In Jon Hassler’s short stories, Rufus at the Door, Agatha McGee and the St. Isidore Seven, and Winning Sarah Spooner, three characters can be viewed through a Gender Theory lens. The character display opposite gender roles that give them power, they can use to benefit others. Of the three characters, one failed to succeed at holding power, and the other two held on tho their power.
In the story Rufus at the door, his mother takes on masculine traits to hold power over others in benefit of her son’s life. She insists that Rufus is not put in the institution, and she she demands that her other sons respect her wishes. Throughout the story Agatha McGee, she holds power over the male characters which benefit the school teachers and the community. She demands that people do the right thing and not break their promises. In Winning Sarah Spooner, Sarah uses masculine traits to hold power over the male character by using her independent way life to teach him her way of living with benefits him in a number of ways.
These three characters; single mom, teacher, and widow, take on masculine character traits such as confidence, intelligence, dominant attitude, and ultimately taking control of a situation which benefits others. Rufus’ mother’s death puts a stop to her power, because her son was put in the institution. This would be a source of internal conflict for her because she probably knew that would happen. Agatha McGee held on to her power by maintaining the respect of her community and will benefit with her being on the school board. Sarah maintained her power by changing the male character in many ways that benefit him. Gender Theory applied to these stories demonstrates how Hassler uses masculine and feminine dynamic character traits to show the power dynamics of human relationships.
Wow this is really heading into a good direction! Great start! The only thing that I would add is maybe don't talk about how the power ended. Maybe just go into it and analyze the power the characters hold during the short story and how they are alike. If you talk about how it ended you drift off to a new subject I think. You could go into deep detail about how Rufus's mom had to do everything for him. He could barely do anything by himself. She did the feminine traits too but she was way more masculine. The action of taking care of Rufus when all the other family members wanted him in the asylum. This action made her look bold and masculine. She was aggressive and did what she thought was the right thing. She didn't back down, she was confident in herself. Hope my comments help haha! You have a really good direction your paper is heading! Good job! (:
ReplyDeleteI like the idea that you are bringing up, in fact, my idea is almost the exact same. I don't know if you tried making a thesis and the beginning sentence or two were part of it, but if it was your thesis you could say something such as, in Jon Hassler's short stories, the characters display opposite gender roles that give them the power to succeed, yet one of the characters fails to succeed with the power that they held. Something around that idea could probably work! I like the three stories that you used. I didn't even think about using Rufus at the Door for mine but your idea made sense! Be sure to look at different literary techniques from the stories in order to back up your thesis. You could look at different symbols or conflicts at work in the stories, for example. Also, what conclusion could you make based on your thesis? Maybe answer what purpose the author had of showing one character who failed at trying to succeed and hold their power. But good job :)
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