#7 Feminist vs. Beatrice

The female characters in Effects of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds are almost categorical characters to me. The ideas of self for these types of women are varied in many ways but all intertwine themselves around the missing role and image of a man. The feminist critic’s perspective begins deconstructing characters with the understanding that a woman’s idea of self has been systematically been oppressed and silenced, denied and stereotyped. If I were to take on the shoes of a feminist critic, I would focus particularly on Beatrice, who I believe is the head of the problem as she is head of the household. As the mother, Beatrice interacts with her environment in a negligent and negative way. Her husband left her and she both distrusts men and yet yearns for their attention, and in this specific case, Mr. Goodman whose name and actions towards her daughter leans us to believe that he is a Good Man.
Even as a grown woman, Beatrice still cares about what others have to and have said about her. She allows the social, chauvinistic perspective warp her personal self and identity. She has dreams to a do something with her live but stops herself; seeing her children as “two rocks around [her] neck” and not having her father around, or any good man of his standard taking care of her. I do not believe that she ever acknowledges that even though her woman’s experience has been shunned, mostly by her own self-destruction, she does not value the experiences of her daughter and even oppresses Mr. Goodman stereotyping him as a Jew as seen with her back handed language describing him. From a feminist approach, I could only feel more pity and reject Beatrice and her self-destruction.