I'm curious what other people thought of the roles of females in *The
Sparrow* by Mary Doria Russell. In deference to people who may not have
read it, I will now insert spoiler room.
*SPOILERS*
Since this novel won the Tiptree Award for 1996, I expected to find
something provocative regarding gender or sex roles, but I was
disappointed. There is somewhat of a reversal in that the Runa females are
the adventurous, roving sex and the males stay at home caring for the
children, but this detail was fairly unimportant in the context of the
novel. We never get into the heads of any of the Runa (except very briefly
Supaari's secretary, near the end of the book -- I longed to learn more
about her), even though the main characters spend the majority of their
time with the Runa. In contrast, we learn quite a bit about the males of
the Jana'ata (the females remain offstage).
Now that I think about it, it almost feels like the two species play
against one another in a stereotyped male/female way -- the communal,
peaceful Runa as the females and the predacious, highly "cultural" Jana'ata
as the males.
By my count, there are only three actual females that play important roles
in the book. 1) Anne Edwards, the middle-aged mother figure; 2) Sofia
Mendes, the sexualized figure who tempts the main character to break his
vow of celibacy; 3) Askama, the verbally facile, trusting Runa girl-child.
Anne and Sofia are quite a bit more complex than that sounds. Anne is
smart, outspoken & sexual. Sofia is a genius and writes the artificial
intelligence routine that pilots Emilio home; she also changes history by
teaching the Runa that they are many, while the Jana'ata are few.
But... I felt troubled by the spin put on each character. Anne seemed to
exist just to "fix" other people. The shoulder to cry on, the supportive
wise one who always knew how to draw someone out & ease their pain. Sofia
was the tough, ultra-competent professional with a painful past whose
healing came in the form of a heterosexual relationship and pregnancy.
Askama was the loyal innocent whose death was the final blow to Emilio's
fading sanity. These all seem very familiar roles for females.
Those who have read the book -- am I crazy? What did you think of the book
and its characterizations of females? I'm inspired to write this message
because I liked the book (could barely put it down), but felt a lingering
discomfort with some of its elements.
-- Janice
-----
Janice E. Dawley.....Burlington, VT
http://homepages.together.net/~jdawley/jedhome.htm
Listening to: Radiohead, OK Computer; Tricky, Pre-Millennium Tension
"...the public and the private worlds are inseparably connected;
the tyrannies and servilities of the one are the tyrannies and
servilities of the other." Virginia Woolf, Three Guineas
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