Analysis of Female Protagonists in the 1960s

— America in the 1960s: An Age of Activism

The Sixties was featured by a lot of remarkable events on personal and domestic matters of the United States. John F. Kennedy was elected Presidency in 1960 and the decade was declared as “years of hope and promise” (Boorstin et al., 1992, p.774). Like Heale (2001) described, the striking feature of this decade was “a pervasive belief in the power of action” (p.11). Within this period, government, groups and individuals “possessed the capacity to bring about changes, and to bring about change for the better” (Heale, 2001, p.11). Post-war prosperity brought comfort and social mobility to many Americans. Prosperity also urged the people to ask for more liberal life.

Featured by prosperity in social condition, people in the 1960s began to seek for more personal freedom. Movements emerged and rights concerning ethnic, gender and different generation became more and more important in this decade. Besides, the competition between Soviet Union and the United States urged the U.S. to put much effort on space exploring projects and provided environment for science education.

4.2.1 General depiction of Awarded Books in the 1960s

Totally there were thirty-six books awarded Newbery recognition during this decade. Gender imbalance of the authors in the 1930s did not continue. Both male and female authors shared same contribution on this field of children’s literature.

Table 4-2-1: Gender of the Authors in 1960s genderAU Frequency Percentage

male/author 17 47.2%

female/author 19 52.8%

other/author 0 0.0%

Total 36 100.0%

Table 4-2-1 showed the percentage of male/ female authors is 47.2%: 52.8%, almost the same. Gender distribution of the authors appeared to be more balance in this period. From the pie chart below, it was clear that male and female authors occupied almost the same weight.

The balance of gender distribution in authors did not extend to their creation of the awarded books. When it went to the analysis of gender distribution of gender distribution of main characters in these books, the result was similar to what the researcher found in the 1930s. Table 4-2-2 showed the frequency and percentage of male and female protagonists. While nineteen books depicted male protagonists, only seven books centered on female main characters.

Figure 4-2-1: Gender of the Authors in 1960s

male/author, 47.2%

female/author, 52.8%

other/author, 0.0%

Table 4-2-2: Gender of the Protagonists in 1960s Gender of protagonist Frequency Percentage

Male 19 52.8%

Female 7 19.4%

Other 10 27.8%

Total 36 100.0%

The number of male characters outnumbered female characters in a large amount. The pie chart below revealed the difference.

More than 50% of the books centered on male main characters though there was a gender balance of the writers. The result of Pearson Chi-Square Tests was listed below to demonstrate the comparison between gender of the authors and gender of the protagonists.

Table 4-2-3: 1960 author * Protagonist Crosstabulation and Chi-Square Tests Protagonist

Total χ² p value

Male Female Other

author Male 10 1 6 17

3.918 0.141

Female 9 6 4 19

Total 19 7 10 36

Figure 4-2-2: Gender of the Protagonists in 1960s

male, 52.8%

female, 19.4%

other, 27.8%

Table 4-2-3 showed that p value is 0.141, so there was no significant difference between gender of authors and gender of protagonists. In spite of their gender, both male and female authors tended to depict male character as the center of their books.

Figure 4-2-3 illustrated the result with a diagram.

Only one of seventeen male authors depicted female as the main character while nine of nineteen female authors described male as the center of their stories. Though gender balance had been achieved in awarded writers, it did not extend to the literary work. Both writers of the 1930s and 1960s tended to depict male protagonist regardless of their own gender.

4.2.2 The Main Character: Self-Esteem / Self-identity

Among the amount of thirty-six books, only seven (19.4%) were centered on females. Six of them were written by female writers and only one was composed by male. The protagonists of each book were listed as below:

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Figure 4-2-3: Gender of the Authors vs. Gender of the Protagonists in 1960s

Awarded Year Book Title Protagonist 1961 Island of the Blue Dolphins Karana

1963 A Wrinkle in Time Meg

1966 The Noonday Friends Franny Davis

1967 Up a Road Slowly Julie

1968 From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs.

Basil E. Frankweiler

Claudia Kincaid

1968 Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth

Elizabeth

1968 The Egypt Game April Hall

Settings

Unlike the setting of the 1930s, the place settings of this decade focused mainly on the contemporary period, the sixties. There was only one book depicted story on the 19^th Century (Island of the Blue Dolphins, 1961), and the other books, though not specify time particularly, seemed to illustrate the contemporary world of the 1960s.

Stories about foreign country appeared for there was one book told story outside America. Suburban areas remained to be the favorite of award winning books with an overwhelming percentage (85%). The appearance of science fiction (A Wrinkle in Time, 1963) was also a remarkable point.

