This question is quintessential in literary movements throughout history that has called for a more inclusive literary study that speaks to all of society, not just the dominant few that have a history of oppression on their hands. If one looks at literature as being derivative of society this might give a basis to the argument that the dysfunction of society could have a literary by-product in its literature. Although this has been used as a tool for the continual perpetuation of that dysfunction, it also gives those that are oppressed by that dysfunction a tool to focus on, take apart and utilize to counteract its function. By analytically approaching literature with psychoanalytical concepts, French feminists hoped to concretize some of the ways in which a patriarchal society manifest their system of power through literature. By targeting language they were able to centralize the psychoanalytical concepts on discourse and its fusion with perpetuating androcentrism. In, A Practical Introduction to Literary Theory and Criticism, author M. Keith Booker relays Hélène Cixous , Luce Irgaray, and Julia Kristeva among the most prominent in French feminist critical analysis to examine discourse and it association with male theorists such as Jacques Derrida and Jacques Lacan. (pg. 90).
In coherence with examining this by-product of sexism in our society, I have chosen two texts from which to reference. I will be contrasting and comparing "A White Heron" by Sarah Orne Jewett and "The Grave" by Ann Porter. Both of these short stories portray the resistance that feminist concepts give way to. The two stories each have the main character as a nine-year-old little girl who embarks on a journey that yearns for the two girls to come from a state of innocence to a state of knowledge about the world around them. Nature and knowledge seem to be key reoccurring elements in both of the stories, signifying some of the elements that the feminist analytical approach targets as a unique discourse of feminine characteristic. Being that both authors are female, it can be argued that an underlying attempt is submerged into the stories and it is one that resists the notion of male heroism, feminine confinement and other societal shackles that are put on the role of women in society.
"A White Heron" is the story of a nine-year-old girl, named Sylvia, whose character becomes illuminated in her environment once her grandmother has brought her to live in the rural countryside. It is imperative that during the next few paragraphs we are able break down the events into sections to better analyze each significant stage that Sylvia undergoes. Marilyn Sanders Mobley points out in Folk Roots and Mythic Wings in Sarah Orne Jewett and Toni Morrison "it is useful to analyze Sylvia from three perspectives: her existence before her journey, her initiatory journey, and her return to the farm." ( pg. 50, Mobley) In the next several paragraphs I will be targeting the relationship with Sylvia to nature and how Jewett is able to resist masculine views of heroism, characterization and language throughout the story as well as in the conclusion.
To return to Sylvia's initial scene after the move from city to rural, it seems she is content in the abundant raw nature that surrounds her. During a scene where the grandmother is describing Sylvia's connection to the natural world around her, she mentions "There ain't a foot o' ground she don't know her way over, and the wild creaturs counts her one o' themselves."(pg. 1590, Norton) This is testimony to the prevalence of the natural world Sylvia is surrounded by. Cixous' l'ecriture feminine associates women's writing "with the fluid, melodic language that is a natural result of feminine thought processes…" (pg. 481 Booker) To relate the last two comments more concretely, Jewett's poetical voice, imaginary order and reverse role of heroism (which I will be touching on later) directly correlates with the intention of Cixous when looking at literary works from a feminist perspective. Although American feminist have argued that Cixous' l'ecritue feminine falls into the perpetuation of patriarchal stereotypes and myths, this depiction of feminine character connected to nature is essential to a feminist perspective and is unique to feminine writers. (pg. 95, Booker)
Support to this argument can be found in Jewett's story, particularly in the metaphorical war between nature and the industrial movement. The relationship between the oppression of nature by humanity's industrial giant is not an unfamiliar one to those women who work against the oppression of the andocentric society we have continually lived in. Sherman points out an interesting distinction of the natural and industrial world as it relates to freedom from sexist oppression in Sarah Orne Jewett An American Persephone. "The city is linked with manufacturing and the 'red faced boy' who chases Sylvia. In the woods, however, we have Mistress Mooly, the placid female 'companion' whom Sylvia herself now chases home in a friendly spirit. From confinement and masculine domination, she has found a peaceful freedom and bovine communion." (pg. 155, Sherman) The allegory of Sylvia's character representing nature is crucial the next several events that Sylvia undergoes.
