Close Reading 2/22

"In this dirty minded world, she thought, you are either somebody's wife or somebody's whore-or fast on your way to becoming one or the other. If you don't fit either category, then everyone tries to make you think there is something wrong with you. But, she thought, there is nothing wrong with me" (13).

Jenny Fields is very different from the women that she knows and the standard of society that she is used to. Her parents believe that she is doing what everyone is doing, and think that she will only be better once she is married. Jenny does not agree with this idea. She is strongly against men and their way of life, and she does not agree with the way of life she knows other people agree with.

Jenny has very strong views, and for a women of the 1940's, she should not be expressing them in anyway, or acting out in anyway that is not considered especially lady like during that time period. Rather, she should be a conformist who listens to the views of men, and does exactly what they want, what society condones. Jenny considers the world to be dirty minded. The idea that people focus on sex, does not really mean sex, but rather an idea of conformity. People do what is expected of them, not what they truly want. People will go into professions that society thinks is appropriate for them, not really considering their own personal choices. Jenny, however, does not like that idea. She would feels that she should do what makes her the happiest, whether people agree with it or not. She is a nonconformist, someone who does their own thing, someone who does not care if people look at her differently because she is not doing what society finds acceptable.

The idea that Jenny thinks that there is nothing wrong with her will, I think, play out throughout the rest of the book. It seems that this is foreshadowing to people claiming that she has something wrong with her throughout the rest of the novel. People will question her choices, her views, and the way that she decides to live her life. People will continuously argue with how she raises her son without a husband and decides to write an autobiography about her life. Because she is a nonconformist, people will always have something to say negatively about how she lives her life.

The way that Irving uses the words wife and whore suggest sort of a negative connotation to the words. It seems as though being someone's lover or being married to someone is such a bad thing. The words play into Jenny's continuous hatred toward the male species and everything related to them. It seems as though it would be the end of the world if Jenny were to ever become one of those two things. Irving's use of the words show just how against the idea of loving a man Jenny is. It seems like an intolerable act to her.