Some of the greatest pieces of creativity perhaps were written in the 20th century. It was a time period that included World War I, parts of World War II, the Great Depression, and a flourishing Jazz era. Writers, musicians, and also the growth of the movie industry in the middle of the 20th century proved to be a flourishing time for many. William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and John Steinbeck all contributed heavily towards the modernist movement within literature during the 20th century. As great of a contribution these three made, there is evidence to support the claim that although literature was once again going through a period of growth that there were still barriers and lines that were not being crossed. One of those barriers that was not being crossed was the line of gender. Women at this time, although growing in number to demand rights, still did not have the opportunities that men were offered. In much of these three men’s work, one can see the attitudes reflected of the modernist era towards women. In comparing and contrasting their work to a post-modern female author in Doris Lessing, it is evident that these authors typically created weak and powerless gender roles for women and stronger and more important gender roles for men in their novels and stories.
William Faulkner was “born into an old
Mississippi
family that had lost its influence and wealth during the Civil War” (
Bedford
90). He lived in the south practically all of his life. The attitudes in the south during his time were still very much racist despite the progression that was made after the Civil War. In his writing, he has created themes that have reflected the “small-minded” culture of his southern people, reflected especially in his treatment of African-Americans and women. His relations with women were questionable throughout all of his life. From Harold Bloom’s Modern Critical Views, an essay by Judith L. Sensibar describes his home life with his wife. “For much of his adult life he apparently did not sleep with the woman with whom he lived nor did he live with the woman with whom he slept” (Bloom 274). She did mention that he visited “his mother every day he was in
Oxford
throughout his married life” as well (274). The fact that he was unable to establish a physical and loving relationship with his wife due to his unrestrained loyalty to his mother leads one to question his writings about women and their relationships with men.
In another essay from Bloom’s Modern Critical Views, Albert J. Guerard listed some of Faulkner’s shortcomings as a person. Guerard described Faulkner as evasive and a mythmaker. Guerrard also stated that Faulkner fabricated stories about wartime experiences. Guerrard goes on to discuss that Faulkner was very unfriendly and passive during his early twenties as well his battles with alcoholism (which is something that Faulkner shares with his compatriot of this era, F. Scott Fitzgerald). However the most startling point that Guerard brought up about Faulkner was that Faulkner was shy around women. Once again, this may not be so obvious when one is reading some of Faulkner’s work but it is an important point to keep in mind when reading Faulkner. It brings up that question once again of women and their relationships with men in his stories.
One of the stories that I analyzed came a huge book called the Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner which was edited by Joseph Blotner. Two Dollar Wife was a short story that demonstrates the modernist male author’s treatment of women. One can even get the sense of what the story is already going to be about just from the title. The story revolves around a few people; the main characters being Maxwell Johns and Doris Houston. The two of them along with another couple of friends go to a country club where they are met by a man who studied at
Princeton
named Jornstadt. Jornstadt and his accomplice/friend, Hap White, approach Johns about purchasing a marriage license with him and
Doris
‘ name on it. The two gamble over it on a game of craps and Jornstadt ends up winning causing the situation to get out of hand.
Doris Houston, the female lead in this short story, is portrayed as immature and juvenile. It is almost as if she cannot rationalize situations for herself and instead winds up crying and complaining instead. In one instance of the story, her immaturity is demonstrated by bickering when offered a drink by a friend in the car. She complains about not being at the Country Club and wanting to be there instead of sitting on the road. Maxwell goes on to say “Don’t pay any attention to her… If anybody comes along I’ll show ’em the license” (Faulkner Uncollected 214). This immaturity by
Houston
and the reaction by Max show that Faulkner created
Houston
to play the role of object in this story. It is symbolic of
Houston
‘s view as an object toward a reader when Johns and Jornstadt gamble over the marriage license, almost as if it the grand prize wasn’t the license but Doris Houston herself.
