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Age in Sarah Orne Jewett's short fiction
Abstract
Jewett's readers commonly acknowledge the many older adult characters in her writing. In fact, Almira Todd in The Country of the Pointed Firs stands as a model older woman for many readers. However, if readers focus solely on Jewett's portrayal of Mrs. Todd, they overlook Jewett's extensive explorations of age. This study offers an interpretation of aging in Jewett's shorter fiction. Jewett does not include older characters as mere demographic detail; instead, Jewett, as a realist, was attuned to the shifting cultural understanding of aging in the late nineteenth-century U.S. This study surveys critical and historical contexts of Jewett's writings about age. Jewett's early critics suggested Jewett's inclusion of older characters damaged the integrity of her work. More recent criticism, which deals primarily with The Country of the Pointed Firs, highlights Jewett's positive portraits, especially for older women. My study argues for a complete understanding of Jewett's range of portrayals of age, which reflect the difficulties of aging in an increasingly hostile culture. Jewett does not provide a facile answer to successful aging. Instead, she challenges readers to consider what it means to grow old in a hostile society. Jewett's characters generally look toward life, as Jewett examines the reality of living aging. She recognizes the challenge of conceptualizing the experience of age, as it is contingent upon experience, individual perception, and societal representation. Because of her complex conception of aging, Jewett does not offer easy advice about aging. Aging offers moments of joy; however, they are not readily attained. Jewett's characters that internalize societal bias define old age as passivity or failure. Through these characters, Jewett portrays old age's tensions between desires and mandates about roles in work, relationships, and home. She acknowledges society's power in creating an untenable "reality" of old age; yet, she is not deterministic about aging. Jewett challenges her characters and readers to adopt clear perception of societal bias and its harms. She offers venues for community-building through individual strength, story-telling, and reformulated relationships.
Subject Area
American literature|Womens studies
Recommended Citation
Ashby, Lisa A, "Age in Sarah Orne Jewett's short fiction" (1998). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9826076.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9826076