Manifest Content

Awarded books during this decade described mainly about young adults during adolescent year and two of them even illustrated female protagonists through a couple of years. The reader could read the life of Karana for eighteen years (from age 12 to age 30) and the growing process of Julie from school age (7 years old) to her graduation from high school (18 years old). These books depicted mainly about girls from middle class. Four of the protagonists belonged to middle class, two from upper

class (Karana and Claudia) and one from the lower class (Franny). Most of the protagonists are from family with both parents and single-parent family also appeared owning to death of parent (Karana, Julie and April). Lost of family members and friends appeared in two books, Island of the Blue Dolphins (1961) and Up a Road Slowly (1967). The issue of massacre (BD, 1961) was also brought to the eyes of young readers. The dark sides of adult world were presented to children more vividly by the issues of absent father, death of close ones, and even massacre. In the books selected for the thirties, it appeared that only people belonged to the upper or lower class and people in the middle class were free from the shadow of dark sides in life.

But in the sixties, even people from middle class encountered with such issues.

Another remarkable fact for books in this decade was the absence of main adviser and even the absence of major companion. Such an absence was caused mainly by death. Karana’s kinsmen were killed in a massacre and people alive had to suffer from the memory of their loved ones.

Those who had died at Coral Cove were still with us. Everywhere we went on the island or on the sea, whether were fishing or eating or sitting by the fires at night, they were with us. We all remembered someone . . . but more than the burdens which had fallen upon us all, it was the memory of those who had gone that burdened our hearts. (BD, pp. 27-28)

It was so painful that they decided to leave the island and migrate to other place. To wait for her little brother, Karana saw the ship sailed away and believed that it would come back for them. The death of her brother afterwards made her completely alone on the island with neither adviser nor company at all. Death of the important ones forced her to become independent for she could rely on no one except herself and also carved deeply on her mind.

Except for death of the important ones, single parent became another important issue to make the female protagonist live with someone rather than their parents. April (EG, 1968) was left to her grandmother alone, her father died when she was little and her mother was engaged in love and career. The death of Julie’s mother (UR, 1967) forced her to live with Aunt Cordelia, her mother’s elder sister. Besides, the absence of Meg’s father (WT, 1963) made the family a single parent family for most of the time when the story began. Beside, the type of “temporary orphanage” appeared again when Claudia (MF, 1968) decided to leave her home with her little brother temporarily and lived by themselves, without the charge of their parents.

Latent Content: Personal Issues

From the appearance, three of the protagonists were marked as physically weak and helpless, one marked as neutral, and the other three as strong and active. Franny, Julie, and Elizabeth were presented to be vulnerable. They were described as helpless owning to various reasons. Franny’s family was poor and could not afford her lunch expense so that she had to count on meal ticket provided by the government. She was slim and being the eldest child, she had to take care of a lot of family errands. Julie’s helplessness resulted from the death of her mother when she was a little girl. The first chapter described a crying and desperate little girl marked so vividly a helpless figure of the middle class. And Elizabeth, though being the only child of her family, did not like to eat so she was lower than her friend of the same school age.

On the other hand, three female protagonists were described as strong and independent. Karana, the island girl, was no doubt the most independent one among all of her contemporaries. She was strong and brave enough to swim back to the island in the storm when she found Ramo, her little brother, was not on the ship. And when she found Ramo was killed by the wild dogs, she carried his body and went all

the way back to their cave. After that, being left completely alone, she had to face everything, including the wild dogs which killed her brother and other wild animals all by herself. Meg and Claudia were also presented to be physically strong and independent. Both were the eldest one of their families and being capable and healthy, they were the helper of their mothers.

Most of the female main characters appeared to be emotionally unsteady. It seemed that characters who were physically strong and independent presented to be emotionally steady while vulnerable characters were also emotionally unsteady and need much care from others.

Again, like the female protagonists in the thirties, females in this decade were presented comforting, selfless, caring and nurturing. Strong and independent, Karana was also caring about others. She swam back to Ramo, her little brother, in danger of her life. She was angry that Ramo did not listen to her so that he was left behind, but all she had done was to hold the boy and comfort him. “Instead I fell to my knees and put my arms around him. The ship had disappeared. ‘When will it com back?’ Ramo asked. There were tears in his eyes. ‘Soon,’ I said.” (BD, p. 40) Meg and Claudia led their younger brothers to an unfamiliar situation, took care of them and went through all the difficulties. For Meg, Charles Wallace, her little brother, was her duty. “Meg would turn white with fury when people looked at him and clucked, shaking their heads sadly” (WT, p. 9). Claudia picked Jamie because he had saved a fortune and she was a leader of this small group.

Even for the fragile and vulnerable female protagonists, be caring and nurturing was part of their nature. Franny, also the eldest child of her family, took care of her youngest brother. Julie, though she was the youngest of her family, showed her nature of being a good nurturer and care-taker when her lovely sister delivered a baby-girl.

Both April and Elizabeth were the only child of their family, but they were not hesitate in showing their concerns and caring for their friends.

As for academic/ intellectual achievements, all female protagonists appeared to be clever, but not all of them received high recognition from school. Julie, under the supervision of her aunt, a school teacher, displayed high achievements in school grade.

But Meg, though both of her parents owned PhD degrees, was not recognized from eyes of her school teacher.

