The Similar Fate the Female Suffered under the Patriarchal Society

The women’s suppression under the patriarchal society can be linked to the male’s false projection upon women, for such a biased ideology has been implemented in the Western civilization for centuries. According to LeGuin, “those who were identified with Nature, which listens, as against Man, who speaks—those people are speaking. They speak for themselves and for the other people, the others who have been silent, or silenced, or unheard, the animals, the trees, the rivers, the rocks” (LeGuin 46). In a section called “Sexist-Naturist Language,” from her essay

“Taking Empirical Data Seriously: An Ecofeminist Philosophical Perspective,”

Warren notices that the language used to depict women and nature often is “sexist and naturist.” Warren intends to center on “empirical women-nature connections”

(“Taking Empirical Data Seriously: An Ecofeminist Philosophical Perspective” 3). As Warren mentions, women are often endowed with animal features in language. As she writes,

women in a (patriarchal) culture where animals are seen as inferior to humans (men) thereby reinforces and authorizes women’s inferior status.

Similarly, language which feminizes nature in a (patriarchal) culture where women are viewed as subordinate and inferior reinforces and authorizes the domination of nature: ‘Mother Nature’ is raped, mastered, conquered, mined;

her secretes are ‘penetrated’ and her womb is to be put into service of the

‘man of science.’ (“Taking Empirical Data Seriously: An Ecofeminist Philosophical Perspective” 12)

In this light, such oppression upon women and nature is, as Warren argues, “justified by feminizing them; the exploitation of women is justified by naturalizing them”

(Warren 1997:12). In a sense, women are often demonized by men. In “Nature as Disorder: Women and Witches” from The Death of Nature (1989), Carolyn Merchant

has pointed out the idea of “disorder in nature.” According to Merchant, the disorder,

“symbolized in the macrocosm by the dissolution of the frame of nature and the uncivilized wilderness of the new world, in society by the witch who controlled the forces of nature and the women who overturned its order, and in the self by the bestiality of the Indian and the cannibal, the sexual lust of the female, and the animal passions of all humans heralded the death of the old order of nature” (Merchant 148).

Therefore, such an ideology triggers the male to conquer the “disorderly woman” and

“chaotic nature” at the same time. Throughout centuries, women, as suggested by Merchant, seem to be reproached with the lure and seduction in causing the male’s physical corruption. Such evil images of women as witches are often constructed by men. As Merchant has explained, “once imprisoned, they [women] were stripped of their clothing, searched for the marks of familiars on their body, and examined for signs of intercourse with the devil” (Merchant 138). In Paradise, we see that the male have strong prejudice towards the Convent women, for “what they see is the devil’s bedroom, bathroom, and his nasty playpen” (17). The association of women as the devil betrays the misogynist mind, which is what Susan Griffin has noticed in

“Ecofeminism and Meaning” in Ecofeminism: Women, Culture, Nature (1997), since

“the racist mind, the misogynist mind, the mind being afraid of nature and which denies natural limitation and mortality are often the same mind” ((“Ecofeminism and Meaning” 225). Griffin also indicates that “neither rape, nor the word woman can be understood without an understanding of racism, nor can racism be understood without an understanding of the social construction of gender, nor can either be fully understood apart from ecology” (“Ecofeminism and Meaning” 225). In Paradise, such misogynists’ viewpoints are displayed by Reverend Pulliam, who supposes these Convent women are “like children, always on the lookout for fun, devoted to it but always needing a break in order to have it” (157). Based on Pulliam’s perspective, the

Convent women, the “fun-obsessed adults” were “signs of already advanced decay”

(157). Such a conception of misogyny foreshadows the underlying motivation in the upcoming slaughter in the Convent. As Shiva observes, gender subordination and patriarchy are the forms of oppressions that have “taken on new and more violent forms through the project of development. Patriarchal categories which understand destruction as ‘production’ and regeneration of life as ‘passivity’ have generated a crisis of survival” (Shiva 82).

