Favorite Feminist Literature Part III: Mid-to- End of the 20th Century
By Julie Sara Porter, Bookworm
In honor of March, Women’s History Month, I am writing a
three-part review series of my favorite works considered feminist literature
from the 19th to the end of the 20th century. While most
of the authors are women, not all are. The works just have to be told primarily
from a woman’s point of view or feature a female protagonist.
The female protagonists are strong characters who challenge
society’s expectations of them. While some are successful, others are not so
successful. But they certainly let the other characters and the reader know
exactly who they are and how they feel. I use the term “literature” because
while the selections are mostly novels, I have also included one book of poems
and an anthology of short stories.
I am aware that some books are left out. Many such as The Well of Loneliness, Mrs. Dalloway, and Atonement were left out for a very simple reason: I haven’t read
them. (Though I want to). Of course, I am open to any great suggestions of
feminist literature or any other sort of literature that discusses important
topics, so please write your comments below.
All descriptions will include spoilers to the works.
5. 
The Color Purple by Alice Walker (1982)
The plot- Celie and Nettie are two impoverished
African-American sisters that get separated: Nettie joins a missionary couple
to Africa and Celie, after having been impregnated by her father is practically
sold into marriage to Mr., a cruel abusive man. While living with Mr., Celie
becomes romantically involved Shug Avery, a blues singer and Mr.’s mistress.
Why it’s a favorite in Feminist literature-The Color Purple explores the solidarity
and union between the female characters and how they rely on each other for
strength and support. The one bright spot in Celie’s childhood is in her
relationship with Nettie and even as she grows older, she continues to write
letters to Nettie. (Letters that change
from “Dear God” to “Dear Nettie.”) Shug and Celie seem like a very unlikely
couple. (In fact when she first sees her, Shug tells Celie, “You as ugly as
sin.”) but they bring out the best in each other as Celie reveals Shug’s
kindness and Shug helps Celie find her independence by helping her open a store
and become a pants designer.
Favorite Quote: Celie (to Mr., as she and Shug, leave him):
I’m pore, I’m black, I may be ugly and can’t cook, a voice say to everything listening.
But I’m here.
4. 
The Handmaid’s Tale
by Margaret Atwood (1986)
The plot: In a futuristic dystopian society, women are
placed in only a few categories: as wives of commanders, as servants, or as
handmaids whose job is to give birth to children to be raised by commanders and
their wives. The society is seen through the eyes of Offred, a handmaid, who
writes not only about this society, but her memories of the days before.
Why it’s a favorite in Feminist literature: It portrays what
would happen if women’s roles were completely stifled in the name of religion
and conservatism. Through Offred’s cynical and sarcastic observation, she
describes the regulations that demean her and the other women. (All of the
signs have pictures because women are forbidden to read along with other rules
and regulations that are meant to remind women that they are second class
citizens in this society.)
She fights in minor ways by whispering her name late at
night, receiving little tokens like hand lotion and fashion magazines from her
commander, engaging in an affair of sorts with the commander, and learns about the
Resistance from her fellow handmaids. She also reveals her connections to her
former life by remembering her mother, her friend Moira, her husband Luke, and
her daughter as well as memories like having a job and her own money and living
independently. The reader feels her despair at the world that ended and her
rage to fight the new order in her own way.
Favorite Quote: Offred (on Serena Joy, a former religious
leader and her Commander’s wife): “Her speeches were about the sanctity of the
home, about how women should stay home. Serena Joy didn’t do this herself, she
made speeches instead, but she presented this failure of hers as a sacrifice
she was making for the good of all…..She doesn’t make speeches anymore. She has
become speechless. She stays in her home, but it doesn’t seem to agree with
her. How furious she must be, now that she’s been taken at her word.”
3. 
Practical Magic
by Alice Hoffman (1995)
The Plot: Two sisters, Gillian and Sally, belong to the
eccentric Owens clan, a family whose women are rumored to be witches. The
sisters conspire to get away from the odd happenings and vicious rumors.
Gillian runs away and gets involved in various short-lived marriages while
Sally settles for a suburban life with a husband and two daughters. The Owens
sisters are forced to confront their magical past and their feelings for each
other after Gillian returns with her deceased husband.
Why it’s a favorite in Feminist literature: Practical Magic is filled with the
strength and power of its female characters. Gillian and Sally’s aunts often
use herbs and charms to aid women in town with their problems in love and
health. Sally’s daughter, Kylie, sees auras and gains empathic abilities into
others’ emotions. Despite their rejection of their past, Gillian and Sally also
have precognitive abilities and deep connections with nature. The strongest
magic that the Owens women have is their union with each other and how the
various generations challenge their destinies of having short-lived or bad romantic
relationships. Also, the Owens women are able to band together to fight against
the vengeful spirit of Gillian’s abusive ex-husband and their own fears and
insecurities to embrace their inner power.
