Some of the most creative pieces were perhaps written in the 20th century. It was a period that included World War I, parts of World War II, the Great Depression, and the heyday of Jazz. Writers, musicians, and even the growth of the film industry in the mid-20th century proved to be a flourishing time for many. William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and John Steinbeck all contributed heavily to the modernist movement within literature in the 10th century. In the great contribution of these three facts, it is evident to affirm that, although literature is going through a period of growth again, there are still barriers and lines that have not been passed. One of the things that had not crossed the assembly line was. Women at this time, although they were multiplied to demand their rights, still did not have the opportunities offered to men. In many of these three men’s works, we can see attitudes that are reflected in modern times towards women. In comparing and contrasting her work with post-modern author Doris Lessing, it is clear that these authors typically created weak and powerless gender roles for women and stronger and more serious roles for men in their stories and legends.
William Faulkner was “born in the old”
Mississippi
a family that had lost wealth and fortune in the Civil War (
Bedford
90). He lived in the south almost all his life. Attitudes in the south at the time were still very racist despite the development that took place after the Civil War. In his writing, he created themes that reflect the “minutes” of his southern culture people. especially in the treatment of African-Americans and women. His relationships with women throughout his life have been ambiguous. From Harold Bloom’s Modern Critical Opinion, an essay by Judith L. Sensibar describes his life with his wife. “For much of his adult life he has not slept with the woman he has lived with nor is he living with the woman he has slept with” (Bloom 274). He mentioned that it was “his mother’s day.
Oxford
in all married life” as well (274). However, he could not establish a physical and loving relationship with his wife because of his excessive fidelity to his mother, by examining his writings about women and their relationships with men.
In another essay from Bloom’s Modern Critical Opinion, Albert J. Guerard listed some of Faulkner’s character flaws. Guerard described Faulkner as a skeptic and mythmaker. Guerrard also said that Faulkner’s stories about war experiences were fictional. Guerrard goes on to argue that Faulkner was very hostile and passive during his early twenties battles with alcoholism (which is something Faulkner shares with his contemporary patriot, F. Scott Fitzgerald). However, the surprising point that Guerard brought up about Faulkner was that Faulkner was shy around women. Again, this may not be as obvious when reading any of Faulkner’s work, but it is important for the Faulkner reader to keep in mind. It brings up the question again of women and their relationships with men in the stories.
One of the stories I analyzed came from the huge book Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner published by Joseph Blotner. Two Dollar’s Wife was a short story that demonstrates the modernist male author’s treatment of women. It can also be sensed what the title of the story is about. It revolves around a few; the main characters are Maxwell Johns and Doris Houston. Two of them go with two other friends to a country club where they are met by a man who studied. but
Princeton
named Jornstadt. Jornstadt and his friend, Hap White, approach Johns about getting permission to marry him and
Doris
name in it. The two play over him in a game of craps and Jornstadt ends up winning the situation so he can get out of hand.
Doris Houston, the female lead in this short story, is portrayed as immature and youthful. It is almost as if he could not rationalize the conditions for himself and instead wails and complains to the winds. In one instance of the play, his immaturity is demonstrated by arguing, offered a drink by a friend in the car. She complains of not being at Antipolis and wishing to be there instead of sitting on the road. Maxwell goes on to say, “Don’t pay any attention… If anyone comes, I’ll show you permission” (Faulkner Uncollected 214). This immaturity through
Houston
and the reaction show created by Max Faulkner
Houston
as you play in this story. It is a symbol
Houston
The point to the reader is that when Johns and Jornstadt play about the marriage license, it’s almost as if the grand prize wasn’t the license but Doris Houston herself.
There have been many criticisms of Faulkner that I have found that his position was actually stereotypical with gender creating a race of women. in stories The prologue of Judith Bryant Whittenberg’s book, again from Harold Bloom’s Modern Critical Opinions, provides a feminist perspective on Faulkner. He says that there are only two ways in which the reader can see Faulkner. Whittenburg states that it would be a negative view to see “Faulkner as stereotypical of women and thus the author or misogynist” (Bloom 273). A misogynist is a person who is stereotypically and strongly prejudiced against women. Whittenburg says that another way, which would be a positive view of Faulkner’s work, is to see women as “complex and varied and therefore the author as sympathetic to women” (273).
