During the time around the early twentieth century, many societies were dominated by the male while the women were discriminated upon. This period was also the period when women started the habit of rebelling against male dominance. As a result, there emerged so many ways in which this rebellion was conducted. In ‘A Bird in the house, for instance, we see Vanessa rebelling against her grandfather’s dictatorship, and as a result, she is denied the freedom she is fighting for. In ‘Wilde Geese,’ Judith has to rebel against her father, who dictates upon the whole family, and she has to run away from home. It is until the death of her father that she can stay at home peacefully. Through books on feminism, many women brought out this spirit of fighting against male dominance. When many feminist movements started, the most common way of voicing these complaints was through writing. This is the period when feminist writers like Margaret Lawrence and Martha Ostenso emerged with their powerful writings on the situation they were living in. These writings and the actions carried out by other powerful women are the ones responsible for the current changes.
Margaret and Martha were based in Canada. Their books on the topic of patriarch society that they lived in are “A Bird in the House” by Margaret and “Wild Geese” by Martha. The protagonists in ‘A Bird in the House’ and ‘Wild Geese’ are faced with the challenges of having to fight the males who want to exercise male dominance to their disadvantage. In Margaret’s short stories, Vanessa’s grandfather is the one who is depicted as being the dominant one with a habit of dictating what the rest of the family does. The story is written when Vanessa is forty, an age when she can understand what she went through during childhood. On the other hand, Judith faces a much harder time because her father is the one who wants to dictate the whole family. This makes her situation even harder than Vanessa’s because her father is a harsher person who has even shown physical assault when he whips her mother, something that affects her emotionally through criticism and seeing him whip her mother. Even her mother is in the same predicament, always trying to take the blame.
In a more specific analysis of ‘A Bird in the House,’ we see the title as being symbolic. We all know that birds are flying mammals. They are always free to fly since the air is free- it has no restrictions. Kept in a house, a bird will feel like it is bound; it is not free to move as it is supposed to. Margaret must have been implying Vanessa as the bird that was in the house. She gets really irritated by the dictation and says that she would be glad to kick him if she were in a position to, for imitating her aunt, Edna. She is the only one who rebels against this dominance by her grandfather.
The reason why she and her mother had to live with her grandfather was that her father died while she was still young. She already knew the ways of her grandfather, and they had to move to his house. Her grandfather feels so proud of his house because even though there are other houses of the same kind in the neighborhood, he was the first one to build a brick house. The same house that grandfather feels is a source of pride to him is a source of intimidation and lack of freedom to Vanessa. She says that most of the time, it made her feel “as if her lungs would explode and that the silence was too loud to be borne.” Her grandfather’s gesture was so domineering that she says that the way in which he would stalk around the Brick House as though it were a cage. Grandfather Conner is a perfectionist and will not fail to flaunt whatever achievements he has. He had been the first to build a stone house in his neighborhood, and he always talked about it. Grandfather Conner was also so bossy that nobody questioned whatever he said; for instance, Vanessa could not understand why they always had to go for a memorial service every year and yet her uncle had died a long time ago, but looking at her father, she got the message that they could not go against grandfather’s will, so they had to go to church. Nobody argued with grandfather. “When Grandfather Conner pointed out your shortcomings, you were not expected to reply.” Even her father, Ewen, could not object. He cannot object. Vanessa would never have known the intensity of the situation if she had not moved in with her grandfather. She feels the need for her to escape this trap of dominance. Her getaway is writing adventurous stories full of hyperbole, through which her desire is expressed. Vanessa gained her freedom from her grandfather after his death, or maybe we presumed that this was the situation.
