Shift In Gender Roles

By the 1920s, the concept of an autonomous working woman was at the vanguard of both literature and social thought. The tenets of “New Womanhood” hold that this new breed is concerned with "self-development as contrasted to self-sacrifice or submergence in the family." Naturally, this unconventional shift in gender roles became the focus of female writers like Edna Ferber. Within her novel, “So Big,” Ferber eloquently places Selina De Jong at the intersection of an innovative culture and traditional positions, as her youthful desire to embrace variety does not prove to be compatible with her entrapment in banality of agrarian life. Based on biographical evidence regarding the discussion topics of Ferber’s tight–knit circle of Jewish women writers as well as her use of the female protagonist in other works, it is likely that Ferber did not deviate from her usual tendencies in the writing of “So Big,” in which, contrary to the deceptive title, the protagonist is a woman.

“So Big” does diverge from Ferber’s other works, however, in that the female protagonist fades into the background to be replaced by her son, Dirk. Given the author’s proven interest with the “New Woman” as well as her past use of women as the heroines of her stories, it is unlikely that this shift is to serve as a means to introduce a parallel protagonist. Rather, Dirk ‘So Big’ De Jong serves as a continuation of Selina’s life, which appears to have become stagnant on her High Meadow farm. Surrounded by women beyond the boundaries of the aforementioned cultural revolution, it is inevitable that Selina would be victim to the same fate. Ferber begins to give the illusion that Selina’s time to pursue her own goals has passed, forcing her to live her life through her...

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...g a unique legacy. Ferber’s choice of transitioning from Selina to Dirk as the focal point of the novel as it not only provides hope for Dirk to achieve Selina’s success, attained when her life was presumably over, but it provided insight to the novel’s central thesis by providing the illusion that Dirk was to have ascendancy of Selina’s legacy. Ferber portrays a clear shift, however, as while Selina was the background of “So Big,” she successfully wrought a life on her own conditions. While the Dirk eventually found himself much smaller than the novel’s title would imply, Dirk’s repetition of “so big” in his childhood not only gave hope to Selina that she would develop a legacy, but similar idealism for the life of her son. While Dirk is not yet successful, his potential in attaining the status of wheat or emerald is no less ‘big’ then it was at the novels start.