Breaking Female Stereotypes in Faulkner, Boyle, and Mukherjee

Introduction: Stereotypes and Literature

A stereotype is an oversimplified definition of a person or type of person, institution, style, or event. To stereotype is to pigeonhole — to thrust someone into a tight slot of definition that allows little room for adjustment or change. Stereotyping is widespread because it is convenient: unions are like this, teenagers are like this, women are like this. It is often — though not always — the result of, or accompaniment to, prejudice. Stereotyping serves the media well because the media trades in instant recognition and ready cues. It is very rare that one actually knows a stereotype firsthand; one only reads of them, hears of them, or sees them framed on television. Stereotyping is not limited to mass media, but its reinforcement is most effective when transmitted through mass media. One common method of perpetuating stereotypes is through literature, where authors sometimes base entire stories or characters on a single isolated experience and use it to generalize about an entire community.

"To generalize is to be an idiot," said William Blake — an apt reminder to those who continue to highlight commonly held beliefs about a society or a specific group of people. However, some authors have attempted to shatter such stereotypes, and prominent among them are William Faulkner, Kay Boyle, and Bharati Mukherjee. Their stories — "A Rose for Emily," "The Astronomer's Wife," and "Hindus," respectively — feature female protagonists who overcome the stereotypes that their particular societies have cast upon them. The following essay analyzes these female protagonists and examines how each has managed to break free of the labels her society imposed on her.

Thesis: This essay explicates the ways in which the female protagonists of "A Rose for Emily," "The Astronomer's Wife," and "Hindus" overcome the stereotypes that society cast on them, and the effect that defiance had on their lives.

Emily Grierson in 'A Rose for Emily'

In "A Rose for Emily," William Faulkner juxtaposes the past with the present. The past is represented by Emily herself, Colonel Sartoris, and the old servant Tobe, along with the Board of Aldermen who willingly accepted the Colonel's attitude toward Emily and her tax obligations. The present is represented by the story's mysterious narrator and the new Board of Aldermen, with Homer Barron as its most vivid embodiment. This new generation regarded Emily as a "monument" of Southern gentility, yet they also felt she had let herself go — that she was old, wasted, and of no use to modern Southern society. Notably, both Emily and her house share a parallel fate: both are slowly decaying, both harbor too many ghosts.

A glimpse of Emily in her youth reveals a frail but eager woman, willing to contribute to the society of her time. After her father's death, however, a slow transformation overtook her. She became increasingly fragile, and her outward appearance of serenity masked an inner decay. She had succumbed to the pressures of life and proved quite unlike other women of her era. Even as she grew old and eccentric — repeatedly insisting she owed no taxes in Jefferson — Emily refused to adapt to the changes occurring around her.

By some accounts she was a strong, willful woman who, after her father's death, had retreated entirely into the past. Crucially, she appeared content there. Emily was clearly in a state of denial: unable to come to terms with her father's death or with Colonel Sartoris's passing, she harbored the illusion that both men were still present in her life. She refused to let anyone threaten her imaginary world, which explains her stubborn resistance when the new Board of Aldermen came to collect taxes.

Emily never married because her father believed no man was worthy of her. He would not permit a grown woman of thirty to make her own decisions, holding firmly that it was not her place to act on her own behalf. When he died, she was so devastated that she kept his decaying body in the house. The law eventually intervened and compelled her to bury him, yet his portrait continued to hang in her living room — a constant reminder of his profound influence over her life. Emily had once lived in a prestigious neighborhood of Jefferson, but industrialization transformed that neighborhood into a run-down locale where her house stood as "an eyesore among eyesores."

She continued to dwell in the past, and selling the house and moving elsewhere was simply unthinkable. The house held too many memories — it was, in a sense, the entire architecture of her life. In this refusal one perceives a frightened yet remarkably strong woman who would not yield to changing circumstances and who fiercely clung to what she believed was right. Such determination was virtually unheard of among women of that time, and it is precisely this quality that enables Emily to transcend the stereotyped image of Southern womanhood. The tremendous pain she had endured rendered her oblivious to external pressure, and it is this obliviousness that made her both consistent and inflexible.

Finally, Emily distinguished herself from the women of her era by committing what was, for her, an act of desperate self-preservation: she murdered Homer Barron, the one man who had shown genuine interest in her and who might have represented her only real possibility of change. Homer had made clear from the outset that he was not the marrying kind and had no intention of settling into a monogamous relationship. When he left Emily for another future — one that moved toward modernity rather than the past she embodied — she poisoned him with arsenic. After that, she never again appeared in public, living out the rest of her days in the private world she had constructed, refusing to the very end to adapt to the changing circumstances around her.

Conclusion

The above analysis demonstrates that the female characters of these three stories stand in direct contrast to the conventional women of their respective times. Initially, each is insecure and hesitant to pursue change, but over time each comes to understand that change is something she must embrace for her own peace of mind and security. What they share is courage — and a determination to go on living in the way they believe is right.

Each woman emerges as a distinct individual with her own identity. Unlike most women in their societies, none of them becomes a mere part of the background against which she exists. It is perhaps this very distinctiveness that causes each to pay a price in suffering throughout her life. Yet suffering does not unnerve them; they continue to stand by what they believe in. By taking a stand — and holding to it — Emily, Mrs. Ames, and Leela each reject the stereotypes their societies have tried to impose on them, asserting in their different ways that a woman is more than the narrow definition her world would assign her.

Works Cited

Costabile, Barbara. "Astronomer's Wife." Caxton: The Stockton Online Journal, Stockton University.

Faulkner, William. "A Rose for Emily." Short story.

Mukherjee, Bharati. "Hindus." Short story.