There seems to be too much evidence to believe that Faulkner was otherwise sympathetic to women. His shame at women can be interpreted as her or his disgust and disgust at women. Also, the descriptions he uses for women in some of his stories can also be important to note the evidence that supports the first opinion about Faulkner Whittenburg. “She was slender as a dragon, with honey hair, and long adoring legs” (Faulkner Uncollected 412). Whittenburg also goes on to make a serious generalization about the women in Faulkner’s novels. She says that “[education] is not good for most women in fiction (Bloom 237). Whittenburg also states that she is financially content. there are almost no (237) .vn/tag/emily-rose”>Rose for Emily, another of Faulkner’s most famous literary works. The main character, Emily Grierson, seems completely dependent on the only male figure in her life as a constant. was her father
Albert J. Guerrard candidly deals with Faulkner’s firm prejudice and boredom with women from a male perspective. Guerrard claims that Faulkner plunged his female characters into “horrible sacrifices and executions” (Bloom 144). This is very evident in Two Dollar Wife and A Rose for Emily. There is a lot of intrigue and rumors about Emily Grierson that surfaces around town as she develops a more introverted persona. In Two Dollar Wife Doris Houston finds herself in the ridiculous predicament of marriage when she is dared to marry Maxwell Johns. This in turn leads to another scenario of his wrong treatment as the object of Jornstadt and Max’s desire.
F. Scott Fitzgerald, another great male writer in the modernist era, grew up against Faulkner. He did not grow up in the harsh and racist South, but in
Minnesota
. Fitzgerald eventually also attended
Princeton
University
later in life. It also led to another great female author of the modernist era in Zelda Fitzgerald. Interestingly enough, he and Faulkner share the same brand of alcoholism, which generally accounts for the kind of violence and discord both men seemed to have in their lives.
Fitzgerald’s two greatest pieces of work in many eyes were The Great Gatsby and The Last Night. In an essay by Mary E. Burton from Harold Bloom’s modern critical views, she states that Fitzgerald’s characters in both The Great Gatsby and Hold the Night /i> The American Dream write American. Now that’s exactly the American Dream. Burton asserts that Fitzgerald’s American Dream is “a love game of American idealism with money: specifically, American masculinity, composed of ideals ranging from New England Humanism to Midwestern Egalitarianism to Southern gentility with its deceptive, seductive American Venus, foam—born of American capitalist society” (Bloom Modern Fitzgerald 129). A man in Fitzgerald’s opinion was successful in placing all the parts in the plan of life. It’s almost like when someone describes success as having a great house, job, and wife. Fitzgerald’s women are just another piece to the puzzle that is the American Dream.
“This Aphrodite (this is Daisy Buchanan, Nicole Saxonia and many others) has no kind of family values, no code of conduct, she is always branded new, rich, new, beautiful, childish, morally populated” (129). This description of “American Aphrodite” is almost not only a reflexive description of those characters from The Great Gatsby and The Nightmare but also one of Fitzgerald’s famous letters from a short-story/single story he wrote for a magazine that Porcelain and Pink wrote. Julie and her older sister, Lois, have a conversation in their bathroom about a man who almost dated Lois. Julie continues to make love to Lois’ significant other as she mistakes Julie for Lois while talking to her outside the bathroom window. Fitzgerald’s title of Julia declares that she fits the mold of the “American Aphrodite.” He describes the setting in which Julia is and describes her inside the bath. “It’s a girl – quite an appendage to a bath tub, she just had a pretty girl’s throat and throat for a neck – and a suggestion of a shoulder appearing over the side” (Fitzgerald 903).
In another book published by Harold Bloom called Research and Study Published by Harold Bloom. >, Keith Fraser argues in his commentary on the significance of The Great Gatsby as a “man’s book”. In the commentary, Fraser asserts that Fitzgerald “has lost the best character of man and woman.” The Great Gatsby]” (Bloom Major 30). What F. Scott Fitzgerald said about probably one of the greatest writers of modern literature definitely gives an impression about his roles that he gave women in comparison to the roles he gave to women.
Mary Bewley’s commentary on Asteria Buchanan’s Two Steps is included in Comprehensive Research and Study Guide: Bloom’s Major Novels. Daisy Buchanan was the female lead in The Great Gatsby. “Fitzgerald’s illustration of the emptiness of Daisy’s character – a vanity that we see horrifyingly in the brutality of monstrous moral indifference as the story unfolds” (23). The lack of emotion or feeling shown by Bewley in that sentence is demonstrated. It appears as if in Fitzgerald’s writing there is no definition or quality to the female characters unlike the male ones. An example of this is in another story called Jemina, the Mountain Girl. Jemina was a girl, quite rural, who lived in the mountains.
Kentucky
. Her knowledge seemed limited to a girl who knew nothing of the world outside the one she lived in. On the other hand, Fitzgerald introduces an alien character. The character is a male who seems to be a man worldly and who is quite wealthy and intelligent. well The contrast between these two characters and the ending of the story, which has a man basically sweeping Jemina off her feet as they both perish in a burning building, shows the lack of depth and thought that Fitzgerald’s female characters seem to have.
John Steinbeck was the last of the three modernist authors I researched. He was born and rose again
Salinas, California
. He continued
Stanford
University
until 1925 when he later moved to
New York
. He started writing his course there but could not publish the book but returned to himself.
