Analyzing Looking for Alaska with the Feminist Critical Lens
The novel follows Miles “Pudge” Halter in search of a “Great Perhaps” at his new boarding school Culver Creek. Along with his misadventures with his friends, he falls in love with the hysterical Alaska Young. The girl on campus wanted by all but taken by one, her boyfriend Jake. But he does not stop her from engaging with Pudge. The novel continues by following the tragic, cliché love story of the two classmates. Looking for Alaska, a novel written by John Green, feminism is captured through a complex female character named Alaska. Alaska’s role in the novel is very important. Not only because she is the titular character, but because the book was written by a male and the protagonist is a male character, Alaska provides a female perspective on various events throughout the book.
In various forms of media, it is common that the male is strong and dependable while the female is portrayed as feeble and clueless. However, this is not the case for this novel. When comparing stereotypical gender roles
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She regularly shares her opinions when her peers make sexist remarks. During a rap battle with her friend Takumi, he uses a derogatory word against women. Alaska responds, “Oh shit did you just diss the feminine gender / I'll pummel your ass then stick you in a blender,” (Green 112). Being assertive and defending women against oppression is clearly an important situation for her. However, many of her actions contradict her feminist ideals. She possessed behaviors that made women look unappealing. Such as getting drunk, smoking cigarettes, having sex, and especially her erratic mood swings. Her friend the Colonel expresses, “I was so tired of her getting upset for no reason,” (Green 149). It is apparent that her unpredictable moods angered him and created a strain in their relationship. In her defense, she was practicing her feminist ideals by doing as she
Women and men are not equal. Never have been, and it is hard to believe that they ever will be. Sexism permeates the lives of women from the day they are born. Women are either trying to fit into the “Act Like a Lady” box, they are actively resisting the same box, or sometimes both. The experience of fitting in the box and resisting the box can be observed in two plays: Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” and Henrick Ibsen’s “A Doll House”. In Hansberry’s play, initially, Beneatha seems uncontrolled and independent, but by the end she is controlled and dependent; whereas, in Ibsen’s play Nora seems controlled and dependent at the beginning of the play, but by the end she is independent and free.
Due to traditional stereotypes of women, literature around the world is heavily male-dominant, with few female characters outside of cliché tropes. Whenever a female character is introduced, however, the assumption is that she will be a strong lead that challenges the patriarchal values. The authors of The Thousand and One Nights and Medea use their female centered stories to prove their contrasting beliefs on the role of women not only in literature, but also in society. A story with a female main character can be seen as empowering, but this is not always the case, as seen when comparing and contrasting Medea and The Thousand and One Nights.
When studying gender roles in history, one will find that females are often depicted in similar ways no matter the era or region of study. Even when comparing the industrialized, early, twentieth century to today’s progressive era, there are striking similarities between female roles. We can see that over the course of the twentieth century, the qualities of loyalty and honesty have decreased in marriages due to the treatment of the two main female roles as depicted literature. The first was the role of the wife. The wife was often portrayed as a housekeeper and a nanny. Dull in appearance, there was no aesthetic beauty to this typical female. The other main role was the “other woman.” The more mysterious and promiscuous character, this woman portrayed the other part of the female population. Both of these types of characters are composites that portrayed the average, disposable female while how they were treated conveyed the general handling of females in the early, twentieth century.
...e, women are the weaker of the two sexes. Women are slaves and spoils of war, if they are valued for sex they are used for sex. The universal portrayal of women causes a reevaluation of modern day gender balances by the reader.
...ation of men and women to the reader; we accept the cliché’s and gender-roles as the collective standard.
Up until recently, the definition of what a man or a woman should be has been defined, with boundaries, by society; males should be strong, dominant figures and in the workplace providing for their families while females should be weak and submissive, dealing with cleaning, cooking and children. Any veering away from these definitions would have disrupted the balance of culture completely. A man playing housewife was absurd, and a woman being the sole provider for the family bizarre. In Alice Munro’s short story “Boys and Girls” and Bobbie Ann Mason’s “Shiloh”, conflict arises when expectations based on gender are not fulfilled by the characters.
The notion of gender may be in the process of breaking free of binaries in the present day, but not so long ago it wasn’t considered separate from the biological ‘sex’. While having to choose one over the other, each gender had their own assigned roles, restrictions and prohibitions. That basic understanding of the active and lively men versus passive and gentle women ideal has only started to change for the last century or so. However, subtle challenges had been made before, and surely this has found its place in literature as well.
