Throughout time people have been questioning
their society. Many wonder if the
beliefs and customs of their culture are actually what is in the interest of
themselves or even the masses. Times of
hardship can create strong and powerful people to bring about change; however
the means to achieve such is relevant to ones morals or ethics. For many would agree utilitarianism is the
best route to take when trying to appease most individuals; however what can be
the consequences of such "happiness"?
Marge Piercy attempts to create a utopian society
that practices this
idea, but to achieve such a success many present social beliefs must be annihilated. Mothering
plays a major theme in Piercy's novel Woman on the Edge of Time. She not only uses a mother as the main
character, but creates a whole utopian society based on the mother. Piercy contributes this novel as a political
statement to address the hardships and social injustices of the powerless. Woman on the Edge of Time is a story of a
middle aged Chicano woman who has been denied the right to live with the
socially prudent. According to Kevstin
Shands, Piercy says: "It is primarily a novel about Connie. There's a lot about social injustice in it,
and about how a woman stops hating herself and becomes able to love herself
enough to fight for her own survival" (66). In Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time
the motif of mothering is the basis of the story; she uses a mother as the protagonist
and creates a utopian society based on the strength of the nurturing.
To see how the mother theme is woven throughout
the story one must observe how Connie is in the present, as well as the
future. In the present Connie is
considered a degenerate. She has grown
to be a woman that is rejected by society because she is uneducated, Hispanic,
poor, and more importantly female. The
future world is one that contradicts the present. It is the utopia that embraces Connies'
passive and submissive qualities; intern causing Connie to break free from the
oppression of the modern times by giving her a feeling of self worth.
In the beginning chapter Piercy establishes the
character Connie Ramos as a very sensitive nurturer. With the entrance of Dolly, Connie's niece,
we see Connie play the role as mother to the distraught and beaten niece. "Awkwardly Connie embraced her [Dolly's]
shoulders, her hands slipping on the satin of her blouse" ( 9). Piercy's description here causes the reader
to view this scene as soothing; her use of the sensual words like embrace and
slipping on the satin bring a feeling of relief; for Dolly is now safe from
harm. Piercy further describes Connie's
care to Dolly as follows: "She
undressed Dolly tenderly as a baby, but her niece groaned and cursed and wept
more" (11). This is a very
important line. The nurturing act is not
received as positive. This negativity is not only due to the pain
Dolly is feeling, but is representative of Connie being rejected as a mother in
the modern time. When Geraldo arrives
Dolly and her unborn child are threatened.
His plans to abort the baby encourage the nurturing mother instinct
within Connie to protect her helpless niece.
Elaine Hansen describes the scene:
The instrument of
violence she chooses- presumably because it is nearest to hand- carries marked
symbolic weight. As we learn a little
later, the bottle, one of the few decorations in Connie's bleak two-room flat,
contained dried flowers and grasses gathered on a rare family outing, a picnic
with her estranged brother, Luis, her niece Dolly, and Dolly's baby daughter
Nita. What Connie remembers most about
this picnic is that Nita, just learning to walk, fell asleep in her arms, and
that she was allowed to hold her: "She had sat on the blanket burning,
transfigured with holding that small sweet-breathing flush-faced morsel"
(WET 34). It is the erotic, sensual,
"transfiguring" possibility of holding an infant that Connie
unwittingly throws away, in effect, when she scatters the "nostalgic
grasses" (WET 16) and breaks the wine jug over Geraldo's nose. At the same time, in committing this act she
takes the offensive as a mother and on behalf of mothers and mothering. (24)
The bottle is
used as a symbol of birth and power, but represents an unnatural way to
feed ones
child. For the woman is a vessel which
carries life. We also see the bottle
used as the destructive force that claims victory
over Connie's oppressive doctors by it
being used as the
instrument to carry Connie's poison. One further discovers the
symbolic vessel
used in Piercy's future utopia. The
"Brooder", which refers to a machine
that bottles
babies again is reinforcing this idea.
Piercy continues to represent the bottle or
the lack there of
by having the future mothers or "Coms", feed their child with their own
breast instead of
the extraneous bottle. After Connie has committed the motherly act
of protecting
"her almost child [Dolly]" (20); she is within the clutches of the
vile
modern
system. Connie no longer has the rights
given to the free individual. The war
has
begun; she will
no longer tolerate the abuse that has been dealt to her throughout her
life.
