Gender in Seventeenth Summer (Category A prompt D)
"When the waiter brought the beer Jack poured both our
glasses. I took a cautious sip and screwed up my face at the flat bitterness.
Jack winked at me and I laughed back at him - so much fuss over one bottle of
beer. But when he wasn't looking I pushed the bottle over a little toward his
side of the table. A girl can't feel like a lady with a bottle of beer before
her" (224).
Throughout the book, there are stereotypical
gender roles seen in every character. In this specific excerpt, the issue of
gender is prevalent in Angie. This scene took place in the Rathskeller, a
nightclub, which is not one of the common places that Angie and Jack go to. For
this reason, I believe Angie agreed to have a beer as she said that the
nightclub gave her “a dark, excited feeling just to be there” (218). She knew
she was unlikely to run into anyone there and felt rebellious being there.
Although Angie agreed to have a few beers and seemed to enjoy her time, she was
still conscious of not feeling “lady-like” drinking a beer.
It is also to be noted that Angie didn’t
agree to have a beer until she was certain that Jack was the only one to see
her drinking one. She had been offered a beer in front of Margie and Fitz and
denied it. After they left, Jack and Angie ran into Angie’s sister, Lorraine,
and the boy she was seeing, Martin. It wasn’t until after both couples left and
Angie and Jack were alone that Angie agreed to have a beer; it was as though
she was certain not to see anyone else she knew. Angie was offered a beer
throughout the novel at Pete’s and at other times but always denied them
because she was around people. This constant feeling of having to prove
yourself worthy as a woman in front of people is holding Angie back, except on
this night.
This scene was the only occurrence of
Angie rebelling against these perfect gender roles that she followed so
strictly. She never smoked a cigarette, always used proper language and
etiquette, and made it clear that she was a “lady.” This was the only scene
that I felt really embodied the “summer love” aspect of the novel. Every other
part in the book, I felt as tough Angie was holding back who she truly was in
order to maintain this figure of perfection. This was the turning point in the
book for me, as I assumed Angie would break free from these gender roles, but
after this night she went back to her typical “lady-like” behavior.
Hi Veronica,
ReplyDeleteI like this reading of the scene as it is the only moment when we see Angie attempt anything like a rebellion. I would encourage you to also consider class issues in her original position. The phrase lady-like implies a class connotation as well as a gendered one. A woman might have a beer, but a lady would not. I'd like to see your main claim mapped out a bit more explicitly in the intro paragraph. I think the observation that she only felt comfortable doing this in front of Jack is smart. Why is that? And what does that say about her class and gender roles?