"Prue"
vs. "My Heart is Broken"
Yoonhoo Chang
Women, who went
through the times of dire oppression in the fields of literature, began to let
their voice out by 18th century. Beginning from finding their place among male
authors, female authors slowly moved on to talk about the social issue regarding
the status of woman. They created fiction out of reality, and hoped to find
increased concerns about sexism and sexual policies. Sure, they were faced with
immense criticisms that last until now, but the word "feminism" is
labeled in front of the important literary movement which made meaningful steps.
"Prue" and "My Heart is Broken" are both short stories
partly or fully related to feminist movement, so have many similarities, along
with many differences. As female writers, Alice Munro and Mavis Gallant wrote
stories that are depicting woman, but doing so in different ways.
Protagonist of
"Prue" (who is Prue), is obviously a stronger woman than protagonist
of "My Heart is Broken", Jeannie. They have a similarities in that
both women regard sex not as an important or grave thing, and live not like
traditional wives. Prue divorced and escaped the marriage she considered
horrible, and talks freely with people around her, regardless of gender. She,
for sure, doesn't look like a woman who is completely soaked into house works.
Jeannie, like Prue, questions the duty of wife. She does not understand what
the older woman emphasizes the duty of proper wife should be. She is
light-hearted about men and sex, as she is about house works. However, there
are drastic differences between them, and first of them is the "job".
Prue works as a owner of plant shop and is completely independent from men,
financially. She regards the "richness" of Gordon-her lover-as
pleasing, but she takes the wealth light-heartedly and asks for nothing.
Jeannie, who is young and is married to a older man, has no financial independence
whatsoever, compared to Prue. She moves when her husband decides to move, and
has no job. All she does is the house work, which she doesn't take seriously.
Moreover, even though their views about sex is quite the same, Prue never
seemed to have experience of "rape" whereas Jeannie experienced two
rapes.
Two women views
the world around them differently. Prue is liked by nearly everyone she knows.
Her environment is full of people who are willing to listen to her stories, and
ready to smile at her light-heartedness. Gordon, her "lover", cooks
for her and invites her to dinner. Besides what is happening in her mind, she
seems to have no grave conflicts with the surrounding world. She seems to be
stable, and is able to make herself contented by surrounding figures. Even her
children are nice and caring for her, when most of the children in this story neglect
their parents. On the other hand, Jeannie experiences quite a few hardships and
conflicts. She was happy with the fact that everyone liked her, but after the
rape, she was broken-hearted because she discovered who showed hatred to her.
Unmannered, impolite people exists, or started to exist, in her world and that's
the main theme of the story. And Jeannie is uncomfortable with the paymaster's
wife, whom she's talking to throughout the story. Paymaster's wife scolds her,
and blames her for something she should have done, but hasn't. Jeannie's naive
view about the world changes by her experience, and she instead views her
environment as unsafe and heart-breaking.
As a reader, I
was first shocked at how these women viewed sex. Normally, in the stories I
read so far, women were close-minded and knew their "place". But Prue
and Jeannie viewed sex with no seriousness. Probably this shockingly new
viewpoint is because these two women are on the frontiers of new-born
countries, but surely the new wave of feminist writers' writing styles should
have played the role. It's agreeable that two women have their own strength,
but honestly Prue was a more memorable character. She is a strong women who
regarded the irrational "love" statement of Gordon forgettable. Jeannie,
whom I personally disliked, was fragile and a "womanly" figure who
represented the normal woman of that era-helpless, girly, and easily-hurt.
One writer said
feminism is the radical notion that women are human beings. Even though their
depiction of women were different, these two stories claimed this statement to
be meaningful. Prue showed the independent woman who had characteristics that
even modern woman would view as "abnormal". Jeannie showed the tears
of fragility, and sexual, financial dominance of men but emphasized the social
problem.
