Kate Grenville: Joan Makes History - Essay Example

348988- Culture and Society, Essay (Arts) May 12, Timeline: TUESDAY May 13 2008, 11 PM Kate Grenville: Joan Makes History Grenville’s work is about universal Australian issues and includes the experiences of both genders, indigenous Australians, settlers, the privileged class and working class. It addresses the continuity of existence. The novel explores the lives of many women, who deal with issues of subordination, ambition, motherhood, sexism and racism in their own special capacities and emerge as survivors towards the end of the novel. The novel tries to show that each and every woman alive at the time when Australian history was being shaped had a significant and special role to play in it. Why the efforts of these woman went unnoticed in history is a question Grenville asks in an effort to bring to light the little importance accorded to the status of women in the culture and society of those times. Story: Joan makes history is such a novel that covers `national identity' and `the Australian Experience' tracing it to its early times of inception. It gives an idea about the culture and society, particularly, the place occupied by women in those times. While it is impossible that the crucial moments in history happened without an overt or covert contribution of women, the accounts of history are such that the role of women is accounted for to the minimal, or not all. Her existence is always projected as someone inert, in the far away background of all major happenings, if at all and without any influence whatsoever in the decisions that went in making history. Kate Grenville tries to probe what was the situation in those times that led to such a ‘under the wraps’ depiction of women’s role in culture and society. Rather than simply reciting Australian history, Kate Grenville rewrites it, using the protagonist Joan to remake history contrasting the significant events with the minor, more important events [the real unromanticised Australia]. Throughout the text the character Joan moves sequentially in history, between the lives of twentieth century Joan. 1 The novel reflects upon the portrayal of women (or lack of it) in history. Nothing is extraordinary about Joan and her life, but the events she is shown to witness are important turns in the history of Australia. Through Joan’s eye, we get an intimate peek in the history as it was shaped. But what is significant of Joan’s character, as depicted in the novel, is that Joan ‘fills the gaps’ in the conventionally accounted for history, thus giving a more personal account. The many Joans are simple, ordinary women. While Joan Radalescu is an unattractive woman with a plain bust and a boyish figure, she has a strong will. The many other Joans whose presence and contribution went unnoticed in history are ordinary women from different walks to life, be it the washerwoman Joan, Joan, the wife of the city mayor, Warra’s Joan or even the photographer Joan. (The characters are named such after the profession or other identifiable trait. Anyone familiar with the book will immediately recognize each character thus) The novel traces the many lives of women- washerwomen or judges, explorers or prisoners of the Crown, hairdressers, ladies of leisure or photographers or tree-choppers, mothers, bareback riders or mayoresses- all who had a significant role to play in shaping the lives of a future generation. Characterization: The reader is given an idea that ‘Joan’ is just the name of any ordinary woman who witnessed the major events of Australian history, but her reflections on the same were largely ignored or unaccounted for. Thus, in the story, we come across many different female characters, all called Joan, who played different roles, but essentially led a very same life. Through these different ‘Joans’ the story gives the reader an opportunity to view history from many different angles, than restricting the understanding if it was conveyed solely from the point of view of one single narrator. There is not one single protagonist in the story, but instead many women from different walks of life, all named Joan. The common name perhaps indicates the author’s message that all women, however different, are essentially the same in withstanding (or fighting) subordination. Grenville’s Joans are fiery women with a mind of their own, who insist to crave their own reference in the annals of history by narrating the events they personally consider much more significant than those that have been officially recorded and have gone down in history. Each Joan was born at such a time that she was witness to Australia’s European history as and when it happened. However, what makes Joan’s narration interesting is that she not only gives insight about the history, but makes the reader wonder why it was recorded the way it was with many exclusions and manipulations. The novel begins with an introduction given by Joan Radalescu, the daughter of of Mr. and Mrs Radalescu. She uses wide imagery to take the reader back not only in the time of a new Australia, but instead to the ancient times when earth in itself was a gaseous mass, without its current form and matter. She takes the reader back to the very origins of life on earth, with a hint of the big bang, the original gaseous state of a then non-existent earth and finally the primary form of earth and the origin of life. Her vivid imagination first takes the readers in the prehistoric era when giant animals roamed about the surface of earth. From this ancient time, described in a fast, engaging and crisp manner, Joan asserts her authority as the chief narrator. She goes on to describe her life in detail, right from her conception. She finally replicates a scene on a ship that carried migrants from far away lands to settle in Australia. Radalescu couple are one of those many travellers who have come to Australia with ‘a new hope’ are travelling in one of the innumerable cheap, ill designed cabins