Such a crisis of survival of the female is represented in Paradise, for the women’s identities are often oppressed or impaired by the male. In Toni Morrison and Womanist Discourse (1999), Aoi Mori points out, “black women are similarly subject

to the maneuvering power of reflections in a mirror which reinforce an even more perilous subordination” (Mori 58). In Paradise, some of these women are battered by their male lovers; the others are silenced by their mates; and still the others are betrayed and deceived by their romance in love. In this section, I would put these women’s suppression by men into three categories: male domination, the lack of communication, and the deception. I would argue that the three themes are interconnected to Warren’s concept of the logic of domination. In the following paragraphs, I would illustrate these themes in detail, for the theme of male domination can be shown through Mavis and Seneca; the theme of lack of communication can be found in Soane and Dovey; and the theme of deception can be noticed in Pallas and Sweetie.

The goal of ecofeminism is, according to Mies and Shiva, to “address the inherent inequalities in world structures which permit the North to dominate the South, men to dominate women, and the frenetic plunder of ever more resources for ever more unequally distributed economic gain to dominate culture” (Mies and Shiva 2).

According to Merchant, since women are often defined with the function of

reproduction, such parturition are seen as adjacent to nature, their social status is inferior to the male in terms of the cultural aspects (Merchant 144). With this in mind, I argue that in Paradise the women’s identities are oppressed by the male, which can be shown by the two characters in the Convent: Mavis and Seneca.

The patriarchal domination often involves violation of women’s bodies violently as well as the exploitation of nature. As Delores S. Williams points out, “violation and exploitation of the land and of women’s bodies is, in part, caused by widespread human disrespect for the unity of nature’s placements” (Williams 27). Thus, the act of

“breaking the spirit of nature today through rape and violence done to the earth” is similar to exploiting the women’s bodies through “rape and violence,” which,

“constitute crimes against nature and against the human spirit” (Williams 27). Such rape and violence can be shown through Mavis and Seneca, for both of them have experienced the brutal and unwilling acts of sex committed by men. After being tortured by her husband’s brutal and emotionless sex, Mavis remains quiet and waits all night to run away from him. Like Mavis, Seneca also suffers from male domination through violent rape as well, for she has been raped by her foster brother, Harry. He is the one who got her underwear off and then “a safety pin holding the waist of her jeans” also came down and scratched her stomach with blood. When she told Mama Greer, the adult denied by saying, “Don’t you ever say that again. . . . Nothing like that happens here” (261). Consequently, the effect of denial against the sexual harassment damaged the development of Seneca’s self-identity. Plumwood in

“Androcentrism and Anthropocentrism: Parallels and Politics” points out that “denial is often accomplished via a perceptual politics of what is worth noticing and what can be acknowledged, but fear and anxiety remain when the Other threatens to return”

(“Androcentrism and Anthropocentrism: Parallels and Politics” 338). According to Plumwood, the effect of denial makes Seneca as “the exception, negation, or lack of

the virtue of the Center” (“Androcentrism and Anthropocentrism: Parallels and Politics” 338). When Seneca grows up, she seems to be delighted in the cut on her body. The intersecting scars Seneca created on her arms bring about a sense of distorting relief and temporary comfort to her.

To sum up, both Mavis and Seneca have been violently raped by men. The physical and mental wounds upon them explain the ruthlessness of the men’s domineering behavior. Through the perspective of Ecofeminism, we see that women and nature have long been colonized and “‘opened up’ for free exploitation and subordination, transformed into the ‘others,’ the ‘objects,’ in the process of European (male) ‘subject’s’ emancipation from the ‘realm of necessity’ (Mies and Shiva 7). In this light, women are turned into the submissive “others” that can be silenced or treated at men’s will.