School, school was all wrong. She’d been dropped down to the lowest section in her grade. That morning one of her teachers had said crossly,

“Really, Meg, I don’t understand how a child with parent as brilliant as yours are supposed to be can be such a poor student. If you don’t’ manage to do a little better you’ll have to stay back next year.” (WT, p. 4)

Claudia showed her ability in searching and learning and she was described as an excellent student because she was in the six grade honors class (MF, p. 29). She was also studious. When she and Jamie were in the museum, she decided to do self-learning.

Upon their return to the museum, Claudia informed Jamie that they should take advantage of the wonderful opportunity they had to learn and to study.

No other children in all the world since the world began had had such an opportunity. So she set forth for herself and for her brother the task of learning everything about the museum. One thing at a time. (MF, pp. 46-47) The other protagonists did not show significance on this part, some of them did not attend school at all (Karana) and the others were just ordinary in school life.

Two of the protagonists were at the age of choosing a job. Karan, being alone on the island, had no choice but did man’s job by herself so that she could survive.

Her father had told her that she should not do what supposed to be done by man

otherwise she would be punished. Thus the choice of Karana was not under free will.

She had to do so for the sake of her own life. Julie was described as entering the age of eighteen and faced the problem of choosing future career. She decided to go to the college and be a teacher in the future. Under her free will, she, stepped on the footprint of her aunt and step-mother, chose a traditional female occupation, teaching.

Claudia had once mentioned that she would like to become a lawyer like her grand-father but she kept on changing her career plan. Meg would like to become a scientist like her parents, which was considered to be an independent job. As for the other female main characters in this decade, no special message about their career plan was revealed from the stories. Encouragements and limitations from parents were not presented as often as it did in the thirties.

Latent Content: Developmental Issues

Though the female main characters in the sixties were depicted variously in appearance, they shared the similarity of exploring different alternatives before making final commitment. Karana was an innocent, happy, 12-year-old girl at the beginning of the story and turned to be a brave, independent woman of thirty years old when the story ends. She struggled on her way of growing up. The key point she encountered was the problem of using weapons. As she was taught, women were not allowed to produce or to use any weapon.

Would the four winds blow in from the four directions of the world and smother me as I made the weapons? Or would the earth tremble, as many said, and bury me beneath its falling rocks? Or, as others said, would the sea rise over the island in a terrible flood? Would the weapons break in my hands at the moment when my life was in danger, which is what my father had said? (BD, p. 54)

She thought this for a couple of days and decided to do it under the threatening of the wild dogs. She proved to be a good weapon producer as well as a good hunter. The weapon she made protected her well and also helped her to conquer the wild dogs and devilfishes. Still, under certain situation like she was prepared to attack the sea elephant, she would remember her father’s warning: “because I was a woman, the bow would break” (BD, p. 82). She did a man’s job but never forgot herself being a woman nor forgot about her tribe. At the day when she was going to leave the island, she did what the girls of her tribe used to do.

I went down o the ravine and bathed in the spring and put on my otter cape and my cormorant skirt. I put on the necklace of black stones and the black earrings. With blue clay I mad the mark of our tribe across my nose. . . . Below the mark of our tribe I carefully mad the sign which meant that I was still unmarried. (BD, pp. 176-177).

After so many years of isolation, Karana grew up from a girl to a woman and she decided to keep her own identity at the day she left the island.

Julie represented another type of female protagonists during this decade. Her life journey of growing up also lasted for a couple of years, from the age of seven to the age of eighteen. She always suspected that Aunt Cordelia admired boys rather than girls and her uncle told her: “Accept the fact that this is a man’s world and learn how to play the game gracefully, my sweet” (UR, p. 24). Grandmother Bishop treasured only boys and did not notice the values of girls though she relied on her eldest daughter at her old age. Gender discrimination experienced by Aunt Cordelia also bothered Julie at her early age. But as she grew up, she found herself in a different situation from her aunt.

For me, it was good to be over that stretch of the road which was beset by half-formed anxieties and resentments. I could now watch Aunt Cordelia

glow over the two young men whom she loved devotedly, and I could catch her eye and know with complete confidence that I was just as close to her.

No Grandmother Bishop denied the girl of my generation.” (UR, p. 177) Julie, though up the road slowly, finally found self-identity and was free from gender discrimination when she was going to graduate from high school and entered into another stage of her life. The other protagonists were not presented through a long period of time, but they did change a lot from the beginning to the end.

All protagonists suffered from low self-esteem during adolescent age and once they regained their self-confidence, they achieved self-identity. Being different was one way and being like others was the other. Claudia ran away from home for she was tired of the tedious house errands she had to do for the family. She stayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City for one week and returned as a new one for she felt herself being different from others. What she really wanted was

“returning with a secret” (MF, p. 150). Solving the secret of the statue of Angel was important for Claudia. Like what Mrs. Frankweiler said, “Angel had a secret and that made her exciting, important. Claudia doesn’t want adventure. . . . Secrets are safe,

“returning with a secret” (MF, p. 150). Solving the secret of the statue of Angel was important for Claudia. Like what Mrs. Frankweiler said, “Angel had a secret and that made her exciting, important. Claudia doesn’t want adventure. . . . Secrets are safe,