The Role of Women in The Stone Diaries Essay -- Stone Diaries Essays

The Role of Women in The rocknroll Diaries Gender inequities acquire existed since the beginning of time. The various roles assigned to men and women in party go through served to perpetuate differences that even until the present have not been overcome. These gender differences ar evident in The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields. Initially the main character, Daisy Goodwill, is a pathetic, weak woman whose only joy comes from appreciating the small things in life. After a series of personal events, she changes dramatically and becomes a stronger individual. Daisys continual need for self-reliance is fulfilled by the changing society around her. Daisys initial character is anything but extraordinary. She is ordinary in every way except her birth. Neither of her parents knows her mother is pregnant. Her mother dies in childbirth, leaving Daisy to find her place in society without her mothers example. Daisy grows up in a radiation pattern home, with guardians and basically lives a normal life. Daisys moderate intelligence affects her both positively and negatively. Daisy has certain ingrained needs, which sadly go unnoticed by those around her and even sometimes by herself. Her appreciation of the small pleasures in life is attributed to her ordinariness. As tyro Geraldine Sherman points out, Shields demonstrates there are no small lives, no lives out of which signification does not shine. She makes us aware that banality, ultimately, is in the eye of the beholder (47). Her take up of the beauty of nature and her curiosity towards people in general introduce this. On the other hand, Daisys average intelligence causes her inability to elicit herself. Her conversations with her mother-in-law to be, Mrs.Hoad, ... ...ne. The Spectator, September 4, 1993 28 29. Rpt. In Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Bringham Narins and Deborah A. Stanley. Vol. 91 Detroit Gale Research, 1996. 167-168. Fitzgerald, Penelope. Rev. of The Stone Diaries, by Carol Shie lds. The London Review of Books September. 1993 19-22. Pool, Gail. Imaginations ultraviolet Ink. in Womens Review of Books, Vol.XI, No.8, May, 1994 20. Discovering Authors The Gale Group, 2000. Available via http//www.galenet.com/servlet/GLD/hhits?cd&o=DataType&n=10&1=d&NA=shields%2C+Carol. (28 march 2000). Sherman, Geraldine. twist to Fulfill Ambitions. The Globe and Mail 2 October.1993, natl.ed. Cl+ Shields, Carol. The Stone Diaries. new-made York. Penguin Books USA Inc. 1994.