feminist theory through Mantissa

Mantissa takes an in-depth look into the mind of a male fiction writer, Miles Green. In Mantissa, Miles Green mind has an explicitly masculine perspective. In the being of the book he struggles with being raped which was a metaphor for writers block. Erato is trying to force him to have sex in terms helps him overcome his writers block. In order to make his ideas come out of his brain they have to come out through the psychical world. In Part II of Mantissa, Erato is disgusted about how Miles is portraying her. Erato turns into this punk rocker with black leather jacket, black boots and she’s just an all around bad-ass chick. On page 54, there’s a conversation between Miles and Erato which points out her rebellion against Miles’ sex scene in Part I. Miles then removes her from his story and her response is:

“God, if you was only a character too. If I could just rub you out along with your piddin’, pansy, paper puppets.”

She wipes her mouth angrily with the back of her wrist. He leaves a little silence.

“You realize you’re behaving just like a man?”

“And what’s that s’posed to mean?”

“Instant value-judgments. Violent sexual prejudice. To say nothing of trying to hid behind the roles and language of a milieu to which you do not belong.”

“Oh belt up.”

Suddenly this goddess which was portrayed in Part I is now a man-hating punk. A traditional muse is seen as having a passive position whereby the demands of the male figure is met. Erato rejects this idea of the muse, after all the “birth” of the novel reinforces the idea of the women as main creative influence behind the birth of the novel. Without women there would be no births, without a muse there would be no novel. If it weren’t for Erato Miles would have nothing to write about and nothing to inspire him.

Erato pathetically attempts to have her independence but fails because the control lies within the artist. The only control which Erato has is over Nurse Cory which I think represents Miles’ unconscious mind. It’s only Miles unconscious mind that Erato can manipulate. Fowels represents Erato as being a beautiful, young, attractive, women who soul purpose is to provide Miles with physiological development. Fowels makes Erato the main principle for Miles’s novel, without Erato there would be no book. There would be nothing would inspire Miles to write the book if Erato weren’t there.

Throughout Mantissa there is a power-struggle between the two which creates a sexual energy. Even though Erato bounces back and forth between a radical feminist and a sexual goddess, she always seems to be under the control of Miles and Miles seems to be under her control at times. Through her sexual persuasion, Erato realizes that she can achieve anything she wants. But I don’t think she really has any true power because the only way she can gain anything is through her dignity. She is able to inspire him but only through the cost of her pride. She may be the driving force for Miles novel but in the end she has to true power, only influence.

Essay Proposal: Cinderella Man

In my essay I will be applying Marxist Criticism and my primary text will be Cinderella Man. James J. Braddock (Russell Crowe) is a boxer who has to deal with the struggles of the Great Depression. To many peoples surprise, James Braddock becomes a major icon in the history of sports. The movie starts out as James being one of the best fighters the U.S. but after many fights he becomes swashed up and unable to fight. He was not able to pay his bills after he gave up fighting and was forced to go on Public Relief. Until one of his children get sick which drives him back into the ring. He over came all the hardships to winning fights again. The called him the Cinderella Man because his was a hard working, ordinary lower class man, who was on brink of starvation, who become a mythical icon in sport history.

Marxist Criticism is all about the common ownership of production to bring about a classless society. In my essay I want to examine how Cinderella Man promotes the American Dream and how the American Dream reinforce the idealisms that drive capitalism. Cinderella Man proves that a common man can be whatever he wants to be and can break that class boundary if he works hard enough. James Braddock had to deal with the struggle between social classes. In the being of the movie he was part of the middle class and for the majority of the movie he was lower class but eventually he went back to the middle class. The Great Depression was a huge challenge for the middle classes to over come. By Braddock overcoming the social boundaries of his class it results in social progress.