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ornamental line

Graceful or Grotesque? Constructions of Femininity

"And you won't understand the wonder and glory of my adventure
unless you listen to the bad part. It wasn't
very bad, you know" (108).
C. S. Lewis's Till We Have Faces (1956)


Points for Reflection

The Bible: Proverbs 31:10-31

  1. do the author's behavioral recommendations resonate only with the experience of women, or do they generalize to men as well?
  2. does the ideal woman sketched here overlap with the ideal woman constructed by western culture in the twenty-first century?
  3. does the wife of noble character demonstrate her efficacy and prowess in only the domestic sphere?
  4. does such a woman prove kind only to blood relations?
  5. does this woman handle money?
  6. what aspects of femininity typically celebrated by western culture are here undercut?
  7. should this woman's accomplishments be recognized publically, or go unnoticed?


Salvador Dalí's Paranonia (1935-36)

  1. of what is the female head composed? Look very closely.
  2. why might Dalí have given this female's bust such a whitish, death-like pallor?
  3. does the color scheme of the stage-like midground and distant background matter?
  4. why might Dalí have placed the bust on a pedestal?
  5. Dalí defined the "paranoiac-critical method" as a "spontaneous method of irrational knowledge based on the critical and systematic objectivity of the associations and interpretations of delirious phenomena." He was, remember, enamored of the way paranoia reorganized perception around a single, obsessive idea, providing a new way of looking at reality. What “paranoiac” ideas might this particular painting convey?


Children of Men, chps. 17-26

  1. consider those moments where Theo and others draw attention to the power of particular words--to the importance of diction choices, naming, and so on.  Does this novel implicitly counter or reinforce the notion that a single word choice can have profound ramifications?
  2. Julian thinks Xan is evil. Does the novel support this conviction?
  3. how do Theo’s dreams change over time, and what does this shift suggest about his mental and moral state?
  4. when and why does Theo “tell himself” something?  Dos these moments tend to indicate efforts to recover truths he already, firmly holds, or to prevent adoption of uncomfortable ideas?
  5. does Rolf’s criticism of Theo--as a pompous, educated man who lives in the past and does nothing that matters (159-60)—hold water?
  6. does Theo’s developing emotional self overwhelm and supplant his intellect, or does he achieve a healthy synergy combining the powers of the mind and those of the heart?
  7. Theo “half-resents[s]” his concern for Julian, his apparent “obsession with her,” and asks himself “what else had brought him to this rough unencumbered place?” (153).  Does the novel provide an answer to this seemingly rhetorical question?
  8. during his informal interrogation of Theo, Chief Inspector George Rawlings wonders aloud whether the Five Fishes group that has been blowing up Quietus ramps and the like is a Christian group, since their symbol is a fish (125). Given what the reader learns of this group in these chapters, would it be inappropriate to characterize this group as “Christian”?
  9. does Theo’s deepening self-knowledge involve a reconsideration of his hostile attitude towards faith and religion, or does his rejection of Christianity grow ever stronger?
  10. does what we have learned about Helen accord with Xan’s teenage prediction of the sort of woman Theo would one day marry (152)?
  11. why might Theo grab his diary the night that Miriam shows up on his doorstep? He claims the diary is not particularly incriminating, so why take it with him?
  12. does the narrative encourage the reader to side with Rolf in his aspirations to supplant Xan as leader of England?
  13. back in chapter seven, we met Theo’s old mentor Jasper Palmer-Smith, a history don whose approach to humankind’s slow death is detached and cynical. Jasper looked forward to being “spared the intrusive barbarism of the young” (45 top). Does the nature of either his wife’s death (74-75) or his own (162) validate this approach to life? Does the narrative, that is, serve up Jasper as a hero?
  14. is Theo in any way responsible for Jasper’s death?

The very top of a woman's bust on a square stand sitting on some type of striped gray flooring. The head is see through and distorted
Paranonia (1935-36)
oil on canvas
Salvador Dalí



Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu