Sexing The Cherry, written in 1989, is a novel by Jeanette Winterson that traces the journey of a mother, the Dog Woman and her adopted son, Jordan. Set in 17th century London, Sexing The Cherry is a postmodernist text that challenges the conventional historiography, heteronormativity and realist narratives. The boundaries between reality and fiction are blurred by the narration. Time and history are challenged as fragmented, subjective and artificially constructed. In the novel,gender transgresses from the social binaries and challenges the constructed reality of gender. Sexing the Cherry has a dual narrative pattern. Jordan, a pensive boy who likes to travel, and who often reflects on the nature of time, the structure of reality and on the new scientific theories that emerge in his seventeenth-century world. He is presented not only in a seventeenth-century setting, but is also placed in late twentieth-century capitalist society. Another main narration is of the Dog Woman and her ecologist alter ego of 20th century.The Twelve Dancing Princesses functions as a unifying bridge to Jordan’s and the Dog-Woman’s modes of narration. During postmodernist feminist writing, feminist writers such as Helen Cixuos, Luce Iragaray and Julia Kristeva urged for a new style of writing, which opposed the male language and represented plurality of sexuality of a female. Thus, Winterson models her novel in a writing style that can acknowledge women’s difference, parodic rewriting,
Throughout this book there are countless examples of the common gender issue in today’s society exploited. Today it is widely believed of equality in rights for all people regardless of heritage, race and gender. A majority of people in the world are in the support of female lead characters and an increase in the books regarding females. As time continues literature has introduced female leads with problems outside the typical house or friend issues. The only female characters introduced in the book with at least one quote is
On the other hand, silence is used as a demonstration of individualism and expressiveness. This especially allows women of the 20th century to regain control and autonomy. The perspective that Domina presents allows the reader to find a feminist viewpoint of patriarchal events. Furthermore, critics, such as Claire Crabtree, dive deeper into the realm of the impact of feminism that is brought out by Hurston’s novel. Crabtree says, “The three marriages and the three communities in which Janie moves represent increasingly wide circles of experience and opportunities for expression of personal choice” (Crabtree 315).
One of the most ubiquitous themes in Their Eyes Were Watching God involve Janie's desire for true, decisive and fulfilling love. Her search was not completed until she went through two unsuccessful marriages which caused love to happen much later in life than I think Janie desired. Nevertheless, the story ends how it began, with Janie alone, yet she has a sense of peace and comfort, filled with the love she always desired. She experienced different types of love throughout her life, however, the true love from another man was one she only dreamed of. Her grandmother raised her to think that love will come with financial security and physical protection but Janie broke free of that soon after her grandmother passed.
Joelle Windmiller Their Eyes Were Watching God and Sexuality Their Eyes Were Watching God is in many ways a novel about the protagonist's sexual awakening. As it was written in the conservative early twentieth century, much of this sexuality is masked in metaphor. Zora Neale Hurston takes a naturalist approach to expressing sexuality in her book. The experience in which Janie attempts to make her first expression of love, Nanny resents her actions and proceeds to turn it into something to be ashamed of.
Through Logan, Janie finds her answer to the her question “Did marriage compel love like the sun of day?” (Hurston 21), no. The natural relationship she experienced with the pear tree did not compare to that of a sacred relationship in real life with a man. Even though Janie is not abused by Logan, his money does not compensate for the labor he has her do. “Got uh mule all gentled up so even uh women kin handle’im.”
In her novel Oranges Are not the Only Fruit, Jeanette Winterson describes the conflictual relationship between a profoundly religious adoptive mother and her lesbian daughter, Jeanette. The writer’s decision to give the main character her own name reflects the autobiographical content of the novel, since the story is based on the author’s own life. The first part of the chapter examines how the whole story can be interpreted as a fairy tale, and how the mother’s role profoundly changes according to her attitude towards the heroine-narrator. Secondly, the final reconciliation between the two female characters is analysed. Finally, the reasons for the adoptive mother’s rejection of Jeanette’s lesbian nature are discussed.
In Maxine Maxine’s narrative, “Cherry Bomb”, it openly shows how she uses literary techniques of symbolism, imagery, and allusion to characterize her childhood innocence being destroyed. Maxine uses these literary terms to characterize her childhood memories being destroyed by an incident in the summer. In the narrative, she talks about how it affected her and her perception. She mentions people and objects in her story. Every detail she described was an important factor in her life.
Perrault, a 17th century French author, wrote about women as damsels in distress in his fairy tales, while Atwood, a 20th and 21st century Canadian author, offers a more realistic and modern approach in her writing. Sharon Wilson, author of the essay “Margaret Atwood and the Fairy Tale: Postmodern Revisioning In Recent Texts”, calls Atwood’s use of fairy tales to talk about current issues in society as “meta-fairy tales”. Atwood’s “meta-fairy tales” offer insight on gender politics in a current patriarchal society. Instead of using generic conventions to tell her story, like Perrault does, Atwood uses them and then dismantles them in order to show the reader the problems within the genre like she does in her poem.
Interestingly, in all her relationships, Janie`s partners were the strongest ones who needed to show their dominance. Further, the traditional division of gender roles and male dominance is visible throughout all three marriages of the protagonist of the novel. Janie suffers from double physical violence and, as Trudier Harris argues, becomes an object of
Tangerine Literary Analysis In life, there is a 50 percent chance that a decision will go good or bad. So it is best to choose wisely. Paul Fisher, in the book Tangerine By Edward Bloor, has made many choices since moving to Tangerine, Florida from houston, Texas. These choices have affected Paul by making him a braver, hard working and more courageous person.
The pear tree from Janie’s past represents Janie’s longing for fulfillment and growth. She witnesses the transformation of the tree and longs to undergo the same process and feel complete like the tree. However, this ideal is not upheld in her first marriage as she is unhappy. Wishing for a change, Janie runs away from her first marriage and enters into her second, where her horizon is used as a symbol for change and opportunity. Later in her life, the horizon represents her life experiences as a whole.
In the novel The Outsiders, by S. E. Hinton, Cherry Valance is a Soc who befriends Ponyboy and many other greasers at the beginning of the story, even though the greasers and Socs despise each other. She is mainly involved with the story because she understands the problems that greasers have and even admits to having her own problems. Cherry is also an influential character in the story because she affects Ponyboy’s initial judgement on the greasers and the Socs. She also relates to the theme as she grows and changes as the story progresses. Even though many characters, such as Ponyboy and Dally, have different perspectives on her, Cherry is an important figure in The Outsiders.
It revolves around the flight of the princess to escape the awful marriage to his father (Perrault, 1977). Charles Perrault uses the princess’ character to reveal the major themes of overcoming evil, child abuse and incest in the story. Perrault also brings out the moral that it is better to encounter awful challenges in life than to fail in one’s duty. He shows that although the virtue may seem unrealistic, it can always triumph. The author uses various literary devices to reveal the various morals of the story.
The role of women in literature crosses many broad spectrums in works of the past and present. Women are often portrayed as weak and feeble individuals that submit to the situations around them, but in many cases women are shown to be strong, independent individuals. This is a common theme that has appeared many times in literature. Across all literature, there is a common element that causes the suffering and pain of women. This catalyst, the thing that initiates the suffering of women, is essentially always in the form of a man.
This novel is also autobiographical. Throughout history, women have been locked in a struggle to free themselves from the borderline that separates and differentiate themselves from men. In many circles, it is agreed that the battleground for this struggle and fight exists in literature. In a