The biological differences that set apart the male and female gender throughout any culture remain eminent. Men are perceived as the stronger and dominant gender; women play the role of the weaker. In each culture the expectation of the manner in which men and women behave are influenced by the ideals and customs of that culture. In most predominant cultures, the man undertakes the role as a leader, and the woman devotes her life to the husband. Throughout history, traditions and literature provide a template to the identities of various cultures. Sleeping Beauty’s classic tale of a beautiful princess takes a central precept that previous patriarchal archetypes dominated during the 17th Century. The archetypal perceptions of women resulted from conscious and unconscious literature influenced by male-dominated perspectives and social standards.
Steffen’s article, “Gender Stereotypes Stem From the Distribution of Women and Men Into Social Roles”. In this article, they discuss the root of gender stereotypes being derived from the unequal distribution of roles for men and women in society. They believe too many women are left to be “homemakers” while men become professionals. This is evident in Survivors as the show chooses to have Abby take on this maternal role. This unequal distribution of roles then, in turn, leads to men and women being labeled with certain qualities. According to Steffen and Eagly, women are believed to have communal qualities, or “manifested by selflessness, concern with others, and a desire to be at one with others”, and men agentic qualities or, “self-assertion, self-expansion, and the urge to master” (Eagly, Steffen 736). Abby epitomizes this desire to help others and selfness, while the surrounding men are less likely to trust others by questioning the actions of other men in the
Looking For Alaska, by John Green, is a creative literary work detailing the issues of love and loss in teenage life. The book’s unique point of view, dialogue, and themes help to make it an excellent work that is well-worth the read. While many other examples of literature include these elements, Looking For Alaska does it a little differently, and for the better. This is an excellent novel, and its unique elements only add to the story.
Throughout literature, authors employ a variety of strategies to highlight the central message being conveyed to the audience. Analyzing pieces of literature through the gender critics lens accentuates what the author believes to be masculine or feminine and that society and culture determines the gender responsibility of an individual. In the classic fairytale Little Red Riding Hood, the gender strategies appear through the typical fragile women of the mother and the grandmother, the heartless and clever male wolf, and the naïve and vulnerable girl as little red riding hood.
Gender is a concept that has been socially constructed to identify people as male or female, masculine or feminine. The concept is used as to regulate the way people live and is something that influences the representation of female bodies in novels. Gayle Rubin’s article, “The Traffic in Women” uses several theorists, such as Freud, Marx, Levi-Strauss and Engels to understand the role of the women and show how they are oppressed and weak in comparison to men. Angela Carter reinforces Rubin’s beliefs by sharing similar ideas of male dominance in her novel, The Bloody Chamber. She demonstrates how gender is a reflection of the body in stories such as, “The Snow Child,” “The Erl-King” and “The Tiger’s
Looking for Alaska is a book ,written by John Green. The main theme of the book is “Looking for the Great Perhaps.” In the first three chapters of the book, the main characters, Miles “Pudge” Halter, Chip “Colonel” Martin, and Alaska Young are introduced. Looking for Alaska is a story about a guy named Miles Halter who recently switched to a boarding in school in Alabama in order to find out who he really is as a person. At the boarding school, Miles becomes very close friends with his roommate, The Colonel, and a girl named Alaska Young. The Colonel is a very confident guy who’s pretty poor in money, but he’s rich in love and appreciation for people. Alaska is a very beautiful, yet strange girl who is fascinated with death and isn't afraid
The novel Looking For Alaska, by John Green, is a story of joy, love and sorrow through the relationship between the two protagonists, the style of writing the author uses, and finally the scene of how Dr.Hyde teaches the inevitable. Pudge, the protagonist is the new kid at Culver Creek boarding school and through his new roommate ‘The Colonel’(Chip) he is introduced to Alaska Young. Ms. Young is no ordinary person to Pudge, in fact to him she is extraordinary, and like no one he has ever met. Pudge fantasizes a relationship with Alaska but is torn apart when she tells him she has a boyfriend. The friendship between Pudge and Alaska grows as they are in several of the same academic classes, and are in the same trouble-maker group of friends.
Men and women have different life experiences, the writing of male and female authors will differ, as well. Some people believe that male authors are not able to write accurately from the female perspective or present feminist ideals because they have not experienced life as women. When writing about women it is possible that authors will describe them differently depending on gender and culture. But, there are cases were male authors can illustrate women representing the stereotypical female. To explore these issues, I have studied the representation of women in four novels: two novels from male writers, Henry James and Ernest Hemingway, and two novels by female writers, Kate Chopin and Sandra Cisneros.