Feminist Issues in Katherine Anne Porter

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Feminist Issues in Katherine Anne Porter Historically women have been considered intellectually inferior to men and also a source of temptation and evil. Women have also been considered naturally weaker than men, squeamish, and unable to perform work requiring muscular or intellectual development. In most early societies, and up until fairly recently, domestic chores were relegated to women, leaving heavier labor such as hunting, plowing, and careers outside of the home to men. Maternity was considered the natural biological role of the woman, and it has also been highly regarded as her social role as well. Young girls learned from their mother's example that cooking, cleaning, and caring for children was the behavior expected of her when she grew up. Formal education for girls was, historically, second to that of boys. In colonial America, girls were taught to read and write at dame schools but they could only attend the school with the boys when there was enough room. The views of women are present all throughout history in the writings of the times. Katherine Anne Porter, an important American author, was born in Texas in 1890. She spent all of her early life in Texas and Louisiana. Her mother died when she was two and she was raised, in poverty, by her paternal grandmother and father. She was educated in convent schools. She was brought up in a region where a woman's femininity defined her. The idea of the southern belle was prevalent in her childhood. Porter defied these ideals by first becoming a journalist, and then becoming a fiction writer who was neither a feminist, nor feminine. Some of Porter's beliefs and experiences are seen in her writings. She was known mostly for her short stories and her one novel.... ... middle of paper ... ...e past but the legend of the past, other people's memory of the past, at which she had spent her life peering in wonder like a child at a magic-lantern show. Ah, but there is my own life to come yet, she thought, my own life now and beyond. I don't want any promises, I won't have false hopes, I won't be romantic about myself. I can't live in their world any longer" (221). Miranda will be the first of these three women to be able to enjoy the freedom that comes with the act of separation. Amy's legend lives on, even though she does not. Eva, although aged and separate in her own right, still must live with the burden of knowing that she failed to live up to the myth of the southern belle. Miranda, however, has consciously decided to make this change in her life so that she can find the truth for herself and be able to live the rest of her life with these new ideals.

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