There were many criticisms of Faulkner that I had found that state that in fact he was stereotypical when creating gender roles for women in his stories. An essay by Judith Bryant Whittenberg, again from Harold Bloom’s Modern Critical Views, gives the feminist perspective of Faulkner. She states that there are only two ways in which a reader can see Faulkner. Whittenburg says that the negative viewpoint would be to see “Faulkner’s females as stereotypical and thus the author himself as either a misogynist” (Bloom 273). A misogynist is a person who is stereotypically and strongly prejudice towards women. Whittenburg says that the other way, which would be the positive viewpoint of Faulkner’s work would be to see females “as complex and variegated and hence see the author as sympathetic to women” (273).
It seems as though there is too much crucial evidence to believe otherwise that Faulkner was sympathetic to women. His shyness to women could be interpreted just as that or it could be interpreted as his distaste and dislike towards women. Also, the descriptions that he uses in some of his stories for women can also be important to note as evidence that support’s Whittenburg’s first view of Faulkner. “She was thin as a dragonfly, honey-haired, with long coltish legs” (Faulkner Uncollected 412). Whittenburg also goes onto make an important generalization over the women in Faulkner’s stories. She says that “[education] is not an option for most of the women in Faulkner’s fiction (Bloom 237). Whittenburg also states the “[female] capacity to be economically self-sufficient is almost nonexistent” (237). This is evident very much so in A Rose for Emily, another one of Faulkner’s well-renowned literary works. The main character, Emily Grierson, appears to be completely dependent over the only consistent male figure in her life which was her father. “After her father’s death she went out very little” (Faulkner Bedford 92).
Albert J. Guerrard discusses candidly from a male perspective about Faulkner’s strong prejudice and dislike for women. Guerrard states that Faulkner put his female characters into “appalling predicaments and punishments” (Bloom 144). This is very much so evident in Two Dollar Wife as well as A Rose for Emily. There is much intrigue and gossip about Emily Grierson that surfaces around the town as she evolved into a more introverted person. In Two Dollar Wife, Doris Houston finds herself in a ridiculous predicament of being married after being dared by Maxwell Johns to marry him. This in turn leads to another outrageous scenario of her treatment as the object of Jornstadt and Max’s desire.
F. Scott Fitzgerald, another great male writer during the modernist era, grew up opposite to Faulkner. He grew up not in the oppressive and racist south but instead in
Minnesota
. Fitzgerald eventually also attended
Princeton
University
later on in life. He also married another great female author during the modernist period in Zelda Fitzgerald. Interestingly enough, he and Faulkner share the same trait of alcoholism which basically reflects the sort of stress and discord both men seemed to have in their lives.
Fitzgerald’s two greatest pieces of work in many people’s eyes were The Great Gatsby and Tender is the 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 as well as Tender is the Night try to embody the American Dream. Now what is exactly is the American Dream. Burton states that Fitzgerald’s American Dream was “a love dance of American idealism with money: more specifically, of the American male, embodying a composite of ideals ranging from New England Humanism to Midwestern Egalitarianism to Southern Gentility with the elusive, seductive American Aphrodite, foam-born from the American capitalistic society” (Bloom Modern Fitzgerald 129). The success of a man in Fitzgerald’s view was to put all the pieces together into the scheme of life. It’s almost as if when a man describes success as having a great house, job, and wife as well. Women to Fitzgerald are just another piece to the puzzle that is the American Dream.
