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Jiana Ejbara

Professor Ditch

English 115

6 Decmeber 2017

Breaking Free From the Norms

Gender has and always will be a big part of how people view each other. This meaning

that based on the sex that you are born with, your actions will be affected by it . In the book

The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrow, the

authors write about discusses how a group of people who started a society of writing letters to

each other. The book takes place in London in January 1946 after the ending of World War II.

The letters all started with Juliet Ashton, a well known writer who lost almost everything from

the war. Her publisher, Sidney Stark, published her writings and soon after many islanders began

sending letters to her. In the novel it gives many examples of characters both conforming to and

breaking from gender roles. Someone's gender will determine how todays society will expect

them to perform in everyday life. Men are expected to be strong and dominate while women are

expected to be weak And submissive. In the novel, Juliet Ashton conforms to gender roles while

Elizabeth McKenna both conforms and breaks free from her prescribed gender roles because

they both demonstrate feminine roles in addition to Elizabeth also demonstrating a masculine

role as well.

There are certain ways that one can conform to prescribed gender roles. Juliet conforms

to her prescribed gender roles when she is writing a letter and begins to have second thoughts

about sending a letter because she did not want Adelaide Addison to see the letter but regardless
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of this Juliet still sent out the letter. In the book Rhetoric For Radicals by Jason Del Gandio he

states that Real radicals dont need to rehearse or craft their communication. It is somewhat true

that real radicals do not need to rehearse or craft their communication (Del Gandio 25). If you

are truly radical and want to break free from gender roles then you must say what you feel

without having to think about it. This shows Juliet not being radial and conforming to her gender

role. This letter shows how much Juliet was overthinking the letter and it shows her not being

very confident in herself. This is why it is an example of her not being radical because in

Rhetoric For Radicals it gives us examples of what it is to be radical and that is to always be

straightforward when it comes to talking about things. This letter shows Juliet conforming to her

gender role because she is being feminine by over thinking and showing that she is somewhat

insecure. In todays society these are all looked at as being a feminine person's traits and how

they would act. However, men are viewed as the complete opposite in todays world. This theory

is proven in Thinking About Women by Margaret E. Anderson when Anderson states Maybe

you have heard someone say, Thats just the way women are Biological explanations of gender

in society have a deep roots in peoples thinking, but, as you will see, there is not fixed

relationship between biological features of human beings and the social beings we become (22).

This claim shows that Juliet is conforming to her prescribed gender role because she is expected

to overthink because Thats just the way women are. These claims show that we simply base

each other's actions off of gender rather than off of the person themselves.

Being feminine can also be defined as being very sympathetic towards others. Juliet

continues showing her feminine side throughout the text, Del Gandio supports this claim by

saying that A big heart alone can change the world. But hearts dont speak, people do (24).
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Juliet gives an example of this when Sidney breaks his leg and Sidney is very calm about it

whereas Juliet is a lot more sensitive and is way more concerned about Sidney's leg than Sidney

himself is. This gives an example of Juliet conforming to her gender role because she is

demonstrating the feminine act of being very caring while Sidney is demonstrating the act of

being masculine and not overreacting about breaking his own leg. Another way that Juliet

conforms to her gender roles is when she is talking about these two guys. She writes in a letter

that she has fallen in love with both Eben Ramsey and Dawsey Adams and that she is not very

sure of who she should chose. This is another way that Juliet conforms to gender roles because

she is discussing her feelings about these two men that she has fallen in love with and she is

conforming to her gender role because women are viewed as not knowing what they want and

for always being indecisive while men are seen as the complete opposite and are always looked

at as the gender that knows what they want. Aaron Devor, author of Becoming Members of

Society: The Social Meanings of Gender states A more even-handed description of the social

qualities subsumed by femininity and masculinity might be to label masculinity as generally

concerned with egoistic dominance and femininity as striving for cooperation or communion

(39). This differs from Juliet because she is unsure of what it is that she wants making it a

feminine act rather than a masculine performance. This results in her having a more feminine

role in the way that society views her.

