Performing Male Gender: A Feministic Reading of Jane Smiley’s Good Will
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Department of English
Abstract
To read Smiley's Good Will is to explore the causes of inferior placement of
women and to prove patriarchal norms and values as the root causes of it. Liz, Lydia
and Annabel, the female characters are the victim of male chauvinistic mindset. Though they seem docile in the beginning, but later they challenge patriarchy and Liz
lives separately from her husband and Lydia and Annabel struggle to get the
compensation of their cut coat, lost doll and burnt house. Liz as an advocate of
women's independence rejects the so-called self-sufficiency provided by her husband. By all her means she attacks the male-controlled religion, myths and ideologies and
wants to set herself free from all form of domination and doctrines which are still
prevalent in the society as hindrances for the women's project. Bob and Tommy, the
macho characters loaded with masculine values whose unacknowledged desire of
ruling upon the female has placed the female in inferior position. Despite all female
characters’ constant struggle against patriarchal doctrines, their dream never comes
true since those doctrines thwart on their project of being free.