“This Aphrodite (she is Daisy Buchanan, Nicole Diver and many others) has no lineage of familial values, no code of morals; she is always new minted, rich, fresh, beautiful, childish, and morally devastating” (129). This description of the “American Aphrodite” is almost not only a reflective description of those characters from The Great Gatsby and Tender is the Night but also one of Fitzgerald’s characters from a short-story/one act play wrote for a magazine called Porcelain and Pink. Julie and her older sister, Lois have a dialogue in their bathroom over some man that Lois is on the verge of dating. Julie goes on to flirt with Lois’ significant other as he mistakes Julie for Lois while he talks to her outside the bathroom window. Fitzgerald’s label of Julie makes it clear that she fits the mold of an “American Aphrodite”. He describes the setting in which Julie is in and makes his description of her within the bathtub. “It is a girl – clearly an appendage to the bath-tub, only her had and throat-beautiful girls have throats instead of necks – and a suggestion of shoulder appearing above the side” (Fitzgerald 903).
In another book edited by Harold Bloom called the Comprehensive Research and Study Guide: Bloom’s Major Novelists, Keith Fraser discusses in an essay the significance of The Great Gatsby as a “man’s book. In the essay, Fraser states that Fitzgerald said “his best characters were men and the women faded out of [The Great Gatsby]” (Bloom Major 30). The fact that F. Scott Fitzgerald said that about probably one of the greatest piece’s of recent literature definitely gives the impression about his roles he gave women in comparison to the roles he gave to women.
Marius Bewley’s essay on the Two Level’s of Daisy Buchanan was also included in the Comprehensive Research and Study Guide: Bloom’s Major Novelists. Daisy Buchanan was the main female lead in The Great Gatsby. “Fitzgerald’s illustration of the emptiness of Daisy’s character – an emptiness that we see curdling into the viciousness of a monstrous moral indifference as the story unfolds” (23). A lack of emotion or feeling is demonstrated and pointed out by Bewley in that statement. It is appears as if in Fitzgerald’s writing that there is no definition or quality to his female characters unlike his male characters. An example of this was in another short story called Jemina, The Mountain Girl. Jemina was a young girl, fairly naïve, who lived in the mountains of
Kentucky
. Her knowledge seemed limited to be that of a girl who know nothing about the world outside of which she lived in. On the other side, Fitzgerald introduces a character who is an outsider. The character is a male who appears to be a worldly person and one can assume that he is fairly wealthy and intelligent as well. The contrast between these two characters and the ending of the story, which ends in the man basically sweeping Jemina off her feet while they both perish in a burning building, shows the lack of depth and thoughtfulness that Fitzgerald’s female characters seem to have.
John Steinbeck is the last of the three modernist authors that I researched. He was born and raised in
Salinas, California
. He attended on
Stanford
University
until 1925 when he then moved to
New York
. His career in writing began there but he was unable to publish a book therefore he moved back to
California
. His luck changed finally when Tortilla Flat was published in 1935. The Chrysanthemums is a short story by Steinbeck which has generated much discussion around the main character, Elisa Allen’s, gender role in the story.
Elisa Allen is described as somewhat of a manly figure. “Her face was lean and strong and her eyes were as clear as water. Her figure looked blocked and heavy in her gardening costume” (Steinbeck Bedford 681). During the main action of the story she winds up being taken advantage of by a journeyman offering service on his way through town. The stereotypical weakness of women doing anything for somebody when they’re listened is obviously played by the journeyman although her manly stature would lead us to believe otherwise. The man plays this weakness by showing interest in the woman’s chrysanthemums after his initial offer to do work. Her manner and demeanor completely change after he brings up the topic of the flowers. Her “eyes grew alert and eager” and Steinbeck describes Elisa as she “ran excitedly along the geranium-bordered path to the back of the house” after the man asks her for some of the flowers (684).
Throughout the story, it becomes evident that Elisa appears to be a powerless woman. There is no suggestion of a job so one can assume that Elisa relies dependently on the success of her husband. She is obviously relegated to the stereotypical role of “stay-at-home” wife and does the stereotypical “stay-at-home” activities such as her garden. Although she appears to have no control or say over what she does in her life, there is a part of her that wants to experience more than what she has experienced. She wonders about the man’s living situation in his wagon and says “I wish women could do such things” (685). This statement shows that she doesn’t have much control over what she can and cannot do. Marie Rose Napierkowski says in her introduction/overview of The Chrysanthemums that”Elisa is a woman who loves her husband, but whose life is narrow and unexciting, limited in what she can become by geography and opportunity” (eNotes). Most notably she adds Elisa is “”perhaps Steinbeck’s most memorable depiction of a repressed woman” (eNotes).
