"You're doing mother's work. Women suffer, don't they?" (A third-wave feminist reading of Pachinko, Half of a Yellow Sun and The Four Winds)

In this thesis, I use third-wave feminist thought to analyze three novels, Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah. All three novels portray motherhood as the default role, or one of the very few available roles, that women can play within society. But the novels also emphasize the ways in which through this role, women exercise great strength, resourcefulness, and responsibility. This thesis explores how cultural heritage impacts women’s view of themselves both as women and as mothers. The analysis considers how intersectional social identities, particularly class, affect women’s options and choices. Often, for instance, these women characters “choose” to become mothers because they have no other options. Indeed, this thesis centers on the extremely challenging choices women must make in the face of impossible circumstances, and how patriarchal societies not only trap women in dire predicaments but also judge and shame women for the choices they make in such predicaments. I illustrate how women within these novels become the sole providers and caretakers of their families, and in doing so they contradict mainstream patriarchal ideology, which pins women as incapable of surviving without men. The novels underscore the myriad ways in which women’s labor is undervalued. This is seen particularly in the great store of culinary skills and knowledge that women within these novels possess. I illustrate the hypocrisy of patriarchal ideals, which undervalue skills that are fundamental to the survival of humanity. I argue that within these novels women are not only objectified but also made into commodities, and I highlight the ways in which the authors critique this all-too-common female experience.

Author dc:creator

• Þula Guðrún Árnadóttir 2000-

Contributors dc:contributor

• Háskóli Íslands

• Enska (námsgrein)

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1946/46593

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:skemman.is:1946/46593