Or Else the Lightning God

¶ … Lightning God "Or Else, the Lightening God" is a story that deals with conflict from a variety of different levels. These conflicts can be further explored through the use of literary perspectives. The this short story the formalist approach, the Marxist approach, and the feminist approach have been chosen to be applied to the inter-familial, cultural, economic, gender, generational, and other conflicts that were identified in the story. The central conflict in the story is between Margret and her mother-in-law.

This conflict is so important to Margret that it reduces her quality of life to the point in which it risks the health of her unborn child. To mitigate the conflict that is causing real problems for her in her life, she has to resort to using ancient techniques from the culture she has been trying to escape from her entire adult life. Formalist Approach Many of the conflicts in the story are interconnected. The conflict that arises from the generational differences is also related to the gender roles.

Margret represents a new generation of woman who is quickly gaining her independence in a society that was formally patriarchal. Women can now work and earn their own livings and are not dependent upon a man to take care of them. However, for the mother-in-law who is from a different type of society, these options were not readily available to her. Instead she is dependent upon her family, more specifically her son, to provide the basic needs of life.

The mother-in-law is also living in a more modern environment that she is probably used to. Margret is highly critical of many of the practices that the mother-in-law is used to such as making traditional medicine, conducting a seance, and making things on the floor of her home. It seems that Margret is rebelling against not only the role of women in the previous generations, but also the women who were a part of that generation and the lifestyles that they represented.

Instead of trying to create a sense of understanding, Margret creates barriers and distances herself from the mother-in-law; even dehumanizes her by calling her things like "dowager," "antique," or "servant" (Lim, 1980, p. 460). In the end however, in a reversal of fates, Margret is dependent upon the antique for her very well-being and the health of her child. Marxist Approach The Marxist Lens highlights some major differences in the transition of the different forms of society and the different cultures that were embedded within them.

The work that the mother-in-law has conducted her life was presumably to benefit her family and was not compensated for this work at all. She is now at the mercy of her family to return her investment and take care of her in her old age. She presumably never had the chance to establish an income or accumulate any resources under the old economic norms and she also does not have a retirement policy or any social safety net available.

Margret represents the new generation of independent workers who are focused more on themselves than the family. For example, she takes comfort in shopping for herself and the baby and this puts her in such a good mood that she states that she is finally able to tolerate the mother-in-law. Margret's use of the word "servant" is also revealing as she looks down upon the mother as an inferior class.

Feminist Approach The feminist approach is one of the most interesting approaches as a lens to understand the story because the roles of women are so different in the different generations. The mother-in-law, and women in general from the older generations, do not hold any significant formal power in the family. In this relationship the men make the decisions and the women have their domestic roles in the home. The work they do is based upon the domestic family needs and they are not included in the economic.