Response 2: Prompt 3: Gender Fluidity Through a Feminist Lens in Eleanor and Park

Response 2: Prompt 3: Gender Fluidity Through a Feminist Lens in Eleanor and Park

Alex Severseon

            Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor and Park is a fitting text to introduce gender roles in literature to students. The novel works to engage readers in a conversation about gender fluidity, a topic that may be new and confusing to students. Adolescents are in the early stages of trying to figure out who they are, and they may not be getting the necessary help they need from friends or family. While it is not the role of the school to mold the positions or attitudes of students, schools should make an effort to provide a liberal education that reveals how varied and unique each person is. The duty of the education system should be embedded in nurturing young students into compassionate, functioning members of society who are accepting and not judgmental to those who do not align with the status-quo of genders.  Eleanor and Park brings the issues of gender fluidity to the forefront of mainstream literature, and these issues can be dissected and analyzed with students by using feminist theory as a vehicle for discussion. 

            In order to have students start thinking in terms of feminist literary concepts, I would move the discussion to how easily people can move between predetermined gender types. Both Eleanor and Park distort and change what the gender stereotypes should be for both of them. I would focus first on trying to get students to understand that it is OK not to fit within what society dictates as normal for a person’s gender and the skills that supposedly go with that gender. Park does not fit the typical masculine roles, and this frustrates his father. When Park is trying to drive his father’s truck, several notable events occur. Park’s father is upset with Park, and Park wonders what kind of man he is when he wishes his mother were there to defend him. Rowell writes, “What did it say about Park that he wished his mom would follow him around defending him? That he was a pussy. That’s what his dad thought. It’s probably what he was thinking now. He was probably being so quiet because he was trying not to say it out loud” (79). Rowell’s derogatory, feminine use of “pussy” suggests that park is insecure about his own gender role. Park fear’s what his masculine father is “thinking” about him. While Park is trying to work the manual transmission on his father’s truck, he struggles to engage the “clutch, shift,” and pull away. It’s no mistake of Rowell when she uses a shift knob to suggest Park’s insecurity with his own masculinity. Park’s masculinity is at stake as he grabs for gender stability but cannot work the clutch correctly. I would have students consider how much it matters to be able to drive a stick shift, and whether it even matters to Park or if it matters just to his father.

            I would have students examine the scene wherein which Park’s father is willing to help Park get Eleanor out of danger, but only if he can drive the truck. Rowell shoves Park into the stereotypical gender role of being the masculine savior figure. I would have students consider whether it is problematic for Park to finally grip his masculinity by operating the manual transmission.  When Park needed to become gender fluid, he did just that. Rowell writes, “He started the engine and shifted smoothly into reverse, rolled out of the driveway, shifted into first, then pulled forward without a sputter. Because he knew how to drive a stick. Jesus.” (297). I would want students to see that Park was able to take on a challenge that was not innately part of who he was because of how gender is not cemented into each individual. However, I would also want students to consider what it means when Rowell decides not to put Eleanor in the masculine position to drive the truck, given that she has embodied the masculine persona within their relationship. I would have them think about if there is any meaning in Park becoming stereotypically masculine in this pivotal moment. Of course there are many different ways to look at this scene, but the point I would want to instill in my students is that the different opinions and meaning we can take from the text is a direct mirror of how people are in real life. There are many different positions each person’s gender can take, just as each person’s interpretation of the text can be different.

            While us as teachers may not see the truck scenes as subtle, our students might not be able to grasp them in the same way that we do. We are introducing these theoretical strategies to them so that they will eventually be able to see the archetypes beneath the surface of the text. Students love pop culture references. When Park and Eleanor are sitting together and talking, they both begin considering their gender roles. Park makes the first move by telling Eleanor that he loves her and she echoes Han Solo by saying “I know” (250). If our students cannot understand more subtle moments, we need to drop anvils on their heads so that they begin to understand how to read through a feminist lens. Rowell writes, “‘I’m totally the Han Solo,’ she whispered. It was good to hear her. It was good to remember it was Eleanor under all this new flesh. ‘Well, I’m not the Princess Leia, he said. Don’t get so hung up on gender roles,’ Eleanor said” (250). Using Star Wars as a platform, we can show students how Eleanor understands that your personality can reflect someone of the other sex. In other words, I want to explain to students that sex and gender is not necessarily the same thing.  I want students to see that by examining the novel from a feminist critique, we can come to understand the text as a means of accepting people of different or atypical backgrounds.

            Students will come to understand and accept gender fluidity by reading Eleanor and Park. By building critiquing skills, students will see that there is no shame in how they align their gender. Gender and sex have had strict guidelines for many years, but those days are coming to an end. If we want students to be able to embrace these differences, we need to show them how to look at works of art and literature through different lenses that expose and enlighten such diversity. 

Rowell, Rainbow. Eleanor and Park. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2013. Print