Queer theory, explained through Eudora Welty’s Moon Lake
Moon Lake, by Eudora Welty, narrates the adventures of a group of girls during a summer camp, exploring their desire of discovery and their transition to adolescence, which is also related to the expression of their bodies and their public behavior.
Moon Lake, then, is an important space of socialization where orphan and wealthy girls interact with each other, despite of the notorious differences between them; and to explore new territories guided by their curiosity.
As Welty describes the girls, it is possible to notice what Judith Butler considers as the social construction of the bodies, as socially accepted characteristics are attributed to the girls to associate them with softness and delicacy. In the story, gender roles are clearly defined and associated with men and women, being reproduced from a young age in order to …show more content…
As described by both Butler and Sullivan, gender is not a manifestation of biological functions, but instead a consequence of the social establishment of conducts that are determined and repeated until they became rules and standards to determine what to expect from a woman and a man.
In this situation, queer theory critically challenges the cultural construction of gender in order to explore the process by which identity is created.
Moon Lake, then, is a story that allows to observe the social interaction and process of establishment of gender identities in an important space of interaction as a summer camp, and the constant struggle in a small social space to maintain this designed identities in order not to alter the internal dynamics and not to generate any controversy by the incorrect display of the established roles of men and
Moon Lake, by Eudora Welty, narrates the adventures of a group of girls during a summer camp, exploring their desire of discovery and their transition to adolescence, which is also related to the expression of their bodies and their public behavior.
Moon Lake, then, is an important space of socialization where orphan and wealthy girls interact with each other, despite of the notorious differences between them; and to explore new territories guided by their curiosity.
As Welty describes the girls, it is possible to notice what Judith Butler considers as the social construction of the bodies, as socially accepted characteristics are attributed to the girls to associate them with softness and delicacy. In the story, gender roles are clearly defined and associated with men and women, being reproduced from a young age in order to …show more content…
As described by both Butler and Sullivan, gender is not a manifestation of biological functions, but instead a consequence of the social establishment of conducts that are determined and repeated until they became rules and standards to determine what to expect from a woman and a man.
In this situation, queer theory critically challenges the cultural construction of gender in order to explore the process by which identity is created.
Moon Lake, then, is a story that allows to observe the social interaction and process of establishment of gender identities in an important space of interaction as a summer camp, and the constant struggle in a small social space to maintain this designed identities in order not to alter the internal dynamics and not to generate any controversy by the incorrect display of the established roles of men and