In David Malouf’s book Remembering Babylon, the men in the settlement were very sexist. Their sexism in a way formed the book and the setting of the story. The setting of this novel is in Australia during colonial times. Janet McIvor, she discovered how beautiful she really was but at the same time she was described as a typical women. Three moments that highly revealed the sexist view of the men in the book was when she and her sister found Gemmy, when she got jealous of Lachlan,and lastly Janet becoming a nun, we are not just exploring the sexist views but the decisions the female characters make and how they resist.
In the beginning of the novel the author right away demonstrates the men’s authority over the women because when Janet …show more content…
For example she has to clean, make food, etc. She really despised Lachlan because he got to do more just because of his gender. But he often used his Irish slang which he used to attempt to look to irritate Janet. In Malouf’s Remembering Babylon, “ He was the one now who ‘knew things’, assumed an easy, masculine air that he had picked up by imitation from his elders, and was so good at it that it looked like nature. And what of me ? she thought. I am as brave as he is. I could do all that. Being in possession now of so many skills , and the code that went with them and belonged to men.”(Malouf, 58). According to several sentences after Janet said, “She resented bitterly the provision his being a boy had made for him to exert himself and act,” (Malouf, 58). What janet was saying in the beginning was that since he is a “man” he is the one that knows things, he seems so good at things that it looked as if it was natural even though in reality he imitated his elderly’s. On the second example she asking herself “what about me” meaning that what about her why can't she do the same as him if shes as brave is him why can't she do that, but she highly despised the idea of him being boy so he was able to most things that she
In the beginning of the novel the author right away demonstrates the men’s authority over the women because when Janet …show more content…
For example she has to clean, make food, etc. She really despised Lachlan because he got to do more just because of his gender. But he often used his Irish slang which he used to attempt to look to irritate Janet. In Malouf’s Remembering Babylon, “ He was the one now who ‘knew things’, assumed an easy, masculine air that he had picked up by imitation from his elders, and was so good at it that it looked like nature. And what of me ? she thought. I am as brave as he is. I could do all that. Being in possession now of so many skills , and the code that went with them and belonged to men.”(Malouf, 58). According to several sentences after Janet said, “She resented bitterly the provision his being a boy had made for him to exert himself and act,” (Malouf, 58). What janet was saying in the beginning was that since he is a “man” he is the one that knows things, he seems so good at things that it looked as if it was natural even though in reality he imitated his elderly’s. On the second example she asking herself “what about me” meaning that what about her why can't she do the same as him if shes as brave is him why can't she do that, but she highly despised the idea of him being boy so he was able to most things that she