Michael M. Black
Dr. Seyfarth
Eng. 192
4 December 1997
Stereotyping the Southerner and Women
Traditional elements of literature appear throughout Janice Daugharty’s collection Going Through the Change. Daugharty’s writing technique is rich ground for feminist, biographical, and historical criticism. The stories "Looking to Miss Sara" and "Like God Made Eve" are susceptible to feminist criticism while the story "Tippy and the Preacher" lends itself to biographical and historical criticism. Janice Daugharty’s writing, while occasionally describing positive traits, overall portrays southern women and southerners in general as ignorant and devoid of charm and portrays the South as an unattractive place.
"Biographical criticism would insist on the importance of knowing something about the author . . . ," says Stephen Lynn (Lynn 124). Knowing that Janice Daugharty is from Echols County, Georgia helps the reader to understand that she writes about her homeland. She says this herself, "I write about what I know" (Lecture). Although she probably would prefer a wider audience, her readership is limited to the South. Her story, "Tippy and the Preacher," is typical Janice Daugharty.
In this story, a preacher and his dog, Tippy, hastily walk across a bridge while dodging a semi-tractor/trailer rig. Daugharty describes the rural setting, " . . . an inset Y of lonesome gravel roads, forking south to Florida and east to the Okefenokee State Park and north to Georgia" (177). This is the widespread stereotypical description of the south: backwoods made of "fat, bald" men walking the endless stretch of road (177). Why on earth would anyone want to live here? Foreigners would not even make pit stops. The preacher observes Bo and his wife, two hard working individuals who own and manage a Mom and Pop filling station. The story goes on to say that he is new in town, and that the locals are burning each other’s ears off talking about what they have seen him do: walk his dog. Chances are, he was probably walking for his health as he has done every evening for years. In little southern towns as in life everywhere, prominent figures such as this simple preacher receive much unwanted attention and derision.
Daugharty refers to Bo’s friends as his "drinking buddies" (182). Here, she implies that southerners are drunken rednecks. Bo and his friends scoot on over to the Okefenokee State Park. The description of the Okefenokee is accurate but unfavorable: " . . . gators nosed the boat, . . . murky black water feeding back the lazy beams; snakes all around, switching in the water, hanging from the stringy-barked cypresses . . . " (183). From this description, the only fools dumb enough to go are our local southerners who were "drunk when they got there" (183). Truly, only drunk adult men would decide to catch a wild bear and amazingly succeed. The bear is then made a public attraction at Bo’s filling station because the bear "‘Draws business’" (180). If normal travelers see a bear outside a gas station, what percentage would actually stop? The bear only attracts the locals. Daugharty’s writing leads the reader to believe that uneducated southerners are fascinated by wild game.
Bo’s ten year old son works in his store. The boy, in a strange manner, befriends the bear while he watches Bo and his wife interact: "Go to hell!", says Bo to his wife (181). Unfortunately, the boy witnesses this spectacle and longs to leave. Finally, the bear breaks free of the chain and collar to escape his unhappy surroundings. "‘We’re on our own now,’" says the boy (184). This statement, originally spoken by the preacher, could be interpreted by the boy as a metaphor of his life compared to the bear’s life. The bear left, so why could he not? A commonplace story of how a boy longs to leave his dull, if not harmful, surroundings for a better life.
One of Mrs. Daugharty’s more likable and respectable female characters is Miss Sara. In the story "Looking to Miss Sara," Sara is a 64 year old woman who baby-sits ten young children in her home. The traditional role of women is emphasized in this story by Sara being a mother and homemaker. She takes care of children in her home because the mothers of the children are not the best. "And then who’ll take care of you?", Sara wonders. She works very hard in tending to the children, an admirable quality not found in all of today’s mothers. She is concerned that these children go home to much worse, so Sara provides them with joy and fun during the day. I credit much of my solid, loving upbringing to my nanny too. My parents were working parents whose love and attention were augmented by my own "Miss Trilby."
In raising the children, Sara may need to give them a little slap, but this is in their best interest. Sara is raising them the way Sara’s mother raised her. Generally, daughters raise their children the way they were raised. In today’s touchy society, striking children is a serious transgression. A fairly large woman, Sara has been through the change, and now she and her friends worry about their next heart attack. Imagine a group of little old ladies playing bridge talking about their last bypass. Sara has never struck a child. She hears of "bizarre cases of babysitters torturing children" but never Sara (102).
