Exploration of Feminine Identity in Sui Sin Far's Mrs. Spring Fragrance
The Exploration of a Socially Constructed Feminine Identity
Sui Sin Far’s, The Story of one White Woman who married a Chinese, argues that the new feminine identity while liberating some women is destructive for others, and it is not until one develops a true sense of identity and not a socially constructed one that inner peace is attained. Minnie, the main character in Far’s story depicts a white woman who felt compelled to assimilate into the new feminine identity constructed by the socio-economic movement of Modernity and ultimately rebels against it leading to the destruction of her private sphere, her family life.
The nineteenth century movement known as Modernity renegotiated both the masculine and feminine identiies.
“Modernity points to the emergence of instrumental rationality as the intellectual framework through which the world is perceived and constructed. As a socioeconomic concept, modernity designates an array of technological and social changes that took shape in the last two centuries and reached a kind of critical mass near the end of the nineteenth century; rapid industrialization, urbanization, and population growth; the proliferation of new technologies and transportation; the saturation of advanced capitalism; the explosion of a mass consumer culture; and so on.” (Charney and Schwartz, 72)
Prior to the nineteen century, American society designated very specific roles for both men and women in America. The practice and ideology of these roles constructed strict masculine and feminine identities. Society’s perspective of those roles was very clear; there existed two spheres: the public and the private sphere. The private sphere, also known as the domestic sphere, was reserved for women. In this sphere, the women stayed home and were the care-takers. They cared for the house, their husbands and their children. They did not socialize outside the house much nor were seen walking the streets alone. Men, on the other hand,
Sui Sin Far’s, The Story of one White Woman who married a Chinese, argues that the new feminine identity while liberating some women is destructive for others, and it is not until one develops a true sense of identity and not a socially constructed one that inner peace is attained. Minnie, the main character in Far’s story depicts a white woman who felt compelled to assimilate into the new feminine identity constructed by the socio-economic movement of Modernity and ultimately rebels against it leading to the destruction of her private sphere, her family life.
The nineteenth century movement known as Modernity renegotiated both the masculine and feminine identiies.
“Modernity points to the emergence of instrumental rationality as the intellectual framework through which the world is perceived and constructed. As a socioeconomic concept, modernity designates an array of technological and social changes that took shape in the last two centuries and reached a kind of critical mass near the end of the nineteenth century; rapid industrialization, urbanization, and population growth; the proliferation of new technologies and transportation; the saturation of advanced capitalism; the explosion of a mass consumer culture; and so on.” (Charney and Schwartz, 72)
Prior to the nineteen century, American society designated very specific roles for both men and women in America. The practice and ideology of these roles constructed strict masculine and feminine identities. Society’s perspective of those roles was very clear; there existed two spheres: the public and the private sphere. The private sphere, also known as the domestic sphere, was reserved for women. In this sphere, the women stayed home and were the care-takers. They cared for the house, their husbands and their children. They did not socialize outside the house much nor were seen walking the streets alone. Men, on the other hand,
Cited: Ammons, Elizabeth. Conflicting Stories: American Women Writers at the Turn into the Twentieth Century. New York: Oxford UP, 1992. Far, Sui Sin. Amy Ling and Annette White-Parks. Mrs. Spring Fragrance and Other Writings. Illinois: University of Illinois, 1995. Riis, Jacob A. "How the Other Half Lives (1849-1914)." 1890