Eva Luna - A Message for All People

             Isabel Allende's novel, Eva Luna, is the story of a woman who is strong. The protagonist Eva takes strength from herself, the legacy of her mother and various characters she meets to triumph over circumstances that befall her. She does not lie down and accept the storyline laid down for her, but makes her own stories; even her ending is uncertain and unexpected, implying that she retains the freedom to change it at will. Eva is certainly an inspiration for strength and change, and through her experiences she has evolved into a woman, leading many to believe the novel should be classified as feminist. This is not necessarily the case. Eva Luna is an individualist novel, documenting a personal journey that has a message about strength for all people to see, not just women. Some definitions of feminism seek to extend to include both sexes, but intrinsically, the word 'feminist' narrows the viewpoint of the message given. To call any novel about strong women feminist is to simplify the feminist struggle, generalizing it to a trivial state.
             In Allende's novel, Eva Luna does suffer from discrimination, and she does move to liberate herself, but does not do so with a conviction to move towards equality of the sexes, the central idea of feminism. In "What is Feminism," Delmar states "Feminism is increasingly understood by feminists as a way of thinking created by, for, and on behalf of women, as 'gender-specific.' Women are its subjects, its enunciators, the creators of its theory, of its practice and of its language." Delmar calls a feminist one who believes women are discriminated against because they are women - with the struggle for women's equality being their central concern – and therefore questions whether all actions and campaigns prompted or led by women are feminist. Disagreement on definitions of feminism is common, but a working definition of feminism, given by the s...

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Eva Luna - A Message for All People. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 01:39, March 29, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/81152.html