California
. His fortunes finally changed when Tortilla Flat was published in 1935. The Chrysanthemums is a short story by Steinbeck that raised many questions about the main character, Elisa Allen’s, gender roles in in the story
Elisa Allen is described as having a somewhat masculine figure. “His face was lean and strong and his eyes as clear as water. His figure looked heavy and heavy in his gardener’s dress” (Steinbeck Bedford 681). In the main action of the play, he was employed by the wind to work his way through the town. The stereotypical weakness of women as to what to do to someone when they are overheard is obviously played up by the traveler, although his masculine stature would have us believe otherwise. The man acts out this weakness by offering the chrysanthemum to the woman after her initial offer to do the work. His manners and behavior completely change after he brings up the topic of flowers. With her “eyes intent and keen,” Steinbeck describes Elisa as “running her way to the back of the house, wrapped around a geranium,” after a man asks her for some flowers (684).
Through the stories it is clear that Elisa seems to be a powerless woman. No work proposal can assume that Elisa’s clientele depends on her husband’s success. It is clear that she is relegated to the stereotypical role of the “morning-at-home” wife and the stereotypical “morning-at-home” activities like her garden. Although she seems to have no control over what she does in life, there is a part of her that wants to experience more than what she is experiencing. He wonders about the condition of the man living in the wagon and says “I wish women could do these things” (685). This statement shows that he does not have much control over what he can and cannot do. Mary Rose Napierkowski in her introduction/view ofThe Chrysanthemums says “Elisa is a woman who loves her husband, but whose life is narrow and unexciting, in what geography and opportunity make it possible” (. eNotes). Most notably, Elisa adds, this is “perhaps Steinbeck’s most memorable depiction of a repressed woman” (eNotes).
Fitzgerald, Faulkner and Steinbeck all seem to bear similar characteristics in their characters that connect them to the modernist period in which they all wrote. But looking at more recent literature (the time after modernism) and specifically; Doris Lessing, who is a popular author during this period that continues to this day; It can be seen even more how the three most powerful writers of the modernist era were similar in their genre to the roles of provincial characters in their stories.
In Dorides Lessing Two Old and Young from a collection of short stories Called The Real Thing, the reader during the first reading has already noticed the stark difference between the post-modern female writer and the modernist male writer. The women who walk into the restaurant walk into the restaurant and discuss some questions and issues while simultaneously discussing what will happen next. In the modernist approach, the approach is oblique. For example, both women claim to live alone, which is in stark contrast to all the women in Faulkner’s, Fitzgerald’s, and Steinbeck’s literary chronicles. The fact that they claim to live alone contradicts the feeling of freedom that Elisa Allen’s character from Chrysanthemums longs for. Allen is completely dependent on a male figure unlike the two old women in Lessing’s play. The women in Lessing’s play also seem much more in control of their situation than Doris Houston in Faulkner’s Wuxe Dollar Two Dollars. In fact, the major difference is that Lessing’s work seems like the male characters are less unusual or in control than in the works of Faulkner, Fitzgerald, and Steinbeck. Threateningly, he describes one of the waiters as “young” and “looking with concern” in the restaurant because there are two old women in the restaurant (Lessing 170).
Bad authors of the modernist era undoubtedly show a tendency to weaken the role of women in their stories. It is also recognized by Fitzgerald himself that his greatest work The Great Gatsby is equipped with a much more masculine apparatus. However, we cannot criticize these authors and claim that they all carry chauvinistic values. The age in which they lived—a time when the women’s reformation was still in its infancy, and when the civil rights of the colored people did not even strike them in the early pioneers until after many of them were dead—could have had it. He dictated that he was able to write, so they did. It is clear that Faulkner’s southern influence played a major role in his writing. Despite this, we must also recognize that female authors, especially those who came after the modernist era, such as Lessing, have given flexibility and limited control over what their female characters can and cannot do. Essentially, it is important to understand to what extent the stereotypical roles of gender have been discussed in modernist literature.
Report:
- Bewley, Marius, and Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea Publishing House, 2000. 22-23. Burton, Mary E., and Harold Bloom. “The Counter-Transference of Dr. Diver.” Modern Critical Views: F. Scott Fitzgerald. New York: Chelsea Publishing House, 1985. 129-40. Faulkner, William. “Wife of Dollar Two.” The Uncollected Histories of William Faulkner. Ed. Joseph Blotner. New York: Random House, 1979. Fraser, Keath, and Harold Bloom.. F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Comprehensive Review and Bloom’s Major Novelists Study Guide. New York: Chelsea Publishing House, 2000. 30-31. Guerard, Albert J, and Harold Bloom. Modern Critical Views: William Falkner. New York: Chelsea House, 1986. 143-70. Lessing, Doris. The real thing. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc, 2005.Napierkowski, Marie Rose. ; “The Chrysanthemums: Prologue.” History of students. Ed. Vol. 6. Detroit: Gale, 1998. eNotes.com. 2006. ; <.Whittenburg” >www.enotes.com/chrysanthemums/7048>.Whittenburg, Judith Bryant, and Harold Bloom, 1986, 233-46.
