Gander Relationships With Women

In the Book Grain by Robert Stead, the main character Gander has many types of relationships with many women. In the article titled “Rereading Stead's Grain” by Frank Davey Gander’s relationships with women is investigated. The women in Gander’s life are mother Suzie, his sister Minnie, the schoolteacher, Jo Burge, Jerry Chansley, and most important the machines. Each relationship Gander has with these women is either awkward or ends poorly. Much of what gander learns about women comes from Bill a farmhand and another farm hand named Grit. The advice he gets is destructive to Gander forming relationships with women outside his family. The First World War also plays a role in Gander’s relationship towards women. Gander’s puzzlement with love

When she crawls into bed with him during the storm because she is afraid (90). This is the last close moment they have were she relies on him. Their relationship as Gander gets older becomes less frequent and almost non-existent as their individual’s chores on the farm keep them away from each other most of the time. In the article it discusses Minnie and Gander’s relationship as similar to his mother and to Jo because “Gander with Minnie and then with Jo; both seem psychologically his mother – one "holding him in her arms" to give him melodramatic advice” (Davey). Considering the Gander has strained relationship with his mother the relationship with his sister would also fall in the same path because the relationship is the same. When Minnie marries Cal, Gander has some resentment of his sister and Cal’s relationship and this resentment changes his relationship with his sister making it more divided and in some ways more awkward. Gander never understand his sister and Cal Beach’s relationship, he sees that “being fond of a member of one’s family has always been regarded by Gander Stake as a mark of weakness” (236). Gander believes that they both are lazy, which changes his relationship with his sister because she use to

His first relationship is with his mother, but Gander is not his mother’s first child so Jackie takes up most of his mother’s love and this leaves Gander resentful and even when Jackie leaves, Gander is still not that close with his mother. Gander’s relationship with his sister is probably his most healthy relationship, but as she gets old and Minnie marries Cal, Gander’s relationship to her becomes more distant and Gander’s thoughts concerning his sister while thinking of Jo is rather incestuous. Gander’s relationship with Jo Burges can never happen because of the way he treats her and how he sees her, at first he sees her as a sister figure and then at the end he sees her as a mother figure. Gander’s relationship with Jerry Chansley is unhealthy because of Gander’s aggression towards her, which ends the relationship. All of Gander’s issues with the women outside of his family relate to the insight Bill the farm hand gave him when he was a young man and because of the insight Bill gave Gander, Gander’s relationships with all women are