Rough Apologia Number 2 - Comments much appreciated

Carol Shields’ accomplishment with her novel Unless’ was that she articulates a side of womanhood that has the power to speak to women throughout generations. Through Nora’s quest for GOODNESS the antagonist Nora’s mother Reta sees her own struggle to be heard. She feels that her daughter is sitting on the curb panhandling for money because she has no other choice. Her opinions can never really be heard or valued at the same level as a man’s so she must find completion in another way. Nora ‘loves the world’ (Shields 128); everything from ‘earth tipping in space’ (129) to ‘branches of languages’ (128). She must fulfill her own search to be whole and ‘find where [she] fits in’ (130) and her solution is to beg for money and then give it away, taking comfort in nothing and living in a shelter. How can she possibly possess things when others have so little?
Here is an idea that has the capabilities to touch everyone, not only women. For who has never felt overwhelmed by the catastrophes that surround our lives? We are safe enough in our own small comfort bubble, but outside it there are pirates in Somalia, fires in Chicago, and global warming. We want to help, feel the need to, but how can we? Instead we retreat back into our bubble of protection and think about only day to day matters in order to maintain reason for ourselves.
Nora can do that no longer. She has been pushed too far outside a comforting mindset to return, for she witnessed a ‘Muslim woman’ (41) who ‘poured gasoline over her veil and gown, and set herself alight’ (314). She attempted to smother the flames and save this woman, another who we can imagine as feeling trapped inside her own female body. Nora failed to save the unknown woman and carries the scars both internally and on her body from her collision with helplessness. Women, raised and programmed to be carrying and nurturing, for it has been scientifically proven that females have ‘brain circuitry and hormones that make women so much more attuned’ (Weise) and ‘constantly aware of the emotions and needs of those around you’(Weise). An instinct to nurture is inbred and when your private world suddenly expands to included the whole planet and all its creatures, what other choice is there but to shut down and do as much as you can, as quietly and unassuming as you can, as Nora does? She wants to help, but does not wish to cause any fuss, and so she does not speak, does not make eye contact, and does not keep any possessions. Only carries a sign reading GOODNESS and small cup, giving what she gathers away.
Reta feels that Nora is silent because it is her only choice. Reta is a writer who has one acclaimed hit as her own work, the rest are books translated for her mentor. Reta is also a reader and what strikes her as she reads her chosen articles is that, be it a man or woman writer, is that there is a severe lack of female voice being cited. Reta is an educated woman, her role model is an extremely intelligent and vocal feminist, and her writing group consists of three very successful and bright women. She knows there are female opinions ringing out in the world and she feels they fall upon deaf ears and then are lost. If there is no one listening, then what is the purpose of speaking? Nora writes pointed and well written letters to the authors of such articles, expressing her distress and explaining her daughter’s situation. Once again Shields remarks on what it is to be a women. Reta does not shout or become angry in her letters, ‘whispering is more like it’ (Shields 220) in her pleas to be heard. Reta’s whisperings never leave the page though, she signs the letters with false names which is pointless considering she never sends them but rips them after writing. In this is the female situation Shields repeats again and again in Unless; women have ideas, are capable, intelligent people, and yet despite the claims of feminism are not partners with men. Their voices are not respected equally, ideas often being glanced at then cast aside for the better, brighter solutions of men. Still these voices refuse to shout, for to do so goes against inner nature; it is better to see and accept, then to deal with the problem in one’s own way, making as few waves a possible. Be it by begging without expectations on the corner of ‘Bloor and Bathurst’ (Shields 25), writing dozens of letters that will never be seen, or not challenging yourself enough to write more than ‘a light summer read’.


Word Count: 797