Wednesday 30 September 2015

Steinbeck, misogyny and point of view

When I found out my daughter was studying Steinbeck at school, I was a bit wary about the level of misogyny in the education department's book choices. Steinbeck's handling of his female characters is, frankly, at its best when he doesn't mention them at all. Otherwise, they're virtuous wives and mothers in the home or whores in the brothel, right?

Turns out my daughter didn't see things quite that way - or rather, she didn't particularly notice the women at all. She just explained to me that a brothel "is a place men go to waste all their money on having sex with as many people as possible". Hmmm....

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