The patriarch
society has interfered too long to sufficiently achieve happiness within
Connie. For her whole life Connie has been pushed
around as a women. "All my life I
been pushed
around by my father, by my brother Luis, by schools, by bosses, by cops, by
doctors and
lawyers and caseworkers and pimps and landlords. By everybody who could
push"
(99). The present society continues to
subdue Connie by placing her within
the confines of a
mental institution; where the patriarchal system attempts to rid her of her
nurturing
affliction. "You have a recurrent
disease, like someone who has a recurrent
malaria"
(373). Locked up and fed with many
tranquilizers she starts to reflect upon
her
situation. In a despondent state of
self-pity and self-hatred, Piercy has Connie venture
to past agonizing
events. "As a mother, your actions
are disgraceful and uncontrolled...."
(60). This statement best sums up the present
society's view of Connie's mothering
ability.
Connie's time traveling friend Luciente is
Piercy's way to introduce Connie and
the reader to her
(Piercy's) utopian vision, Mattapoisett.
"Indeed, Connie is chosen for the visitation project because of her
extraordinary capacity for empathy" (Orr 62). Libby Jones writes: "Interacting with
the future allows Connie to rescue her present as well as preserve and even
reinvent her past. Rather than establish
past, present, as a logical continuum, the novel blends them in Connie's
consciousness" (123). In defiance
of the patriarchal society Piercy has her protagonist's imprisoning
characteristic be the qualifying factor that causes Connie to travel into the
future. While locked in seclusion in her
despondent state Connie is visited by Luciente.
This scene is reflective of the previously discussed scene with
Dolly. Now finding herself (Connie) in
the abused state Dolly was, Connie is
offered the same nurturing that she offered Dolly earlier: "Luciente came
over and cautiously put an arm around her [Connie's], shoulder" (67). Piercy simulates these two episodes to
foreshadow the embracing of Connie's own self. The idea is that Connie, a mother, must be
nurtured herself by society to be a
self- loving and sufficient mother.
Here Connie ventures with Luciente to the magnificent town of
Mattapoisett. Piercy's description is
very sensual to again stress the nurturing theme. Connie has arrived at the pinnacle of
freedom. This futuristic place is one in
which the mother is respected and considered the most vital and important
asset. "....She [Connie] smelled
salt in the air, a marsh tang. A breeze
ruffled the loose rag of dress, chilling her calves....[Luciente states] look
how pretty it is!" (68). Piercy has
created a society that is not patriarchal, but matriarchal. Piercy even uses the character's names as a
pun to the different societies. Luis and
Luciente are obviously both derivatives of the same root name Lue. She uses this subtle writing tactic to convey
the idea of the two extremely opposite cultures. Luis the oppressor and brother of Connie is
used to represent the oppression by the present culture, for he is the one that
commits Connie to the mental institution, and the one that permits the doctors
to experiment on her. Luciente the
liberator, is the one that not only physically frees Connie from her seclusion,
but mentally frees her as well. Luciente
is the driving factor that encourages Connie to become self -loving and
self-respecting. Mattapoisett is full of many intriguing things. When Connie arrives, she is surprised to see
that the residents live in what she refers, "Way out in the sticks." Luciente replies by stating: "We don't
have big cities-they didn't work" (68).
According to Patrricia Huckle, Piercy's
Utopian future fits the feminist mold.
Huckle writes:
Piercy....follow[s] the ideological issues
outlined by Firestone:
...the first
demand for any alternative system must be: 1) the freeing of woman from the
tyranny of their reproductive biology by every means available, and the
diffusion of the childbearing role to the society as a whole...2) the full
self-determination, including economic independence, of both women and
children...3) the total integration of women and children into all aspects of
the larger society, [and] ...4) the freedom of all women and children to do
whatever they wish to do sexually. (131)
Piercy manages to
fulfill all of the requirements. In
Mattapoisett biological birthing is no longer the accepted norm of
society. All humans are born from a
machine called the "Brooder".
