Parallels Are Drawn Between Male Dominance and Religious Dominance
Parallels are drawn between male dominance and religious dominance in Alice Munro's "Boys and Girls" and James Joyce's "Eveline". Munro's theme equates her character's life with that of the foxes raised on the farm while Joyce uses his sister's life, after the death of their mother, as a role model for Eveline. A conscious decision made by Munro's character to stand up to the male domination leads her towards living a life similar to that of her mothers. The dominance of the Irish Catholic Church forces Eveline to make the likely decision to stay and care for her father. The characters, while living in different parts of the world, experience the same oppression, one through male dominance, the other through the church that forces them into a life of servitude rather than one of freedom. Munro chooses to use a girl character as the narrator of the story however, her theme of male dominance is presented in the first line, "My father was a fox farmer,"(217) rather than "I grew up on a fox farm," giving the father the main role. Setting the story on the Canadian prairies in the mid-twentieth century, Munro depicts life for a woman as being filled with drudgery and meaningless tasks as seen through the eyes of her young charact
Joyce portrays his character of Eveline as a victim of male dominance. The foxes are cared for and raised in comfort in what can be called, a little fox town, only to be slaughtered for their pelts in much the same way that a girl is raised to be married, a "pelt" to their husbands to live a life filled with continued servitude instead of freedom. Living in Ireland during the early to mid-twentieth century, Eveline's life has been immersed in the Irish Catholic religion. Munro's character imitates the foxes style of being watchful and leery "barking seldom-they save that for the night-time when they might get up a chorus of community frenzy. Although the allegory is not as obvious as in Munro's story, Eveline's life has been ruled by the discontented life of her father and the ever-present watchful eyes of the portraits of priests and saints. The girl helps her father with daily chores relating to the foxes, which she considers ritualistically important, and the times that she is forced to help her mother in the kitchen are considered wasted days, dreary and depressing. The memory of her mothers dying words "Derevaun Seraun! Derevaun Seraun!"(136) provides Eveline with an insight into her possible future if she remains at home and spurs her towards leaving with her fiance Frank. Upon arrival at the dock to meet Frank, Eveline is confronted with numerous sights that her unconscious mind recognizes as signs of her religion telling her not to leave. "(220) just as the girl at night, alone in her bed, makes up stories casting herself as the hero. The black mass of the boat, illuminated portholes and long mournful whistle representing a mass celebrating the devil, windows in a church and God's voice saying, "No", trigger her to make the final decision to stay. She remains quiet and does not banish the operation to the barn, where it belongs, as her role in the family hierarchy does not permit her to express her thoughts on such matters. After the death of her mother, Eveline lived a life of fear and drudgery trying to fulfill her promise. Her thoughts led to the belief that she was one with the objects and furnishings of her home having dusted and cleaned them for so many years and felt a sense of loss at being parted from them. Being raised by a domineering father coupled with a promise to her mother, "to keep the house together as long as she could" (Joyce 136) leaves Eveline with no conscious ability to make choices on her own. (137)The decisions made by each character while unconscious, were ultimately the only ones they were capable of making considering the suppression under which they were living.
Common topics in this essay:
Laird Gaelic,
Catholic Church,
Frank Eveline,
Irish Catholic,
Eveline Munro's,
Derevaun Seraun136,
,
Living Ireland,
male dominance,
death mother,
eveline's life,
irish catholic,
girl raised,
living life,
casting hero,
eveline conscious,
church forces,
munro's character,
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Acceptance Essays