Young Sylvia's natural world is disrupted by the sudden appearance of a young male ornithologist scouting birds that he kills, stuffs, and then preserves for classification and study. The young man is searching for lodging for the night and hopes that Sylvia might lead him in the right direction. Sylvia then takes the young man to her grandmother's home, where her grandmother Ms. Tilley, provides lodging for the young man. After dinner a conversation sparks and the young man is made aware of Sylvia's familiarity with the natural world around them. He offers Sylvia ten dollars for the location of a rare bird (the white heron) that Sylvia has seen once in the woods. The allegory of the young male ornithologist takes form in these two scenes. First Sherman points out the young man's need to master the natural world through technology. Sherman points it out clearly in three stages: "…shooting the birds with his gun. Then he forcibly transforms their fragile, decaying bodies into the permanent, if lifeless, figures of his collection. Finally, he brings abstract rational order to bear on the apparently random flux of nature through his ornithological categories."(pg. 156, Sherman) It is imperative to recognize the industrial giant/technology as always being an unexpected and unwanted force on nature the same way a patriarchal society imposes itself on the female gender. This is highlighted when the reader recognizes the language Jewett utilizes to portray the young man's character as an unwanted intrusion that is marked by Sylvia's initial fear and need to evade him. It is also highlighted in the young man's unwillingness to "…observe or participate in the rituals of the landscape…"(pg. 50, Mobley) Here Mobley points out that, like the industrial giant, the young man is perpetually oblivious to the nature around him due to his obsession at finding the white heron. His character becomes insensitive, "The guest did not notice this hint of family sorrows in his eager interest in something else." (pg. 1590, Norton) The character of the young man becomes a metaphor for the andocentric ideologies that are oppressive to feminist. Sherman points out the offering of money and the usage of technologies emphasizes "the young man has money, the power to transform tangible realities into commodities quantified and suitable for exchange" (pg. 156, Sherman) To tie this together, with wealth and power, an insensitive male culture is able to exploit the harmony of the world he dominants, which is a significant point made in feminist movements.
The next day Sylvia and the young man take on an expedition into the woods to find the white heron. The young man hopes to seduce Sylvia in order to gain more knowledge of his prized white heron. When the seduction occurs there are several poignant emotions that Jewett describes of the young girl, which directly leads the reader into the second perspective which is "her initiatory journey." (pg. 51, Mobley) Young Sylvia is thrust into a yearning for womanhood, which is depicted in the story "the woman's heart, asleep in the child" (pg.1591, Norton) This episode is important because of it's portrayal of a masculine device at using the innocence of a young girl's heart to obtain his needs. I will not go too deep into the language and poetical metaphors that Jewett utilizes to obtain this image, because I believe it is just a prelude to Sylvia's journey8 up the old pine, which is the focus of her journey towards knowledge and womanhood. After being inspired through a promise of money and a growing admiration of love for the young man, she remembers an old pine which could give her an advantage point at finding the heron's nest. She plots to get up before dawn to capture the location for her young ornithologist.
At this point we must look at the significance of the connection between Sylvia and the White Heron. Mobley's book pays particular attention to the metaphors that Jewett uses to insinuate Sylvia and the White heron as synonymous characters in the story. "The journey she must embark upon is more an upward that an outward one, a direction that emphasizes not only the limits of her environment but points to her affinity with the bird…" (pg. 52, Mobley) This initiates the reader to think of the journey to knowledge as more of a flight applying bird-like characteristics to Sylvia. This flight also negates a traditional concept of a journey as a linear passage, which Mobley argues as a unique characteristic to feminine literature. Jewett continues with depicting the girl's actual physical characteristics as similar to the bird's, "with her bare feet and fingers, that pinched and held like bird's claws to the monstrous ladder…" (pg. 1592, Norton) Finally, it becomes necessary to analyze the final connection with the bird, "Sylvia felt as if she to could go flying away among the clouds…truly it was a vast and awesome world!" (pg. 1593, Norton) This signifies a crucial point where Sylvia has recognized her own independence through her flight up the old pine, her "vast and awesome" sense of the world has only been imitated by the transformation to a bird like character.
Ultimately the concluding choice that Sylvia makes coincides with the last of the concepts that I would like to point out, which is the reverse male ideal of "heroism." Sylvia acknowledges her growth, and through that growth she recognizes the harmony that exists in the farm and with the White Heron. Transforming herself into a bird, she recognizes her need more than ever to protect it from the world that has caused her much fright and oppression. Sylvia preserves the natural order of things, however, it is not out of empathy that she does this, rather it is because she recognizes and appreciates what her natural world has given her. The natural world of the farm has preserved her freedoms from the oppressive male society that dictates her role, this role that consistently limits her desires of exploration. This translates to reverse masculine ideals of heroism because of the symbolic idea of heroism that we are fed in fairy tales such as Cinderella. In stories such as these the male hero is usually one that rescues the damsel in distress from economic and social factors. In this story the young male stranger offers money and love, two qualities recurrent of male heroes. Sylvia rejects this ideal, and creates a new sense of heroism through the preservation of the world that preserves her individuality as a woman.