"All in a sluggish row, babies bobbed. Mother the machine....Languidly they drifted
in a blind school." While viewing
the mother machine Connie sees, "One dark female was kicking"
(102). This scene reflects to a
statement Connie makes earlier in the novel when she is watching children play
on a playground. "Yes, the girl who
kicks herself would be mine" (40)!
The reoccurring idea of a kicking child causes the reader to associate
it as a symbol of Connie. The idea
behind the kicking child represents the growing revolutionary conception Connie
is conceiving. While in the future
utopia Connie discovers many differences among the present and future
culture. They (citizens of Mattapoisett)
have decided to make mothering a child a community affair; however there are
three mothers or "Coms" that serve as the child's main source of
nurturing. It does not matter though if
one is male. He is still able to mother
and even able to breast feed if he chooses.
In present society the idea of
the adoptive "family" is considered to have a negative
dogma. Charlene Miall states,
"....attitudes within the larger community toward adoption contributes to
a sense of stigma....which influences [the] perception of [the] families as
real or genuine" (34). "The
community [Mattapoisett] feels that mothering should not get mixed up with
sexual love because a child might become caught in the disagreements that are
prone to occur in a love situation. For
this reason, comothers....are not sexually involved with one another"
(Adams 41). Because of the matriarchal
society all member either male or female are able to benefit their culture
without being restricted to the stereo-typical sexual roles. "Everybody takes turns [completing a
required task]" (100). The children
are considered adults at the age of twelve.
All youths go through ritual passage where they wander into the
wilderness and stay for a week in seclusion.
They do this to relieve their coms as their mother duties and to achieve
a sense of self. After being exposed to
this paradise Connie is equipped with self-worth and respect giving her the
ability to conquer the oppressive doctors.
"I killed them. Because it
is war" (375). Judith Gardiner
writes: "Deprived of her own daughter, Connie dedicates her assassination
to 'you who will be born from my best hopes'" ( 75). This statement truly exemplifies Connie Ramos
as a heroic nurturing mother.
To question one's society is the only way to
bring about necessary change. The
present offers many differing view points on our cultures customs and
beliefs. Piercy's character Connie Ramos
is a strong individual that protects society from the menacing of future
oppressive technologies. Piercy's
utopian civilization allows the reader to see a completely free community
without the restraint of stereo-typical sexual
roles to prevent happiness and
success. Piercy believes the key to a
blissful utopia lies with the ability to nurture as the mother does.
Works Cited
Adams, Karen
C. "The Utopian Vision Of Marge
Piercy in Woman on the Edge of Time.
"Way of
Knowing: Essays on Marge Piercy.
Ed. Sue Walker and Eugene
Hammer. Mobile: Negative Capability,
1991: 39-49.
Gardiner, Judith
Kegan. "Evil, Apocalypse, and
Feminist Fiction." Frontiers 7.2
(1983):
74-80.
Hansen, Elaine
Tuttle. "Mothers Tomorrow and
Mothers Yesterday, But Never Mothers
Today: Woman on
the Edge of Time and The Handmaid's Tale.
Ed. Brenda O. Maurrent Riddy. Knoxville: U of Tennessee P., 1991:
21-43.
Huckle,
Patricia. "Women in
Utopias." The Utopian Vision. Ed.
Sullivan. San Diego
State UP, 1983:
115-136.
Jones, Falk
Libby. "Gilman, Bradley, Piercy,
and the Evolving Rhetoric of Feminist
Utopias." Feminism, Utopia, and Narrative. Knoxville: Tennessee UP, 1990: 116-126.
Miall, Charlene
F. "The Stigma of Adoptive Parent
Status: Perceptions of Community
Attitudes Toward
Adoption and he Experience of Informal Social Sanctioning." Family Relations. 36.1 (1987): 34-39.
Orr, Elaine. "Mothering as a Good Fiction: Instance
from Marge Piercy's Woman on the
Edge of
Time." The Journal of Narrative
Technique. 23.2 (1993): 61-77.
Piercy,
Marge. Woman on the Edge of
Time." New York: Fawcett Crest
1976.
Shands,
Kerstin. "Woman on the Edge of
Time." The Repair of the World: The
Novels
of Marge Piercy." Westport: Greenwood Press, 1994: 65-82.
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