Another character from The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Society that conforms to

prescribed gender roles is Elizabeth. However, Elizabeth conforms and breaks free from her

gender roles. One example of this is when John Booker is writing to Juliet and says that

Elizabeth thought of plans that he did not think of himself. This shows Elizabeth being radical
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towards her gender role because she is making these plans that John Booker did not think of

himself. It is seen as she is the one that is taking control which is not seen as being feminine.

Being feminine is looked at as being submissive while taking action the way Elizabeth did, is

seen as being dominant which is more of a masculine trait than a feminine one. Aaron Devor,

author of Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meanings of Gender supports this

argument by stating These two clusters of attributes are most commonly seen as mirror images

of one another with masculinity usually characterized by dominance and aggression, and

femininity by passivity and submission (39). This further continues the argument that both

women and men are expected to act a certain way purely based off of their gender. In addition,

this shows that man can be viewed as feminine if they are being submissive and a female can be

viewed as masculine if she is dominate and taking charge which is a prime example of what

Elizabeth did. This giving Elizabeth the masculine trait which shows her breaking free from her

prescribed gender role rather than her sitting back and being submissive to allow the men to

come up with all the ideas.

In addition, to Elizabeth breaking free from her gender roles she also conforms to them.

Furthermore, a way that Elizabeth is seen as having a feminine gender role is when they are

discussing how Elizabeth was taking care of her baby. In the article Night to His Day: The

Social Construction of Gender by Judith Lorber, Lorder gives an example of this by stating that

In countries that discourage gender discrimination many major roles are still gendered; women

still do most of the domestic labor and child rearing (30). This claim gives evidence that women

are looked at as being the ones to still take care of the children and do the majority of the house

work. This is a reason why Elizabeth can be looked at as conforming to her gender role becauses
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she is being motherly and taking care of a child. In addition the author of the book Full Frontal

Feminism, Jessica Valenti states Women are supposed to want to have babies. Its our

natural inclination (159). This gives the example that women are supposed to have the natural

instinct of wanting to have babies which is then looked at as being a feminine trait rather than a

masculine trait, showing that she is being feminine. These examples show Elizabeth both

conforming to her gender roles in addition to her also breaking free from her prescribed gender

roles by showing masculine traits.

In conclusion, Julie shows traits of her conforming to her gender role while Elizabeth

shows both traits of her conforming and breaking free from her gender role. Juliet and Elizabeth

give examples throughout The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Society of these traits through

their performances. They both show a feminine side while Elizabeth shows both a feminine side

in addition to showing a masculine side as well. This shows that women can be both submissive

and dominate in different spaces depending on the situation that they are put in. Both Elizabeth

and Juliet played quite a big role in the novel because Juliet can be considered the one who

started the letters and helped others find adventure along with finding it for herself. In addition,

Elizabeth can also be looked at as a big part of the book because Elizabeth tried coming up with

ideas that other people did not think of making her quite valuable person. Furthermore, both

Juliet and Elizabeth were looked at as being very kind hearted characters which helped them win

the trust of many characters in the book. This is important because both Juliet and Elizabeth

show that regardless of the gender that you are born with you can be both feminine and

masculine just depending on the situation and the space that you are in. This is why Juliet is a
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prime example of what it looks like to conform to gender roles while Elizabeth gives an example

of what it is like to both conform and break free from prescribed gender roles.
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Works Cited

Andersen, Margaret L. Thinking About Women: Sociological Perspectives on Sex and Gender.

10th ed., Pearson, 2016.

Devor, Aaron. Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meanings of Gender. Composing

Gender, 2014, pp. 35-45.

Gandio, Jason Del. Rhetoric for Radicals: A Handbook for 21th Century Activists. New Society

Publishers, 2008.

Lorder, Judith. Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender. Composing Gender,

2014, pp. 19-34.

Shaffer, Mary Ann, and Annie Barrows. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Social.

Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014.

Valenti, Jessica. Full Frontal Feminism A Young Womans Guide to Why Feminism Matters.

Seal Press, 2014.