Women in Literature

In Ms.Finch’s lecture on Monday night, the significance of women in literature and how gender perception can be changed through reading literature was discussed. In my 4 years of english classes at Govs, I’ve read a variety of books, all of which have varying degrees of emphasis on gender issues and women. When asked which books were significant to us out of all 4 years, one which particularly stuck out to me was Beloved by Toni Morrison. While the main character Sethe, an escaped slave, and her daughter Denver exist in a time which women, particularly black women, had little to no power at all, these characters are extremely powerful throughout the novel. This book was significant to me as it emphasized the power and importance of motherhood and maternity, rather than portray it as something which limits women and which is their only role. In Beloved, power is in motherhood, rather than motherhood limiting the power of the women.

The importance of a variety in the literature studied in an english class is important in diversifying the perceptions of the students. While I have been impressed with the diversity in the books I have been given to study at Govs, a student in my current english class, AP Literature, made an interesting observation earlier this year. After finishing A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, a female student in my class simply asked my teacher, “Why do we only read books from the perspective of men?”. No one said anything for a moment, not even my teacher. Eventually, everyone nodded in agreement and realized it was true, all of the books we had read except for Beloved were from the perspective of male characters and had only male main characters. My teacher had not even realized this, nor did any of the other students, but my class and teacher agreed immediately that that should change and there should be more female representation in the literature. My english teacher in no way planned to only read male-centered books, but it just kind of happened. I believe that my class and my teacher did not notice until that one student pointed it out because we are so used to reading and observing things which naturally have a male main character. In movies, TV shows, and literature, having the main character be male has become so normal that it sometimes takes someone pointing it out to notice how much more male representation there is than female. While I do not feel like I’ve missed out or been jipped by reading nearly only male-centered books in my AP Literature class this year, I am happy that the reading list is being changed and there will be more diversity in the books for the students next year. A diverse selection of literature with both male and females as main characters is important in learning about both genders and how they are presented in books.