Attebury suggests that one should watch the men ‘when no women can rescue them from their own messes’. There are times when the narrator of The War of the Worlds and Juan find themselves without female companionship or feminine substitutes nearby. When men stand on their own, masculinity may be compromised in front of danger and alienation. Patrick Parrinder points out that ‘the humanist conception of the universe has been shattered by the Martian invasion’. Amongst the confusion and fear during the attack, the narrator shows a gradual build of masculinity when he is alone. He has hysterical moments, unable to control his feelings, unable to fight, as the femininity illustrated in ‘I was exhausted with the violence of my emotion and of my
…show more content…
Man may not be about the male gender, but what makes one masculine. When masculinity is a construction, the relationship of masculinity to femininity can be read as a factor of how ‘man’ is represented. In The War of the Worlds and Starship Troopers, masculinity, and even gender, is ‘relational’ rather than as a thing in itself: masculinity is to a large extent defined in relation to femininity and vice versa. Even when femininity is absent, it is always lurking, a haunting reminder to maintain masculinity. From the narrator of The War of the Worlds to Juan in Starship Troopers, masculinity is portrayed as barely able to stand alone without relating to femininity. Being masculine is defined as opposed to femininity, and one finds that masculinity and femininity are performances of humankind and undeniably relative. In The War of the Worlds and Starship Troopers, conventions are deconstructed, oppositions blurred. Gender may be ultimately unintelligible and identity constructed from acts. However, H.G. Wells and Robert A. Heinlein constructs the multiplicity of characters, which allows similar yet different reactions to the alien and the Other. The relational representation of masculinity and femininity acknowledges the reality of society, and the performance of characters confirms the ambiguous boundaries of gender, identity, and even sexuality. Perhaps one may derive a suggestion that reality is constituted from acts, and there is never a fixed status for humankind. Just as readers accept the actions of fluid fictional characters, acceptance is required in reality for those who cannot be readily
Man may not be about the male gender, but what makes one masculine. When masculinity is a construction, the relationship of masculinity to femininity can be read as a factor of how ‘man’ is represented. In The War of the Worlds and Starship Troopers, masculinity, and even gender, is ‘relational’ rather than as a thing in itself: masculinity is to a large extent defined in relation to femininity and vice versa. Even when femininity is absent, it is always lurking, a haunting reminder to maintain masculinity. From the narrator of The War of the Worlds to Juan in Starship Troopers, masculinity is portrayed as barely able to stand alone without relating to femininity. Being masculine is defined as opposed to femininity, and one finds that masculinity and femininity are performances of humankind and undeniably relative. In The War of the Worlds and Starship Troopers, conventions are deconstructed, oppositions blurred. Gender may be ultimately unintelligible and identity constructed from acts. However, H.G. Wells and Robert A. Heinlein constructs the multiplicity of characters, which allows similar yet different reactions to the alien and the Other. The relational representation of masculinity and femininity acknowledges the reality of society, and the performance of characters confirms the ambiguous boundaries of gender, identity, and even sexuality. Perhaps one may derive a suggestion that reality is constituted from acts, and there is never a fixed status for humankind. Just as readers accept the actions of fluid fictional characters, acceptance is required in reality for those who cannot be readily