princejacc
03-09-2014, 02:14 PM
Satire Anomaly
Rita Mae Brown has a history of being an activist, a feminist, and a lesbian, attributes of which she inputs a lot into her writing. In Loose Lips, published by Random House Publishing, and written in 1999, Rita Mae Brown chronicles middle age life for two sisters, in small town Maryland. The novel is set in the early forties and continues on into the late fifties. Brown conveys, satirically, through Julia (Juts) and Louise (Wheezie), the evolution of women’s roles, as well as life on the home front during WWII.
The story starts off with disaster for the sisters. Juts makes fun of Wheezie’s approaching forty, and it results in a fight that breaks the window of a local store. In order to make money, and to keep their husbands from having to work extra, the two sisters open up a hair shop. The hair shop becomes quite popular and soon becomes gossip central. Juts and her husband struggle with trying to have a baby, eventually adopting the daughter of a local unwed mother. All the while, Wheezie makes fun of Juts for not being a mother, and then later for not being a “real” mother, “Well, you didn’t’ carry the baby. It’s different when they grow inside you” (Brown 254). