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The Bell Jar Feminism

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Recommended: Feminism as a special topic in literature

Good morning miss stipinowich and Mrs McCloud. Of all the 4 books I have chosen to discuss today I will argue that they all be included in the school library. This is for 3 reasons: Empowerment, Awareness and Acceptance. All four of the books I have read could be categorized as feminist literature because they all contain female protagonists, they break gender stereotypes as well as question and acknowledge them, and they all show women in a powerful light. The first book I will be discussing is ‘A spy in the house of love’ by Anias Nin. The protagonist of the book is a woman named Sabina in her early 30’s. The book is set in the 1950’s and begins with Sabina dialing a random number, which happens to be a lie detector. The lie detector then …show more content…

This book explores gender and gender stereotyping more overtly than any of the other books. An example of this is the relationship Esther Greenwood (the protagonist of the book) has with her ex-boyfriend Buddy Willard. Esther loses interest in him after finding out that he had lost his virginity, but still expected the women he marries to be a virgin. Esther saw the hypocrisy and the double standard – which is what girls should be taught to see. The book was written in the 1950’s but is still relevant today and questions the categorization of women into pure (the virgins) and not pure. Esther is nearly raped by a man who believed all women to be whores that could be bought, and she is proposed to by a man who thinks sex is impure and would never sleep with his wife and only …show more content…

It is a complex book set in two parts – the early 60’s and the late 60’s in Nigeria – spanning over the Nigerian Civil war. Gender is deeply explored in the book – within and outside of war. In the book educated women were seen as spoilt by older generations and women who could not have children were ostracized. Baby boys were given a higher value than baby girls, and during the war women were used as sexual objects. However, the book showed women in a strong light – taking control of the injustices set upon them. Olanna adopts a baby girl despite it being her husband’s love child because his mother refuses to look after the child. Kainene (Olanna’s twin sister) manages a refugee camp and banishes two priests after finding them soliciting young girls in exchange for food, showing Kainene’s strong character and protection of young

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