In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston embodies the modernist idea of the “new woman” in the character of Janie Crawford. Even in the first few chapters, we sense that Janie is a woman who is inclined to do what she wants and for her own pleasure. Although her two marriages in the first six chapters are ultimately failures, they act more as stepping-stones for Janie to discover herself: “She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman” (25). Hurston suggests that Janie is learning about herself, learning what she does and does not like, and in that process, she is becoming an independent woman.

Nonetheless, Janie struggles between what she wants and what society expects from a woman. She hates when Joe Starks bosses her around, but she also feels the need to please him and obey him because that is what is expected of a wife:

“Janie made her face laugh after a short pause, but it wasn’t too easy. She had never thought of making a speech, but didn’t know if she cared to make one at all. It must have been the way Joe spoke out without giving her a chance to say anything one way or another that took the bloom off of things. But anyway, she went down the road behind him that night feeling cold.” (43)

Janie’s struggle is reminiscent of Larsen’s Helga in Quicksand: both characters desire something, whether it is sex or independence, but the internalized rules of society prevent either from immediately achieving it. However, Janie’s internal monologue is much more reflective than Helga’s, and we sense that she has the potential to truly become that “new woman.”

Narrator or Author

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In our last class we discussed the line that exists between the author and the narrator. The narrator of a story is just another character of the novel. All the opinions and thoughts expressed by the narrator do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the author. This was one of the critics expressed by Du Bois for Thurman’s The Blacker the Berry. Thurman’s narrator would both criticize Emma Lou, while at the same time express her thoughts, almost always self-hating, as his/her own opinions.  In these instances it can be difficult to distinguish the author from the narrator. Had the novel been in the first person point of view, from Emma Lou’s perspective, there would not have been any accusations towards Thurman. Another example provided in class was Nabokov’s famous work, Lolita. In this case as well, the narrator, who also happens to be the main character, is often confused for the author. This caused Nabokov a lot of problems as well as creating a lot of controversy.

This brings me to The Berlin Stories. In this case the author and the narrator both share the same name and a lot of other similarities, including the experiences mentioned in the novel. Since the work is fiction, are we as the readers supposed to separate the author or from the narrator? This is made very difficult with the fact that they both share a name.

Something else I found very interesting was the fact that this is the first piece or writing that has the average man as the storyteller. Stories such as The Great Gatsby and All the King’s Men have this same man. In The Great Gatsby the main character is Gatsby, but the narrator, who is also a character in the story, is Nick Carraway and in All the King’s Men, the story is about Willie Stark but the story is told by Jack Burden. Up until now, we have only had an unknown, invisible character as the narrator. This is the first instance of a character being a vessel to tell the stories of other people, such as Sally Bowles. The Berlin Stories, were published in 1945, maybe this technique is a more recent development.

New Women

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The character of Sally in The Berlin Stories helped me to gain a better understanding of Modernism’s New Woman. As I was reading I began to see the essence of Sally in several of the female characters in modernist literature. I thought of Sally Seton from Mrs. Dalloway, Daisy Buchanan from the The Great Gatsby, Kitty Baldry from The Return of the Soldier, Lily from The House of Mirth, Lady Brett Ashley from The Sun also Rises, Petronella from “Till September Petronella.” (Although not within the modernist time frame, I also thought of Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany’s because of the parallels in the relationship between Holly and the narrator of Breakfast at Tiffany’s and the relationship between Sally and Chris.)

Notwithstanding the individuality of these women, to varying degrees they share very similar characteristics and personality traits. They are sexaully liberated and are very aware of the power of their bodies to their male counterparts and even to themselves. They are explicit in their desires. They are outspoken. They are at times selfish. Their personalities are sometimes dramatic and purposely exaggerated as if they constantly have to perform to an audience. They are also clever and skilled at manipulation if not checked by other characters. One thing that is important to note is that they are also all seemingly white.

Is Emma Lou a New Woman? Are there Black female characters in modernist literature that are New Women? We have discussed in class the supposed responsibility put upon Black writers to be representative of their race. There were damaging stereotypes that plagued Black women at the time. These writers must “uplift” the race. Does that mean not including women characters that share the characteristics of New Woman? I think Emma Lou is a type of New Woman.