The restraint, silence and reticence among the female characters also reveal the women’s subordinating status. Here, the theme of the lack of communication can be seen through Soane and Dovey. Similarly, the twin sisters Soane and Dovey, seem to be turned into the submissive objects that are “opened up” for subordination in their relation with their husbands. The lack of speech between the two couples, in a sense, becomes a serious problem. The incident can be shown when Soane said “I don’t understand, Deek.”

Instead of explaining in detail, Deek only replied, “You don’t need to.” Apparently, such a male-centered statement shows Deek’s patriarchal power. As the narrator observes near the end of the novel, “Soane is chastising herself for not having talked, just talked to Deek. Told him she knew about Connie, that the loss of their child was a judgment against her—not him” (287-88). Since Soane is unable to express her true feelings under such an oppressive environment, the misunderstanding between her and Deek also becomes one of the factors in annihilating the Convent women.

On the other hand, the problem of the lack of speech between Dovey and

Steward is also recognizable. In the relation between the two, the failure of the intimate conversation becomes a serious problem in this affinity as well. Supposedly, Dovey’s miscarriages had significantly affected Steward’s mind. The cursing barrenness instigates Steward’s wrath, acrimony and asperity. In the kinship between the two, Dovey is often chilled by her husband’s intimidation, unable to utter for herself. Here, Morrison uses an interesting symbol, the locked door, to describe their affinity. The door Steward has locked symbolizes the exclusion and segregation from his wife. Such “exclusivity and dispossession,” suggested by Shiva, could provoke and worsen “the colonial processes of ecological degradation and the loss of political control over nature’s sustenance base” (Shiva 81). When Dovey tried to open the door,

“it was locked—again . . . Dovey was sure theirs was the only locked door in Ruby.

What was he afraid of?” (90). In this context the lock epitomizes a sense of exclusivity and a sense of male pride that the female is not allowed to share.

To conclude, both Soane and Dovey experience the predicament of the lack of speech and the male suppression respectively. In other words, the two sisters have suffered emotional and psychological torment under the patriarchal hegemony, for they are forced to be submissive while finding a place to gain their autonomy and voice.

According to Judith Plant, since women are often connected with the

“subordinate” and “deferential” essence, they somehow carry the obligation of tending the others with “guilt and anxiety” (Plant 3). In Morrison’s Paradise, this guilt and anxiety can be observed in Sweetie. Upon hearing the cries of a baby, Sweetie became angry suddenly because all the other babies were silent. I think Sweetie’s anxiety is triggered by jealousy and shame on the grounds that her motherhood is affected by her four abnormal babies. Therefore, the desire for babies’

crying and the deep shame at the babies’ imperfection motivate Sweetie to lie to her

friends and family. Thus, the Convent women become the victims of her beguilement.

According to Plant, “because of this skewed situation, caring often becomes entangled with personal frustrations over feelings of powerlessness, leading to an inability to take responsibility” (Plant 3). In a sense, some of the female characters are often trapped in such a predicament. They know they need to take care of the children, but, at the same time, they also invent lies in attempting to get rid of the children.

Therefore, the theme of deception can be observed through the characterization of the female characters, for these women are forced to tell lies after experiencing extreme agony in their life. For example, Arnette gets an abortion in the Convent, for she is unwilling to take the responsibility; Sweetie is frustrated with her four broken babies and seems to transfer the guilt on the Convent women by falsifying the wickedness of the Convent women; Pallas is betrayed by her boyfriend and her mother so she lied about her pregnancy to the Convent women at first.

In a nutshell, the theme of deception is important in the novel in all respects. In fact, all of the female have been driven to the verge of a temporary sensory breakdown: Pallas is unable to speak, and Sweetie is unable to hear. But unlike Sweetie, Pallas reveals the veil of deception after receiving the healing energy from the support of the Convent women by retelling her painful past. By contrast, Sweetie is the one who undergoes no change, since she is still trapped by the vicious circle of self-deception upon blaming the faults on the others. In a sense, after experiencing the traumatic deception in relations with men, most of the females are weary of the physical and mental wounds. To some extent, they crave for respect and healing from the wounds.