Fourth Step to Analysis: Narrowing a Question and Thinking About Types of Sources

Based on the comments and responses readers posted on my previous post, I would like to take the time to elaborate more on what I have already said.

A reader posed a very interesting question about whether Richard’s gender role extended into the afterlife and truthfully, we may never know. From his death scene and Ming Wai’s “rebirth,” I can specify many female characteristics to his death. He was in water, which has always been related to females and their natural ability for childbirth, often performed in watery environments. Also he was portrayed as weak and fragile, which is often the description of women during the time period when men were physically and mentally dominating over women. He basically gave up, which was demonstrated when he thought/said “I’d give my breath to you.” The scene’s descriptions were very surreal and calm which added to the feminine qualities of his death. Later, when they placed his body in Corlissa’s home, his mouth was sewn shut, which represents the oppressed voices of women during that time period. The 1920’s were very important to the advancement of women in all fields, especially politics because women gained the right to vote in 1929. But these were the women who could vote (they were US citizens) and Chinese immigrant women could not voice their opinions because of their male dominant culture. I think that is as far as I can take what the novel has given me else I would be speculating about the afterlife.

I think I can further elaborate on what my reason is to analyze gender roles in the novel and put them in a larger perspective by related nonfictional sources. I think Ryan does a great job outlining different transitions a person’s role in the domestic sphere can take. The variety of evolutions is very intriguing and I want to relate each of their transitions to possible explanations in the real world (circa 1920). I will outline how I will find these in the next post using George Mason University’s library resources.