Fitzgerald, Faulkner, and Steinbeck all seem to carry similar traits in their characters that link them together along with the modernism period in which they all wrote in. However, looking at a post-modern literature (the era after modernism) and in particular, Doris Lessing who is a popular author during this period which spans until the present day; one can see even more how three of the most influential writers of the modernist era were similar in their gender role assignments of characters in their stories.
In Doris Lessing’s Two Old Women and a Young One from a collection of short stories called The Real Thing, the reader through a first read already notice contrasting difference between a post-modern female writer and a modernist male writer. Two old women who walk into a restaurant discuss certain issues and matters while at the same time acting what would be considered deviant in a modernist approach. For example, both of the women claim that they live alone which is the complete opposite of all the females chronicled in the literature of Faulkner, Fitzgerald, and Steinbeck. The fact that they claim that they live alone contrasts the yearning of freedom that Elisa Allen’s character from The Chrysanthemums longs for. Allen has to completely depend on a male figure unlike the two old women in Lessing’s story. The women in Lessing’s story also appear to be much more in control of their situation as compared to say Doris Houston in Faulkner’s Two Dollar Wife. In fact, the major difference is that Lessing’s work it seems as though male characters are less overbearing or in control rather than in the works of Faulkner, Fitzgerald, and Steinbeck. Lessing describes one of the waiters as a “youngish man” and “blank-eyed with anxiety” in the restaurant that the two old women are in (Lessing 170).
Male authors of the modernist era undeniably show a bias towards weakening the roles of women in their stories. It is even acknowledged by Fitzgerald himself that his greatest work The Great Gatsby was geared in a much more masculine direction. However, we cannot put blame upon these authors and claim that they all carry chauvinistic values. The era in which they lived in – an era in which women’s reform was still on the rise as well as the fact that civil rights for colored people had not even hit the forefront for most of these authors until after many of them died – could have dictated what influenced them to write the way they did. It is evident that Faulkner’s extremely southern influence played a huge role in his writing. Despite this, we also must recognize that female authors, in particularly those that came after the modernist era like Lessing, gave more flexibility and very little limit as to what their female characters could and couldn’t be. In essence, it is important to understand just how much the stereotypical roles of gendered were played out in modernist literature.
Reference:
- Bewley, Marius, and Harold Bloom.. F. Scott Fitzgerald: Comprehensive Resarach and Study Guide Bloom’s Major Novelists. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 2000. 22-23. Burton, Mary E., and Harold Bloom. “The Counter-Transference of Dr. Diver.” Modern Critical Views: F. Scott Fitzgerald. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1985. 129-40. Faulkner, William. “Two Dollar Wife.” Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner. Ed. Joseph Blotner. New York: Random House, 1979. Fraser, Keath, and Harold Bloom.. F. Scott Fitzgerald: Comprehensive Resarach and Study Guide Bloom’s Major Novelists. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 2000. 30-31. Guerard, Albert J, and Harold Bloom. Modern Critical Views: William Falkner. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. 143-70. Lessing, Doris. The Real Thing. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc, 1992.Meyer, Michael., ed. The Bedford Introduction To Literature. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2005.Napierkowski, Marie Rose. ; “The Chrysanthemums: Introduction.” Short Stories for Students. Ed. Vol. 6. Detroit: Gale, 1998. eNotes.com. January 2006. 15 May 2006. ; <.Whittenburg” >www.enotes.com/chrysanthemums/7048>.Whittenburg, Judith Bryant, and Harold Bloom. ; Modern Critical Views: William Falkner. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. 233-46.
