The Grave (Possible Archetypes)
In this short story one of the main characters, Miranda, describes herself as a tom-boy. She is wearing her summer outfit, which consists of overalls and a man’s hat. Miranda goes on to explain that the people on the countryside think of this as bad behavior for girls should always be feminine. Earlier in the story we learn that Miranda was raised by her father, being that her mother was absent. This made me recall the novel ‘To Kill a Mockingbird”. In this book Scout is a little girl who is also a tom-boy and whose mother was no present in her life. Could families that are missing a “mother-figure” be an archetype for daughters that are not able to be feminine? In our society we tend to be more comfortable with a mother raising her children instead of a father; we may also believe that when girls only have a “male-figure” to look up to they grow up having male-like qualities. Both in “The Grave” and in “To Kill a Mockingbird” the girls are looked down on by society because of their masculinity. Personally, I would always assume that a girl who has only had the example of a male growing up would be a tougher person. , One reason being that she was forced to accommodate her life without a mother, an experience that is painful and would make anyone stronger.
It's not that Miranda was not able to show her feministic point of views, she was merely questioning her sexuality and gender role in society. And yes growing up without her mother did make it essential harder for Miranda in the sense of the bleeding pregnant rabbit, but her and her brother's experience was deeper then the absence of a motherly figure it was an archetype of the circle of life, birth, and death
ReplyDelete-Vaness C.
Althoug your insight was somewhat accurate, I believe that Miranda' mother should not be blamed for Miranda's questioning of her sexuality. In both experiences the lack of a mother figure merely enhanced the undecisive feminine qualities that the girls have.
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