Aunt Edna is the other one who felt the full blow of dictatorship. Her life in the Brick House ‘cage’ is under the power of Grandfather Conner and remained that way until he died. Her way of escaping was whispering with Beth, Vanessa’s mother, whenever they were in the kitchen. Even when a chance presented itself for her to get her freedom from grandfather Conner, she preferred staying on. This clearly shows that even the women at that particular time offered their support to male dominance. They were reluctant to go against the usual patriarchal routine. That is the implication we get from turning down Wes Griggs’s marriage and says that she would rather stay with her father if she were to marry him to get away from him, even though he marries him later. The reason why she gets married is definitely not because she wants to get away from her father. She even says that she has gotten used to their old dungeon; she understands that her father is a difficult man to live with, but she was sure nothing terrible was forthcoming. And so she says she cannot run away from her father. This implies that she cannot walk out on his dominance. We can also say that by refusing to run away from her father in search of freedom, Edna proved that running away from her difficult father could not give her freedom. All she needed was total freedom, like the one we assume she gets after her father dies.
As it appears in the book, Grandfather took after his father and so imposed his ways on his son. He did not start it on his own. It is a system that is continuous. He did not have a choice in life. He did what his father did, an indication that the dominance started some time before him. In continuation of the tradition, he did to his son what was done to him, as Vanessa’s father says that he wanted to be a merchant marine but could not because that was not what his father was, and so he could not be what he wanted. Ultimately he ended up witnessing his brother’s death, something his mother made sure she constantly reminded him that he was to blame; this shatters his happiness. It was also supported by some women like Edna, who it did not favor at all, but either way, they were reluctant to change the rules, something that Vanessa wanted to do so badly. By killing Vanessa’s father early in the story, the writer must have been trying to eliminate the chances of failure for Vanessa’s effort to succeed in fighting patriarchy. Even while the other women in the story were supporting it without really knowing they are, there was a possibility of success.
Like we might all assume, Vanessa must have felt like she had freedom when her grandfather died. What she forgot was the fact that she was the product of the character she despised, and worst still, she had the traits of her grandfather. Her grandfather’s dictatorship always haunted her. She saw this in the way she behaved, “she always wanted to tell the new owners of the Brick house to trim their hedges, to repaint the window frames, to pay heed to repairs because she felt that they were neglecting it. As a result, she always fought the temptation, fearing that her grandfather had established himself in her. His very blood ran in her veins. His tyranny was in her and would never give her the freedom to live her own life. She was afraid that she might die like her grandfather, a lonely woman. The patriarchy she had been fighting was not going to die. The family is left with memories of the traits of grandfather to live with.
All in all, the patriarch system in the story is motivated by the situation as it was in the past and the present. The situation in the present is affected by the one in the past and might also affect the one in the future. The patriarch society is a characteristic of the past in many communities, and it affects different people in varied situations uniquely. People can choose to remain in the system, choose to change the system, or seek other alternatives. The step that is taken in the present will determine the future that we would have. That is why we see the fight for liberation by women from domination by men as the tool by which the system was improved. In addition, it is taken from the point of view of there being no freedom with grandfather’s death but rather freedom coming from the women. They had to free themselves from the bondage of submitting to this system and try to change from what they were and what they thought about the system.
Another work presented by a feminist activist in the novel “Wild Geese” by Martha Ostenso. In her story, she has depicted a young heroine who stands firm and says no to an oppressive life in the rural community in Oeland. The novel tries to expand their psychological knowledge and use it to change their life situation. For instance, look at the introduction of the teacher Lind Archer. She comes in with the idea of modernism and exposes Judith Gare to the freedom she would enjoy by simply adapting to the changes. The teacher is referred to as the wild goose. Wild geese have the freedom to move as they wish. Judith, on the other hand, is compared to a wild horse; horses can be tamed. She has the ability to be free, but she’s been locked up by her father, Caleb Gare. Just by Lind’s presence, we see there is a possibility of escape which is symbolized by the wild geese even though the bearer of this symbol is tied to an outsider (It is said that Lind came from a municipality that was large, unlike the farms that are described as being a region that lacks human warmth and it had too much isolation that not any normal humans could bear.) Judith adores the new principles of modernity and shows a clear determination to embrace them to fight against the oppressive and domineering father. As is evident on the cover of the book, we see that she is lying under a huge tree, and she is in deep thought. This shows how she is reflecting on her life. The huge tree that she is lying under symbolizes her father, who is strong and always in Judith’s background. Her being in deep thought shows that she is not happy with her life.
