Amanda Couture Ms.

Camargo ENGL 2100 3/21/2013 Vengeance with a Gender Studies Analysis The roles of a man and a woman are clearly defined within the short story Killings by Andre Dubus. The author shows the ideas of what a man and a woman should be through the dialogue between the husband and wife, the husband and his friend, and the thoughts that the main character has about the world around him. These thoughts and actions shown by the speaker reveal the age, time period, and gender of the writer which help to show why he held the characters to specific gender roles. The father in Killings, represents what a father-figure, the leader of the family and the protector, looks like to Andre Dubus. Matt Fowlers life changed the day his son, Frank, was murdered by his girlfriends ex-husband, Richard. The murderer posted bail after being arrested, and walked around town awaiting his trial. His wife Ruth could hardly stand to see him around town. This puts into question the fathers masculinity because he could not protect his son from being killed and now he cannot protect his wife from the hurt Richard caused her. This becomes another driving force for Matt Fowlers plan to murder Richard. He must become the idea of the man in this situation. A father-figure described by Anjula Saraff and Harish Srivastava states that, fathers were to be the primary breadwinners and source of authority in the family, while mothers were to fulfill the emotional needs of family members, (page 3). After Matts wife first saw her sons murderer in town, Matt began to carry a gun. This shows the first step that the husband took to make sure his wife felt protected and to embody his
Comment [C3]: Good incorporation of your secondary source here. Two things to make it even better: 1check the guidelines for parenthetical citation; you dont use the word page, just the number, etc) and 2) when you can avoid it, try not to end the paragraph with a quote. This doesnt mean you need to add another sentence, necessarily, but maybe reorganize the paragraph so that the quote comes earlier. For a revisions exercise, use the EZ paragraph structure thats on the handout I gave out one day in class, and see if you can make this paragraph match that. So that the quote comes earlier and the statement of analysis or so what comes last. Comment [C2]: I think if youre going to be arguing that you can tell what the author believed about gender by reading the story, you would have to bring in some biographical information about DubusI think that would give strength to the argument. However, if youre arguing that the story presents a particular view of gender norms, then you might not need that. I think its a bit unclear which youre arguing for, but maybe just some rewording will help that? Comment [C1]: How about something like, Dubus presents specific ideas about gender expectations through characterization and social norms or something along those lines? More formal and specific?

masculinity. Matt talks to his friend Willis about the situation, She knows I started carrying it after the first time she saw him in town. She knows its in case I see him, and theres some kind of situation-. Not only is Matt trying to seem like a man to his wife, he is also trying t o prove himself to his friend, to show he is no coward when it comes to Richard, he will stand up to him if necessary. This is the type of ideal that Andre Dubus grew up in. He became a young adult in the 1950s a time period known for stay at home mothers and masculine fathers. He reflects his ideas of family in Killings, the mother becomes threatened, and the father steps into his role as the protector of the family, just like Matt Fowler in the story. After the death of Frank, his father faces a lot of conflict in his day to day life. There is a conflict between him and his wife, town, and the murderer. His wife does not feel safe in their own town so as a husband he has failed to protect her. The only one that will talk to him about Richard is his friend Willis, the town no longer speaks to him because of the murder. The murderer walks on the streets which influence Matt to feel like there has been an injustice because his son has been murdered. The husband now feels pressure to do something in order to relieve the tension within the town. Robert Orrange stated in The Emerging Mutable Self: Gender Dynamics and Creative Adaptations in Defining Work, Family, and Future that, Basic assumptions about roles within marriage and issues of equity or equality are crucial factors that implicate how individuals, in an ongoing manner, define and then strive to actualize their life plans, a process that involves engaging in multirelational synchronization, (11). The speaker says, Each day he felt the same and when he was able to forget how he felt, when he was able to force himself not to feel that way, the eyes of his clerks and customers defeated him, (105). This is the crucial factor that makes the change in his mind to kill his sons murderer; he knew he would never be looked at the same again.
Comment [C5]: Good analysis here Comment [C4]: You might need a quote here to show where you got that information (besides your own understanding of the 1950s) to add credibilitytry a sociology textbook, for starters, sometimes you can find overviews of decades and the social norms that were acceptable there; or you might be able to find something online, too.

Matt Fowler has the stereotypical role as the father, but his wife also plays a certain part in the short story. Franks mother has found something wrong with Mary Ann to show that she is not good enough for her son. In lines 56-57 and lines 62-63 the speaker says, Ruth didnt like it because Mary Ann was in the process of divorce, because she had two children, because she was four years older than Frank, and she had heard: that the marriage had gone bad early, and for most of it Richard and Mary Ann had both played around. Ruth has already begun to judge Mary Ann before she has really gotten to know her. She also is first to believe in the rumors about her because no girl is good enough for her son. Typically, mothers that have jobs have completely different things to worry about than the gossip pertaining to their childs significant other. Lines 56 -57 and 62-63 show that she is most likely a stay at home mother. Matt also says on page 105, And beneath his listless wandering, every day in his soul he shot Richard Strout in the face; while Ruth, going about town on errands, kept seeing him. Ruth only sees him while out on the town, the author never states going to town to work. After the father returns from killing and burying Richard, he went into his bedroom with his wife laying there, laid down and began to tell her the lie he told to Richard. As the mother and wife, she played the role of care-giver to her husband. The narrator describes the scene from lines 155-157, He went down the hall to the bathroom and in the dark he washed his hands and face. Then he went to her, lay on his back, and pulled the sheet up to his throat. The husband has just killed a man and in order to protect his wife, he lies. The wife then embodies the idea of ignorance is bliss. While the wife might have known what actually occurred, the author does not want to explore that idea because a woman is typically viewed as inferior and unable to make judgments similar to this independently. Now, the wife caresses his head as he is laying with her
Comment [C6]: Can you push a bit more here for how this is significant within the story? What is Dubus saying about gender in this example?

as if to say now, you are a man. After he comes home from the murder Ruth seems to want him again because he has taken action on the situation. Her inability to infer what has happened or what she refuses to infer shows her ignorance to the situation because she embraces him despite the immoral actions that Matt decided to take into his own hands. Born in 1936, Andre Dubus grew up in a time period where women stayed at home while men took care of business. This time period has influenced the gender roles into being very traditionalist, where the woman is seen ask weak minded and inferior compared to the man who is the strong breadwinner. Matt became the protector after his masculinity came into question and Ruth became even more weak-minded because she allowed him to kill a man who would later pay for his murderous ways.

Works Cited Dubus, Andre. Killings. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. Beford/St. Martins, 2004. 100-112. Print. Orrange, Robert. The Emerging Mutable Self: Gender Dynamics and Creative Adaptations in Defining Work, Family, and the Future. Oxford University Press, 82. 1 (2003): n. pag. Web. 20 March 2013. Saraff, Anjula. Srivastava, Harish. Envisioning Fatherhood: Indian Fathers Perceptions of an Ideal Father Population Review Publications, 47. 1 (2008): n. pag. Web. 18 March 2013.