The Role of Women in Giants in the Earth

The Role of Women in Giants in the Earth

Peter Mangus Hagen, a large Swedish immigrant carpenter, pushed back his chair, rose from the end of the long dining table in their kitchen, and announced, "And now for my dessert--." He walked the length of the table past his thirteen children to the other end, bent his large frame down, and tenderly kissed his wife Maggie, who was fifteen years his junior and mother of those thirteen. As he pulled himself to his naturally erect stance, he proceeded to thank her for her labor in preparing an excellent meal and in caring for their home and their thirteen children. This conclusion to the meal was as much a ritual as was the blessing asked in Swedish before it began. And if the "thank you" was customary, so was the bill of fare, i.e., a large bowl of navy beans, freshly-baked bread and freshly-churned butter, a bowl of home-canned tomatoes and a bowl of home-canned fruit, a very large bowl of mashed potatoes, two pitchers of milk, and coffee for the adults. In that household a seven-course banquet was not mandatory in order to extract a word of appreciation.

This Scandinavian never pretended that his building of refrigerator boxcars for the Santa Fe Railroad in 1919 was more important or worthwhile than Maggie's homemaking, home management, clothes-making, food preparation and preservation, or care of their family. In fact, it may have been Peter's respect and high regard for Maggie's "woman's work" that helped hold together and make easier a loving marriage that encompassed not only their thirteen children, but also his five children by an earlier marriage.

Of course, if looked at realistically, the couple's division ...

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...probably all women are alike--they have no sense" (194).

The one important function Beret fulfills is having children. Giving birth to Peder that Christmas on the prairie is her only noteworthy accomplishment. But even then, Per Hansa takes over and names him with a name that poor Beret dislikes and regards as near sacrilege (279).

By looking at Beret in Giants in the Earth and certainly by looking at Peter and Maggie Hagen, it could be concluded that childbearing is the chief item of value in "woman's work." By comparing those lives further, it might also be concluded that it is too bad that Beret was not told more often that she was Per Hansa's "dessert" and that her "woman's work" was appreciated.

Works Cited

Rolvaag, Ole Edvart. Giants in the Earth. New York: Harper and Row, 1955.