Another aspect of Judith that is represented well is her strength. As described in the story, we are told that she works hard, but she feels that she works too hard. She feels that she is being driven like an animal (animals are usually driven, tied, and tended for value) because she is strong. That is why she starts acting like a wild horse; she does not want to stay at home. Even though Caleb tries to keep her tamed, she shows total rebellion and wants to run free for her life. Once a horse turns wild beyond domestication, it has to be left to get away, just like it happens to Judith. She might turn out to be like Lind and Mark, who move all around and back to where they came from. They kept on moving like we are told,” they moved again and again in an endless quest…”
On the other hand, Caleb is depicted as patriarchal and authoritarian to the family. He has no sense of morality to help him keep his attitudes and characters in check. Instead, any energy he can afford is spent trying to ensure that he criticizes the women he encounters, in the end hurting them emotionally and even physically when he gets a chance. Amelia Gare suffers when Caleb criticizes her in whatever she does. Furthermore, she does not escape the physical abuse inflicted upon her when he strikes her with a whip.
The battle that breaks in this book becomes the fight between the feminine and the masculine, and also between economic exploitation with nature. Martha’s book has used the day-to-day life in the rural prairie to show us what happens, cutting across the various genders, the various roles that are taken by the sexes, and how this affects life in general. We see that the women who, we all know, work the most on the prairies are the ones who benefit the least. The ones who benefit largely are the men whose best-done job is to dictate what happens, and like Gare, criticize the work at every opportunity. Gare’s selfish desire to grab the land surrounding him is the cause for overworking the family day in and day out, and still, they live in absolute poverty. It requires the fight of a strong-willed person as the protagonist created by Martha, supernaturally strong with an incarnate spirituality within her, to change the ways and the thoughts of the people in such a society.
Gare’s molestation takes root in their home. His dictatorship brings gloom to the family, as symbolized by the weather in the novel. Even the weather has been used to indicate the oncoming of the bad mood in the family. For example, before the coming of Malcolm in the family, there is a hail storm-“the air was a slag-grey and in humid folds… Suddenly a greenish light shot up as if from below the horizon…” this indicates how tense the atmosphere will be once Malcolm arrives in the family. The atmosphere shows the fear instilled in the children and the whole family at large. They cannot control what they want to do. This is the kind of life that Judith wants to start fighting. Although we know that the control of families is a common feature in the normal family setting, especially when we consider the fact that the novel was written in the 1920s. This time was dominated by the patriarchal system. That explains what is depicted in the book.
There is a typical connection between the prairies and Caleb. Throughout the prairies in Canada, many people are depicted as being lonely and isolated. Caleb is a lonely and powerful dictator. No experience of what happens elsewhere could be the reason why he does not know or see any light that can lead him out of his tyrannical ways. Caleb’s daughter, Ellen, is also depicted as being lonely, but her reason is different. Her source of loneliness is from the mere fact that her sister rejects her. The reason why her sister dislikes her is that she immerses herself in work and behaves like a tamed person. What Judith does not feel for her is the fact that she could be immersing herself in the job so that she can get rid of her loneliness.
Amelia, Judith’s mother, seems to be the only person who can stand Caleb, and she does that for the simple fact that she thinks that any rebellion can cause negative repercussions on her children. In addition, she has a past that she does not wish to be known to her children. She understands the situation her daughter is in because she has been through this experience and knows what it feels like. When she realizes that her daughter Judith is pregnant, she foresees disaster. It took a spirited fight from the women with their suppressed vitality to have any results from the struggle. This shows their determination against the domination by men.
