Analysis of The Gate to Womens Country Book by Sheri Tepper - Essay Example

Literature Evolutionary gender theories claim that man and woman are dissimilar in a physiological way as well as psychologically. Historically, men are viewed as breadwinners and hunters, who are aggressive and dominant, while women are treated as 'gathers', who are cooperative and able to find consensus in each disagreement. Because man and woman are different in their outlooks and behaviors, there is some kind of gender rivalry in our world, which is in fact directed to establishing harmony and equality and eliminating domination of one gender over the other. In 'The Gate to Women's Country', Sheri Tepper tries to solve a problem of gender rivalry and find suitable circumstances which provide equality and coincidence between genders. The author describes the totally utopian world, over which Damocles' sword of threat hangs, since men's rule would destroy the universe completely with their nuclear weapon. To ensure the survival of all humanity, women and a few selected men have to cooperate and make constructive decisions. Women's Country a collection of villages and towns, consists mostly of women, while men life far away in warrior garrisons, which resemble Spartan encampments where life is composed of the 'meaningless' demonstrations of 'honor', or, as Tepper implies, aggression and might. The author, showing her scorn to militarism, depicts another category of men - 'the servitors' , who decide to leave the garrison and join Women's country, and whose main function is impregnating women and thus continuing the life chain on the Earth. Women's Country is the source of strict order in this post-apocalypse world, since it shows some kind of organization and even bureaucracy. Whereas the men are demonstrating their ridiculous honor and decorating their garrison with ribbons, banners (and having no access to novel technologies of the women) , the women are reorganizing civilization, discovering again everything which was lost during the war. On the other hand, life is not exactly perfect in Women's Country, but its inhabitants are living their long range plan for civilizing existence and the species, and finding a refreshing attitude towards the life. That is to say, Tepper in her book is really interested in binary oppositions, such as 'war -peace' , 'man- woman', 'desctructivism - constructivism'. For instance, she casually narrates how Women's Country has got rid of homosexuality, since it was "caused by aberrant hormone levels during pregnancy" (Tepper, 1988, p.81). Tepper illustrates men and women on the opposing sides of barricade, since gender is a most strict binary in the world. Tepper makes an effort to cover over a number of controversies by calling the controlling women's assembly the Damned Few (ibid, p.11). To my view, this 'label' has its explanation - these women are 'damned' since they attempt to rebel against their social roles (and, presumably, against their femininity), which have been existing for ages and destroy the inner world order. As for me, Tepper in her book illustrates the evil of war, using, among other tools, a powerful device of 'a ply within the narrative', dealing with Trojan War in the play 'Iphigenia at Ilium'. The author clearly shows the status of woman at the times of Ancient Greece: Iphigenia is sacrificed for the sake of good sailing weather, Polyxena dies at the tomb of Achilles, Hector's little son is killed only because he is the son of the defeated political leader. Thus, the play is the reflection Tepper's personal attitudes towards war and cruelty., which are hard to explain in depth because of the complexity of human nature. On the other hand, 'Iphigenia at Ilium' can be seen as a representation of the values attributed to women of the Women's Country as well as to men of the encampments. As the plot of the novel develops, one might see changing structure of the society, values and emotions, which are parallelized to those from 'Iphigenia at Ilium'. 'The Trojan Woman' by Euripides is a tragedy which claims plainly that woman is a root of all problems, for instance, a war. Helen, Menelaus' wife, being influenced by momentous desires and emotions, flees with Trojan Paris and breaks the fragile peace between Greece and Troy (Croally, 1994). Thus, the author views women's nature as emotional and impulsive (Croally, 1994) and states that women are easily dependable creatures who are not able to predict the outcomes of their possible decisions and to think logically and soberly. It is possible to say that the ancient Greek playwright treats women not as a personality but as a phenomenon who shows herself in different ways and is totally unpredictable. That is to say, Euripides' standpoint coincides with the Greek mentality and genuinely Greek attitude towards woman, who is admirable with respect to their beauty and charm, but not capable of being 'manlike' (being strong, competitive, dominant, decisive, affirmative and thoughtful). Helen makes two nations suffer and experience the great Trojan War by putting her own happiness on the top of her hierarchical scale of values. Thus, woman in 'The Trojan Woman' is considered a cause of the Trojan tragedy and a passive spectator of the whole war. Conversely, in 'The Gate to the Women's Country' the author attributes to women the role of managers and controllers of the world order, seeing them as more level-headed and wise that men - it is apparent in the whole Women's country which follows the commands of secret Council of the Damned Few. On the other hand, the writer doesn't intend to show that Women's country is perfect and there are no problems with women's rule, since nature is sometimes stronger than nurture. The vivid example of true warrior's genetic memory is the life of David, Stavia's son, who is reluctant to become a submissive servitor and forget about his masculinity in the best meaning of the word. By breeding women with "suitable" men (Tepper, 1988, p.124), the Women's Council is orchestrating a huge scheme to reduce violence, but they will never reach total control over violence as long as men are alive. In her book, Tepper refers to Laplanders who breed docile reindeer (ibid, p.201), but human-beings have a more complicated social apparatus than the reindeer. The global plan is not a solution of the problem, because nurture and nature are two interrelated poles which influence person in a random way. As one can see, 'The Gate to Women's Country' is not an idyllic vision of nonviolent world, but a representation of the struggle between knowledge, wisdom and bloodshed, which is attributed to males. The picture seems perfect and victorious, since males are accepted to the Women's Country only if they are ready to serve and to submit. Thus, directing their skills and talents to defeating violence, women are seen as those who really try to solve the question of woman and war posed by Euripides, in a peaceful way, regardless of the results of their efforts. On the other hand, they wage another war, which is related to the eternal struggle between nature and nurture, by using all available genetic and technological tools. To my view, looking more profoundly, it is possible to say that human nature is controversial and in order to develop and go forward, needs new conflicts, either exterior or inner ones. To sum up, I would like to say that Sheri Tepper in fact shows that one war should be substituted by another, which has feminine face and is more 'peaceful', but is really important for the mankind. Bibliography 1) Croally, N. Euripidean Polemic: The Trojan Women and the Function of Tragedy. Cambridge University Press, 1994. 2) Tepper, Sh. The Gate to Women's Country, Doubleday, New York, 1988. Read More