"The Grave" is the story of a nine-year-old girl named Miranda and her older brother Paul out on a hunting trip. She lives with her father, and both her mother and grandmother have past away. Miranda, along with her other sisters, seem to engage in boy-like dress and activities that cause some stir within the town, who do not think this behavior appropriate. There are two key elements that tie the two stories together from the beginning. The first element is nature, the second being that nature (hunting) is another masculine activity that brings social disapproval, it is useful to remember that exploration of the world was not permitted to their gender as Sylvia's grandmother points out in her conversation about her son. Porter describes this, "Miranda, with her powerful social sense, which was like a fine set of antennae radiating from every pore of her skin, would feel ashamed…" (pg 365, Harcourt) Both the shame that Miranda feels, and the fear that Sylvia feels ties into the results of an oppressive society that wants to confine them to their social roles. This also ties in with "A White Heron" in that both the rabbit and the grave become metaphors for life, death and the sexual reproduction from which she has little knowledge of and experiences for the first time. Even though the journey seems to fall into the linear version of a passage, the story still ventures from innocence to knowledge.
The story begins when they encounter an empty burial plot, which was previously owned by their grandmother and held the body of their late grandfather. Hartley brings a out a crucial point in, Katherine Anne Porter A Critical Symposium, "…the children began to play in the cemetery. They tried to simulate what they felt would be adult emotions and they failed." (pg. 81 Hartley) The language of Porter reaffirms this statement as well as pinpoints a golden moment of discovery as laid out here, "they were seeing a new sight, doing something they had not done before." (pg. 362, Harcourt) Paul finds a ring and Miranda finds a small angel that was a screw-head for their grandfather's coffin. They are intrigued by each other's findings and decide to switch treasures. The young Miranda is mesmerized by the golden ring that she puts on her thumb and instantaneously begins to feel like conforming to the idealized feminine characteristics that the town would like her to engage in more often. This element takes us back to Sylvia's fascination with the promised ten dollars from the young stranger. Although I am not definite about the intention of the author in "The Grave" I feel that it is curious that she utilizes a material object that represents wealth as a symbol that evokes Miranda to want to play into her feminine role. To compare the stories further, the ten dollars is also an added part of the seduction that Sylvia feels from the young ornithologist.
She is interrupted from her fantasies by her brother, who shoots a rabbit. He skins the rabbit and then notices that the rabbit was pregnant. Porter carefully describes how the boy removes the pouch and reveals the tiny unborn babies that were hidden in the mother rabbit's stomach. After the uneasy feeling is bestowed upon the two, the brother buries the body of the rabbit and makes Miranda promise to keep the episode a secret. Miranda does not remember this until twenty years later at a market in Mexico. The smell of candied-goodies and raw fish bring back a swift memory of this past, which she leaves quickly solely remembering, "…her brother…standing again in the blazing sunshine, again twelve years old, a pleased sober smile in his eyes, turning the silver dove over and over in his hands."(pg. 368, Harcourt)
Both stories speak of gender confinement and identifies the destructive qualities of oppressive patriarchal systems in society. The two young girls defy these systems in their own way, however both accomplish a sense of identity. Through these two literary pieces one can find a voice that is unique to feminine writers, and also two episodes of a rite of passage, from innocence to knowledge, that is also unique to feminine experiences. If one truly looks at the two stories in-depth, they find a variety of understanding of how detrimental oppressive societies can be on the development of our young females. On the upside, it also shows the strength and courage that they gain through this process of understanding the world around them.
Bibliography
Booker, M. Keith A Practical Introduction to Literary Theory and Criticism Longman Publishers USA, 1996
Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc New York The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter Katherine Anne Porter, 1965
Hartley, Lodwick and George Core Katherine Anne Porter A Critical Symposium the University of Georgia Press, 1969
Mobley, Marilyn Sanders Folk Roots and Mythic Wings in Sarah Orne Jewett and Toni Morrison, The Cultural Function of Narrative Louisiana State University Press, 1991
Norton & Company New York/London The Norton Anthology of American Literature Shorter Sixth Edition W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2003
Sherman, Sarah Way Sarah Orne Jewett, An American Persephone the Trustees of the University of New Hampshire, 1989
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