The issue above raises questions on the relationship between the sexes. It looks at whatever roles or part the women play and what part the men play; what symbol each sex represents. For instance, we can see that the prairies symbolize the male nature in the farmlands, their loneliness, and dominance, all depicted in the character of Caleb Gare. In this society, it is the women who work on the prairies (farms), and yet they are the ones who benefit the least from the gains derived economically from the prairies, a situation that also sparked the rebellion against the system. We have already seen the way the Gares live in poverty though they work from sun up to sundown. Caleb uses the money he gets to fulfill the greedy wish of owning all the land that surrounds his farm. Amelia and Judith, and Ellen Gare have been represented as strong women who work hard. Ellen works so hard to kill loneliness; Amelia works for the sake of her children while Judith has been portrayed as being a naturally strong person, though she feels that she is being misused. All Caleb does, according to the story, is exercise nerve-cracking control over them and criticize them.
The prairies are usually vast. On the other hand, they symbolically represent the vastness of the women and the similarities in the problems they face, especially those that relate to the dominance of men. Most societies are dominated by men, and the predicaments which women go through as a result are similar. The wild geese represent the women who have broken away from this tradition and are seeking freedom from domination. For example, Lind has the freedom to move whenever and wherever she wants. This is brought about by the influence of modernism. Though Caleb fights hard to maintain order, as usual, Judith and her mother calmly bring him to the realization that they do not like the dominance.
The freedom that is considered to be outstanding in the book is when Caleb dies. Even the weather shows a sign of freedom. Initially, it had been milky scud during the morning hours before he died, showing the gloom, but later on, the weather changes to a clear sky that is described as being as clear as harebell in the afternoon. This shows that the family had been freed from the constant worry that they were subjected to by Gare. After his death, the family is said to have had languid peace during the summer.
Similar to ‘A Bird in the House,’ the patriarchal character dies to free the oppressed. In the first novel, we see that grandfather Corner’s death brings to the mind of the reader the assumption that freedom has come. Martha also uses the same elimination system, killing the patriarch in the story to free those under his dictation. The death of Caleb spells freedom in capital letters for his family. Martha brings the death of Caleb as a satisfying end to the dictatorship he conducted upon his family. Judith escapes the problems by her father’s death and is left to live with freedom. She has an option, she can choose to live away from home, but without anything, she is running from in her home. Even Mark Jordan’s birth is now no longer a threat to her. The weather shows that there is a happy ending in the story. Even though Caleb Gare’s death is just fate, it just comes in at the right time.
When the two stories are compared, we see that the issue of patriarchs is handled differently. In “A Bird in the House,” we see that even though we might assume that patriarchy is ended by the death of the patriarchs, Vanessa shows us that the case is different. Her grandfather’s blood runs in her veins. It is with the clear understanding that we can fight this system by putting up a calm, strong-spirited fight like the one put along by Amelia and Judith. We cannot establish whether Vanessa understood what she was thinking about at the age of forty when she was young because all her reflections take us to the time when she was forty. As a result, we see that the two writers are trying to tell us that it is by expanding how we think about the system for us to change it. What they are revealing is that we should understand the psychology behind this male dominance, and then the mystery will be solved. Ultimately, the characters come to some conclusion that changes their lives and assures them of the freedom they so strongly seek. Even though we are taken through a process of struggle that the heroines go through, we see that the writer ensures that there is some level of success. For instance, Vanessa experiences some relief when her grandfather Conner’s death even though we see that his blood runs in her veins; that is, she has some characteristics that are similar to her grandfather. Through this, the writer might be implying that there is some more work to be done by Vanessa to gain total freedom, and that is, she has to fight the character of her grandfather. Judith, on the other hand, has already gone through a spirited fight, and even she had to run away to escape the tyranny her father Caleb was putting them through. That is the reason why she gains total freedom when her father dies. She had already set her mind on freedom, and she can exercise it fully in the absence of her father.
Works Cited
Hausarbeiten.de. Sexing The Prairie: Male Dominance over Females. Web.
Arnason, D. Wild Geese: Martha Ostenso, David Arnason Books. Web.
Laurence, M. A Bird in The House. University of Chicago Press: 1993.