Favorite Quote: Narration: “For more than two hundred years,
the Owen women have been blamed for everything that has gone wrong in town. If
a damp spring arrived, if cows in the pasture gave milk that was runny with blood,
if a colt died of colic, if a baby was born with a red birthmark stamped onto
his cheek, everyone believed that fate must have been twisted, at least a
little, by those women over on Magnolia Street. It didn’t matter what the
problem was-lightning, or locusts, or a death by drowning. It didn’t matter if
the situation could be explained by logic, or science or plain bad luck. As
soon as there was a hint of trouble or the slightest misfortune, people began
pointing their fingers and placing blame. Before long they’d convinced themselves
that it wasn’t safe to walk past the Owens house after dark, and only the most
foolish neighbors would dare to peer over the black wrought iron fence that
circled the yard like a snake.”
2. 
Beloved by Toni Morrison (1987)
The plot: Sethe, a former slave escaped to freedom but still
has many dark secrets. She and her daughter, Denver, are haunted by the ghost
of Sethe’s deceased daughter. After the ghost is exorcised by Paul D, a friend
of Sethe’s from slavery days who longs to be more, a young woman appears. The
young woman, called Beloved, begins to share information and knowledge that
only Sethe and her daughters would know. So it doesn’t take long for Sethe and
Denver to suspect the mysterious young woman may be Sethe’s daughter returned
from the grave. Sethe not only has to deal with the return of her daughter but
also her guilt for murdering her daughter, so she couldn’t be returned to
slavery.
Why it’s a favorite in Feminist literature: Like The
Color Purple and Practical Magic,
Beloved also explores the ties
between women in families and in society. Sethe, Denver, and Beloved play off
each other with their affection as well as the guilt and buried anger within.
Sethe feels guilt about the death of her daughter and filters that in her
relationship with Denver and Beloved. Denver finds a connection with the sister
that she never know and Beloved finds some answers to her own identity.
The female connections aren’t just limited to the members of
Sethe’s family but are found in the society at large. The community of escaped
slaves is headed by Baby Suggs, Sethe’s former mother-in-law, who holds the
community together through her love of God and family. During her escape, Sethe
gets assistance from Amy Denver, a street-smart white woman who helps Sethe escape
and give birth to her daughter whom she names her for. These connections reveal
the strong circle of communication and love between the female characters.
Favorite quotes: Denver: “Slaves are not supposed to have
pleasurable feelings on their own; their bodies are not supposed to be like
that, but they have to have as many children as they can to please whoever
owned them. Still they were not supposed to have pleasure deep down. (Baby
Suggs) said for me not to listen to all that. That I should always listen to my
body and love it.”
1. 
The Bell Jar and Poems
by Sylvia Plath (1963 Britain; 1971-United States)
The plot: Plath’s semiautobiographical novel focuses on
Esther Greenwood, a brilliant scholarship student working at the prestigious Ladies’ Day magazine. Esther becomes
overwhelmed by her work at the magazine, writing her thesis on twins in Finnegan’s Wake, her failed romances,
and her failing relationship with her dim mother. Esther’s sanity ebbs, so she
suffers a nervous breakdown and attempts suicide.
Why it’s a favorite in Feminist literature: Esther is the
worst-case scenario of a woman who is so overwhelmed by her unhappiness that
she cannot find her way out except to surrender. Many women who are mentally
ill or engage in addictions or self-destructive behavior can completely relate
to the struggles that both Esther and her author, Sylvia Plath felt.
Esther is not fulfilled, but she sees little hope in her
future. Her self-consciousness against other women hamper her pursuit for a
career. She also finds little romance and companionship in her relationships
with men ending any possibilities of marriage. She wants so much in her life,
but feels unable to pursue any of her goals and desires. She even wonders, “I
wonder what terrible thing it is that I had done.” This inability to find
satisfaction in her life leads to her psychological downfall.
Plath herself also suffered from mental illness until her
suicide in 1963. Many of her poems recounted such emotional struggles as her
unhappy marriage to poet, Ted Hughes, her difficulties with her parents
particularly her father, and her struggles with her psychological state. Her
writing made readers share her pain and suffering and explore what the mind of
a brilliant, but troubled woman was like.
Favorite quote: Esther: “I saw my life branching out before
me like the green fig tree in the story.
From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a
wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home
and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant
professor, and another fig was Eee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was
Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantine and
Socrates and Atilla and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat
professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and
above these fights were many more figs I couldn’t quite make out.
I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree,
starving to death, just because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs I
would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant
losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to
wrinkle and go black, and one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.”
Honorable Mention: Fear
of Flying by Erica Jong, The Witches
of Eastwick by John Updike, Possession
by A.S. Byatt, The Robber Bride by
Margaret Atwood, A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley, The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria
Naylor, and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark, Bridget Jones' Diary by Helen Fielding, Surfacing by Margaret Atwood, and The Women's Room by Marilyn French
Non-Fiction: I Know
Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, The Feminine Mystique by
Betty Friedan, Bitch: In Praise of
Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel, Reading
Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi, The
Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir, The
Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer, The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and Nineteenth Century
Imagination by Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, and The Warrior Woman: Memoirs of
A Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston
Plays: The Heidi
Chronicles by Wendy Wasserstein and A
Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
Short Stories and Poems: Works by Maya Angelou, Shirley
Jackson, Flannery O’Connor, Joyce Carol Oates, Gwendolyn Brooks, Anne Sexton, Adrienne
Rich, Sandra Cisneros, Lorrie Moore, and Alice Munro
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