of the ship that served to transport numerous men and women from poor neighbourhoods of places like Lambeth, Bow, Cheapside, etc. of England. Joan is conceived in a dingy cabin, just as they arrive on the shores of the new land. Joan’s parents are simple people. He mother is a thin woman with a long face, narrow lips and gold-capped molars that shine when she smiles. And she smiles often at that. She has a well-tanned body and a pleasant appearance. Joan’s father is a balding, fat man. He always presents himself in a stocky suit, the bulge of his belly tightly covered, but very evident even in the formal dress. He is witty, tidy and a man of formed habits. With regards to his profession and items of daily use- like his briefcase, a few note books, and a handkerchief. Little Joan grows up to be an ambitious woman whose goal is be included in the history. It is during her wild college days that her friend Lillian introduces her to a youth called. Duncan. Duncan is a fine young man who falls in love with her. Eventually they get married. Joan is not happy with her first pregnancy and decides she does not want the child. She feels having a baby would come in the way of the goals she had set for herself in order to get registered in history. Duncan however is pained by Joan’s decision. The novel also puts forth the thoughts of Joan Radalescu’s unborn child (presumed to be a baby girl) who died in the womb. The unborn child expresses that while she could empathize with her mother’s dream of making history alongside men, she also beheld her father in a fond manner, who was appalled at the loss of the unborn child. Ultimately, the twentieth century Joan gets bored and frustrated of routine household chores of a country wife and deserts Duncan. He, on his part is astonished at this sudden decision of hers and taken up by sorrow all at once. However, finally she reconciles with her husband, he willingly, lovingly takes her back in his life. The couple go on to be parents (for the second time) and Joan is not against the pregnancy this time, but instead looks forward to the child. Little Madge is the daughter born to Joan and Duncan. Another character of a twentieth century working woman is played by the photographer Joan. She’s an independent, working woman who prides in being able to clothe, feed and shelter herself from her own hard work. She often doesn’t like what her job initially compelled her to do (i.e. posing in seductive manners for the photographer Alfred) she says without her job, she wouldn’t have the same satisfaction, merely being Henry’s wife. Her husband Henry, she acknowledges however, is a very dear and important person to her without whom she can’t imagine it possible to live. Photographer Alfred, for whom Joan works, proclaims on the other hand that he is indifferent to the lure of women. Grenville also takes us through the lives of other significant women; all named Joan to convey a symbolic meaning. The Washerwoman Joan is a simple albeit sharp woman who yearns for a child all her life, with her husband Ted. Washerwoman Joan and her partner Ted, childless, served Knightly. She and her husband spent years yearning for an issue, during the time which they tried ever remedy suggested to them, from swallowing a worth, application of infused sage, eucalyptus and tar and other off-beat ideas. It might be interesting to imagine the reactions of the washerwoman Joan who yearned for a child all her life, on the choice of the twentieth century Joan to not have her first baby thinking its birth would interfere with her career, or the views of the runaway Joan who felt that the choice to give birth should always remain with a woman and exercised as and when deemed fit. Miss Mary who had an affair with Knightly, Burchett’s Joan’s aboriginal friend. On his part, Knightly felt sad and indignant when the white people laughed at his anguish. She is also the one who first suspects and then conclusively affirms affair between Miss Mary and Knightly, Burchett’s Joan’s aboriginal friend. She finally approves of the relationship between Knightly, a wayward, fun-loving youth with a simple minded, gentle woman called Miss Mary when the affair leads to marriage and a baby is on its way and Knightly changes his ways for good... On his part, however, Knightly continue to feel sad and indignant when the white people laugh at his anguish. Another ‘Joans’ are the Convict Joan, a robust, self-assured woman who was the first foreigner to set foot in the Botany Bay. Then there’s Joan Cook, the wife of a sailor called Captain Cook, an Irish Joan married to a man called Jim. Warra’s Joan was another ambitious woman in those times who insisted on continuing her struggle to make a mark in history. However, her husband Warra wasn’t as good natured as was Duncan and thwarted her attempts. The list of Joan’s who made history is comprehensive. There is also Burchett’s Joan, who had found an aboriginal woman miscarrying on Burchett’s property and empathized with the sorrow and agony of the aborigine woman, despising her husband at the same time for his cruelty and his hand in the unborn child’s sad end. Then there was Lady Joan Stoneman who harbored no great objective than to always present herself prim and proper, in accordance to her station in social conditions. Also weaved in the story was Joan, the Mayor of Castletown’s wife. She was a mother to six children and a, grandmother of three. She was relieved thus that she had finally achieved a fertile and homely feminine status thus that was held as respective and becoming of women in those times.  