Monday, April 7, 2014
Rufus at the Door Comparison Essay
In order to compare three different stories from Rufus at the Door, I think I am going to use the gender lens in order to answer the question of "How does the author portray the roles of power throughout his short stories?". My thesis would be something such as, "Throughout Jon Hassler's short stories in Rufus at the Door, Hassler tends to portray typically feminine characters as being in power over masculine characters". I would use the short stories of Agatha McGee and the St. Isidore Seven, Nancy Clancy's Nephew, and the Life and Death of Delano Klein to show that there was this idea of a feminine character holding power over one or more masculine characters being portrayed in these stories. I would make a conclusion about how the feminine characters having power over the masculine characters creates the idea that they become masculine as a result of having power.
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I like your idea of writing on how the female characters appear to hold power. I can see that in Agatha McGee clearly, when she is able to go against the all male board and she wins. I can also it in Nancy Clancy with the daughter trying to keep her father in check, and Nancy who is portrayed as almost superior, she is more trusted and can remember more, she is also in better health. I'm having difficultly seeing it in Delano, just because I don't see how anyone has any real power. Which character were you going to say had power? The wife and the Mother were pretty powerless and didn't really seem to have an effect on Dodger, he wasn't really able to establish relationships and went off and did his own thing. I do really like your conclusion point, because we often attribute power to being masculine, and that's why we say so and so is a masculine character. Why can't women be seen as feminine and have power?
ReplyDeleteI like the overall idea of your thesis. The only thing I would try and remember is in the short story Agatha McGee and the St. Isidore Seven, Mrs. McGee does not use all masculine traits she uses some feminine traits to her advantage as we talked about today in class. If you incorporate this in how she portrays her role of power in this story in a feminine way this might help strengthen your point. Also I am not sure how The Life and Death of Delano Klein has to do with this but it will be very interesting to see how you show this I hope I get to read your final essay and get to view this. Good luck to you on this project use specific points and quotes from each text and you should do great!! Good start!
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