The Garden Lodge
For
more than millions of years since humans were created, or evolved from monkeys,
there has been a subtle, yet distinct, division between the “suggested”
characteristics between men and women. Men have been considered to be masculine,
strong and incorruptible in some sense, where women have had to be homely, emotional
and sensitive in most of the times. Although there should not be any discriminative rules regarding
gender superficially, there are still stereotypes existing in people’s mind on
how each gender should be. In “The Garden Lodge”, Willa Cather, like some other modernistic authors, gives a rather new perspective on the matter of
gender stereotypes.
Caroline Noble, the protagonist of “The
Garden Lodge”, is a strong-minded woman who seems to bear more masculine sides compared
to what an ordinary female is thought to be at that period
of time. One day, her husband Howard Noble asks her whether she would agree to break down their garden lodge. Although it was to
build a new summer house there instead, Caroline becomes melancholy, remembering
the time spent there with tenor Raymond
d'Esquerre. Raymond visited the town for his concert, and shared some happy
memory with Caroline last summer. Feeling nostalgic, Caroline stays in the
garden lodge that night, singing the songs that she sang with Raymond. She
agrees to tear down the lodge.
Considering the image of an ideal
woman at that time, it might be easier to expect Caroline to be sad forever and
live desperately for the rest of her life. However, Caroline is much stronger
than that. After reminding herself about some good memories, she stands over it.
She has power in herself to get over it and find a new way of her life. By
showing the masculine side of a female protagonist, Cather paved her original
way for the readers to think more about the concept of “feminism”, or feminist
characteristics. Taking this short story, it is also possible to relate it to
the overall gender roles of the society that we are living now.
Although separate gender roles are
less pushed nowadays, meaning that there are men doing housework and women
working outside, there are still the ways that people expect each gender to be
like. For instance, my grandfather tells me “be like girls” whenever I talk
much about the current issues, such as politics. He does not think that it is “appropriate” for a
young girl like me to participate actively in social matters. Even some of the
male teachers at KMLA make sarcastic remarks on me for studying chemistry
because they think all I have to do as a girl is to meet a good husband and raise
some kid at home. Realizing that there are some people around me who are still
living the 1800s, I felt a lot after reading this story.
“The Garden Lodge”, even though it
was rather a simple story about a housewife recalling her memory with another
guy, it gave me some important points to think about. As a girl, I want to be a
person who not only charges the society for the discrimination towards female,
but can also control to be a strong human being myself. There are still a lot
to fix in this world; and to fix them, I have to be strong, bearing some “masculine”
sides. Whenever I feel weak, swimming in the nostalgic memories of the past, I will
think of Caroline, and try be like her, putting effort to pave out my way for my life.
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