Part Aboriginal Runaway Joan wanted to escape the supposed taboo of her origins and the injustices she had faced. Barnaby had molested the Aboriginal Runaway Joan. He was a man with a pronounced sexist and racist attitude. He had sworn at her more times than one, even attempted to rape her. Other important Joans of the novel are Wallaby Track Joan and her friend Amy who had both helped the other in times of crucial setbacks or situations. The relationship between the cast of historical Joans and their twentieth century counterpart is intriguing. The historical Joans, though quite similar to her, also differed from her greatly. The author has intentionally woven the story in such a manner that the reader it made to speculate how they would react to the ideas and ambitions of the twentieth century Joan. Since the historical Joans are offered as an alternative, or an echo of specific sections of twentieth century Joan’s life, it seems appropriate that they would have firmly entrenched beliefs concerning the choices that twentieth century Joan made. Narrator and Narration: The story is conveyed in a light-hearted and enjoyable style. There is an extensive use of imagery that compels the reader to imagine a situation as it happens, not only with regards to the characters, but by imagining the entire setting in which each event takes place. Kate Grenville’s writing style is unconventional, and thus, so is the story. Language is an important element in Grenville’s work. It remains crisp, direct and with a lot of novel similes and imageries. It is because of her ‘no-frills’ albeit somewhat rhyming, poetic language that the narration gets an unusual fluidity. Ordinary characters and seemingly ordinary things have been so narrated that the reader is compelled to appreciate the efforts that go even in living a seeming ordinary, historically unrecorded existence. The narration is so engaging that the characters take a life of their own and converse directly with the reader. Usage of certain styles of writing, for example, "I, Joan," and also Mr Radalescu’s attempts at Australian colloquialism, frequent mention of the word ‘skin’ to signify intimate relationships can be said to be Grenville’s trademark style of narration. Grenville uses a conversational tone that helps to involve the reader more thoroughly with the happenings in the loves of the different Joans. The author’s presence in the background, giving precious little inputs about each character makes the reading more appealing. Another distinctive, unconventional style of narration adopted by Grenville is that she does not use the standard quotation marks to signify a dialogue. Instead, the paragraphs that indicate an exchange of dialogue are printed in italics. As there are only a few characters in each of her scenes, this disregard for convention does not cause any unnecessary confusion. Moreover, this style of narration helps to keep the focus on the narrator- be it the twentieth century Joan or her historical counterparts. The narrative and style is such that the reader faces little ambiguity is concluding that the work is not a historical record, but instead a vivid piece of fiction that compels the reader to look closely at his past and roots and be more sympathetic of the same. As this is a Biographical Fiction, this information allows the actual reader know that information entailed are based on non-fiction events which has been combined with fictional characters to be told the same history in a different perspective and feeling. In the absence of any record of history being told (or shaped) by a woman, the novel has made use of the main events recorded in history to frame the story and record the events from the perspective of its many female characters. Genre- Joan makes history could be termed a biographic fictional novel. It details in a first person narrative the lives of women who lived during the initial phases of Australian settlement. Identification of a certain genre in a work allows the reader to form a more conclusive idea about the type of text and helps him to draw the inferences better. A genre also dictates the mood, types of characters, environment, storyline, ending etc. The genre of ‘Joan makes history’ is such that it combines a historical perspective with women’s issues in a culture and society of those times, which also extrapolates in the twentieth century through the life of the twentieth century Joan. The element of time-travel thus also lends the novel a surreal, fantasy touch. Knowledge of Australian History which includes all aspects of Gender, Race, Political, etc is essential and has been provided in the novel from time to time and thus guides the actual reader to differentiate what is fact and what may be fiction because the women's perspectives put forth in the novel knowingly distort history to a certain extent as the author wants to put across a point.2 It could also be termed as a ‘historic fiction; as the story also deals with many historical events. The importance given to the interpretation of history according to the reflections of the characters is more, and the events of history have been subdued, distorted or modified given the creative liberty taken by the author and we can say that Joan makes History is such a genre that probes history through a series of fictional characters. (For example, the Count of Monte Cristo was one such historical fiction that uses the background of those times). While biography means a real depiction of the important events in a person’s life, fiction takes liberty of reason and reality and describes a situation which is based on the author’s imagination than on any real life persons. This novel effortlessly combines the genres of biographic writing, historical writing, feminist genres and fiction.3 Reference: 1. Postscript: A Divine Perspective- Creative Response to ‘Joan Makes History’ by Kate Grenville, viewed on May 12, 2008, URL: http://www.littletree.com.au/joan.htm 2. Rustin, Susanna, 2007, ‘Past Imperfect’, The Guardian, published August 18, 2007, viewed May 13, 2008, URL: http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/generalfiction/0,,2151061,00.html?gusrc=gpd 3. Middlemiss, Perry, ‘Joan makes history’, (a review) viewed on May 12, 2008, URL: http://www.middlemiss.org/lit/authors/grenvillek/joan.html Read More

 

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