Study Document
Wrinkle in Time Feminine Identity Essay
Pages:6 (1896 words)
Sources:2
Subject:Personal Issues
Topic:Self Identity
Document Type:Essay
Document:#75208529
Thus, though she must perform a "masculine" role in order to be successful, she must perform it in a "feminine" way, and thus disrupt the idea of gender.
This also ties in quite nicely with Cullen's assertion that the modern individual is defined by love and connection with their family, rather than by their place in society. The very fact that meg is the one to save Charles Wallace is a further affirmation of the willingness -- on the part of both Meg and L'Engle -- to buck the societal roles that have been laid out for women and instead to embrace their own identity based on their love for others, and to a greater or lesser degree the love that others bear them. Of course, the romance that is still blossoming between Meg and Calvin still entrenches this novel somewhat in the old mentality of romance and love, but even here there can be seen some hope, as Meg tends to define the parameters of the relationship more than Calvin. The suggestion that the romantic love of and for a male figure helps to complete her identity can be read even more cynically, to imply that neither L'Engle nor her heroine have truly been able to escape societal expectations and demands regarding the proper role and identity for women, but it can als be read as an admonition that singularity of perspective and self-enforced isolation are simply inhuman ways of being.
At its heart, being human is exactly what Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time is all about. Meg is finding her place in the world, in her family, and her own sense of identity as an adolescent female, it is true, but more importantly she is finding her place as a person, and recognizing the vast array and presentations of personhood that are possible in the universe. She and the reader both ultimately come to the conclusion that any definition of identity, based on gender or anything else, is necessarily incomplete, and that the intellect holds very few human answers.
Works Cited
Culler, Jonathan. Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction.
L'Engle, Madeleine. A Wrinkle in Time. New York: Yearling, 1973.
Sample Source(s) Used
Works Cited
Culler, Jonathan. Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction.
L'Engle, Madeleine. A Wrinkle in Time. New York: Yearling, 1973.
Related Documents
Study Document
Woolf Women in Violence and War
Woolf / Women in Violence and War The current paper deals with the use of stream of consciousness and narrative technique by Virginia Wolf. The author has discussed how Woolf comes and goes in time and space to reveal her inside feelings, and why she used them especially in time of war and domestic violence. Much has been written about Woolf's use of the stream-of-consciousness technique used widely by other Modernist writers
Study Document
Women and Cosmetic Surgery
North American Women Continue to be the Primary Targets and Consumers of Cosmetic Surgery? In a world in which we are judged by how we appear, the belief that we can change our appearance through cosmetic surgery is liberating to a lot of women. The growing popularity of cosmetic surgery is a testament to society's overrated fixation with appearance. For women living in North America, their appearance is in fact
Study Document
Men and Adolescence Anthropological Inquiry
In the historical world, there seemed to be fewer choices in life for many, and roles as adults were more stringent -- and defined as adult meaning very structured cultural templates. There must then be a bit of a Catch-22 when it comes to the advances made in gender thinking, family, and actualization since the end of World War II. Improvements in education, lifting of the gender-based glass ceiling
Study Document
Dorothy Wordsworth --"We Journeyed Side by Side."
Dorothy Wordsworth --"we journeyed side by side." William Wordsworth was the famous Romantic poet. His sister Dorothy was his quiet strength, support and inspiration. Dorothy Wordsworth (1771-1855) devoted her life to her brother (1770-1850). Intimate friends and close confidants, they shared an immense mutual dependence and were of extreme significance and value to each other. As William put it in his poem, "The Recluse," as quoted in the title above, brother and
Study Document
Sally Mann
Many individuals have trouble accepting mothers as artists, as they are inclined to consider stereotypes when taking into account the traditional role of the mother. By doing so, they automatically think of people like Mann as having to focus on a series of choirs that have traditionally been associated with her position. By being an artist a mother would presumably be less able to perform a series of basic tasks