One of my very first questions about The Female Man is why are there four alter-selves? Why four? What is the significance? Throughout the majority of the book there are only three, and even at the end when Jael becomes more prominent in the story, the girls are still frequently referred to as the only three. And yet I still wonder, why four? I\u2019m not well versed in literary symbolism, even the most recognizable, so while maybe most of the class might automatically know, I am honestly perplexed. So I consider the earthiness of the novel as a whole. There is a lot of significance placed on the separate \u201cworlds.\u201d There is a huge inner-discussion on nature vs. nurture. And about a bah-zillion references to the moon. And so I\u2019m considering these earthy issues, and I think that there are specifically four and only four because there are four primary directions. God help me if there is a fancy word for this. But, each girl represents the different direction that the one soul (?) went, and in physical terms, there are only four possible directions one can go. However, after Jael\u2019s explanation of how she found the girls and how her Womanland people can explore all of the separate states of \u201ctime,\u201d you were kind of left to wonder if there were even more J\u2019s out there in yet undiscovered worlds. So with that hanging in question, my four directions theory might fall to pieces. However, considering only the information provided, there are only four J\u2019s and to satisfy my own curiosity, I think it\u2019s to represent the four directions.<\/p>\n
Another issue that I debated was Russ\u2019s obvious conclusion on nature vs. nurture. She seems to be illustrating her belief that one\u2019s surroundings determine how an individual develops. Regardless of genes, these four girls are completely different and each has their own unique self based on where they are from and the separate lives that they\u2019ve lived. If there are suppose to be kin-like similarities they were brief and insignificant, because although I had a hard enough time keeping the initial three J\u2019s separate, I certainly didn\u2019t find a repetition of similar behavior, physical attributes or thought patterns. These girls were very different. Even in the description of the Manland, where they surgically alter the sex of people, the idea was that however they were raised, that\u2019s how they\u2019d turn out. If they were molded from a young age to be feminine, then they would serve a feminine role in adulthood, and if they were raised in a masculine environment (the rich men\u2019s chosen children) then they would grow up to be soldiers, etc. Russ didn\u2019t seem to put any weight in the genetic force behind someone\u2019s development. I don\u2019t have a conclusion on these thoughts exactly, it\u2019s just an issue that I kept noticing and wondering why she chose nurture over nature. The only thing I can think is that perhaps to put such determining weight in nature would be admitting that there is absolute truth. That genetically you will without a doubt become A certain person. Whereas by basing someone\u2019s individualism on nurture, it is all up to chance, and thus the four J\u2019s similarities and differences are surprising and unknown. Very much looking forward to class so I can better understand this crazy book. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of my very first questions about The Female Man is why are there four alter-selves? Why four? What is the significance? Throughout the majority of the book there are only three, and even at the end when Jael becomes more prominent in the story, the girls are still frequently referred to as the only … Continue reading Four Very Different Girls<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2005\/660\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2005\/660\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2005\/660\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2005\/660\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2005\/660\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2005\/660\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2005\/660\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2005\/660\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2005\/660\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}