Answer TWO of the
following:
Q1: Even though this book
seems quite normal and earthbound, what connections might it already have with
a story like Never Let Me Go? How might this be a ‘science fiction’ work
about our own world, only slightly changed to distort our perspective? Do you
see any clues to the real story behind the town of Stepford
Q2: Joanna calls the
Stepford Wives “actresses in a commercial, pleased with detergent and floor
wax, with cleansers, shampoos, and deodorants. Pretty actresses, big in the
bosom, but small in talent, playing suburban housewives unconvincingly, too
nicey-nice to be real” (42-43). How might this relate to our discussion on
Tuesday about clothes being an “act of imagination, an invention of the self”?
Q3: How does Joanna seem
to define herself as a woman? What will she do—and not do—as a wife and mother,
and how does this shape her views of the men and women of Stepford? Do you feel
she’s reading too much into the town? Is she projecting her own fears of
identity onto her neighbors?
Q4: The Stepford Wives is
surprisingly open about sex and the intimate lives between husbands and wives
(and what women share about their husbands with other women). Why might this
have been shocking in 1972, when the book was first published? Do you feel Ira
Levin was trying to shock his readers—and is it still a little eye-opening
today?
Q3: Joanna refuses to do housework when her husband, Walter, is at the Men's association relaxing. Although Joanna thinks that she could be doing housework, she doesn't think it is fair for her to be working while her husband is not. She believes in an equal marriage. Walter and her trade turns doing the dishes and other house chores. The other women in the town spend almost all of their time doing housework. Joanna thinks this is crazy. She thinks the other women of Stepford work too hard. And that they are underappreciated by their husbands. Although she admires their happiness, she refuses to let her marriage turn in to a "Stepford marriage".
ReplyDeleteQ1: The Stepford story is one that seems realistic, happy wives who clean all day and men who get together every night to drink and relax. Although it doesn't sound like something that would happen around here, it is very realistic. Same as the story in the movie Never Let Me Go, where it seems as if children are in a boarding school. However, these assumptions are not the reality of the story. The wives are actually programmed robots and the children are clones. I think that it is very scary that what seemed to be so normal is the opposite. I think the authors do this to allow the reader to make connections to the real world. The reasons behind the dehumanizing ways in the stories are to make life better. But some people do not see all the dangers in life. Joanna, for example, thought her life was great but in someone else's eyes, it is not at all.