Sara, almost 65, is counting down the days until her birthday. She wants her Social Security check. She now must rely on this money since she divorced her husband. Must women of her age are financially unable to make it by themselves, but not Sara; she works hard for the money. Her ex-husband, Shine, is an alcoholic, hence the divorce. She is making it on her own. It is probably Shine who is not making it. Daugharty writes Sara as a very good, decent, loving nanny. Sara knows that "She has no license to keep children . . . " (102). Deep down inside though, Sara knows that those children need her. The parents do not even care that she does not have a permit. The mothers just drop off their kids and go to work. Sara herself birthed three girls, Sally, Lissie, and Joy Beth. These children, one dead, do not keep in much contact with their mother even though Joy Beth lives across the street. Daugharty leads the reader to believe that Sara is upset because not having seen her daughter for many years, she can only picture Lissie as someone totally good or someone totally bad, a "whore or saint" (103).
To entertain the children, Sara cuts out paper dolls. In essence, she is a teacher. Teachers are stereotyped as being female because they can bond and nurture the children better than a stern man. Daugharty says, "Most of the children live with their mamas" (105). Why do the women often get custody of the young children? Probably because the court expects the women to be the homemaker, motherly types, but instead these women dump off their kids at Sara’s feet and sometimes forget to come back. One poor child, Toby, stays with Sara an entire weekend because his mother and father will not come to pick him up. That is sorry parenting. Sara ponders this because it goes against her thinking: " . . . mamas should mind the children and the daddies should work . . . " (106). Why have the mothers in this story been so sorry while Sara is the saint? True, times have changed, but parenting has not. The same motherly love is required by all children. This story in a sense stereotypes Sara as the loving babysitter taking her time to raise someone else’s kids. Stephen Lynn says, "We are all products of our culture, our language, our myths, and our history . . . " (Lynn 202). Today, many young women are truly against being housewives, but the role of women has stayed the same for generations. Women have received more rights, but the truth is that they cannot give up what their feminine heritage has given them.
The story "Like God Made Eve" portrays Southern women as whoring, nude dancers. Two young men are driving to Florida, and they decide to stop a go-go club on the way. Daugharty’s stories either dramatize women as whores or saints. In this case, immoral whores are dancing for money. Alamand and Kyle are in search of Kyle’s girlfriend who "took off to Jacksonville with another fellow" (111). As depressing as this is, the girlfriend is given the blame for leaving. Daugharty never reveals if her leaving was actually the female’s or male’s fault. She left, and they are off to find her. They stop at the bar, and Kyle soon is on "his eighth can of beer" (113). Obviously, women drive men to drink. Women are written as softhearted, but men have a heart too. Daugharty describes the table dancers: " . . . gold powder that made her blue eyes bluer, her white hair whiter. Her fingernails were painted silver" (114). The author describes sluts dancing for money. While Kyle views the dancers from an excited position, Alamand views the naked women from an artistic position. As an artist, Alamand becomes eager to go and paint the women. He respects them as they could be "somebody’s mother" and for physical curvature beauty (115). Alamand’s superego takes over him. At first, there was little excitement, but then he began to view each of the women as beautiful. Alamand could certainly be guilty of sublimation which Lynn defines as "channeling an unacceptable urge into some artistic creation" (Lynn 173). Alamand is eager to paint women dancers because he knows he cannot touch them.
These three stories beg criticism from any self-respecting southerner. The work of Janice Daugharty portrays Southerners as being trashy and stupid. Some might be attracted to her Southern gothic writing, but her terminology and story lines most often glorify the ignorance of the South, and I find that objectionable and unnecessary. If Mrs. Daugharty chose to treat more characters as sympathetically as she treats Miss Sara, she might reach and retain a wider reading audience.
Works Cited
Daugharty, Janice. "Like God Made Eve." Going Through the Change. New York: Ontario Review P, 1994. 110-121.
---. "Looking to Miss Sara." 100-109.
---. "Tippy and the Preacher." 177-184.
---. Lecture. English 192. Valdosta State University. 12 Nov. 1997.
Lynn, Steven. Texts and Contexts: Writing about Literature with Critical Theory. New York: Harper Collins College Publishers, 1994.