Only Ever Yours Literary Analysis
How does O’Neil present the role of women in society in Only Ever Yours?
Only Ever Yours is a dystopian novel written by Louise O’neil, set in a hyperreality which sees men superior to women. One of the main themes in Only Ever Yours is the roles of women in society. Women are bred in the boarding school and have lessons on pleasing the opposite sex in order to get married. The novel goes out to make a feminist statement. There are many themes to explore in the novel such as the inferiority of women, beauty and marriage.
The society presented in Only Ever Yours positions women as inferior to men. O’Neil employs a lexical field of inferiority throughout the novel to continually convey these ideas to the reader such as, ‘fat’, ‘ugly’, ‘repulsive’. The use of the lexical field of inferiority may have been used by O’Neil to help visualise and emphasis the mindset and issues that the ‘eves’ are forced to endure as part of their society …show more content…
Freida mentions this in the novel by stating she wants “to hide, fold into the shadows and become invisible so no-one can look at me any more.”. O’Neil’s eves are seen as incredibly self conscious and beauty oriented students due to the intense pressure to look beautiful. In a class discussion, we as a class felt that it was evident the novel related hugely to the society we live in, due to social media, women are often compared to celebrities and iconic beauty figures in the industry which enhances the chances for depression, anxiety and eating disorders. This was particularly relatable to the novel in the fact that women are under an immense amount of pressure to be beautiful on the outside. A blog written by Autumn Whitefield-Madrano suggests that beauty does not ‘always make us feel good’ and ‘it’s not necessarily our choice’, just like the Eves, beauty is intoxicating. Due to the exaggerated nature of O’Neil’s writing to represent the women,
Only Ever Yours is a dystopian novel written by Louise O’neil, set in a hyperreality which sees men superior to women. One of the main themes in Only Ever Yours is the roles of women in society. Women are bred in the boarding school and have lessons on pleasing the opposite sex in order to get married. The novel goes out to make a feminist statement. There are many themes to explore in the novel such as the inferiority of women, beauty and marriage.
The society presented in Only Ever Yours positions women as inferior to men. O’Neil employs a lexical field of inferiority throughout the novel to continually convey these ideas to the reader such as, ‘fat’, ‘ugly’, ‘repulsive’. The use of the lexical field of inferiority may have been used by O’Neil to help visualise and emphasis the mindset and issues that the ‘eves’ are forced to endure as part of their society …show more content…
Freida mentions this in the novel by stating she wants “to hide, fold into the shadows and become invisible so no-one can look at me any more.”. O’Neil’s eves are seen as incredibly self conscious and beauty oriented students due to the intense pressure to look beautiful. In a class discussion, we as a class felt that it was evident the novel related hugely to the society we live in, due to social media, women are often compared to celebrities and iconic beauty figures in the industry which enhances the chances for depression, anxiety and eating disorders. This was particularly relatable to the novel in the fact that women are under an immense amount of pressure to be beautiful on the outside. A blog written by Autumn Whitefield-Madrano suggests that beauty does not ‘always make us feel good’ and ‘it’s not necessarily our choice’, just like the Eves, beauty is intoxicating. Due to the exaggerated nature of O’Neil’s writing to represent the women,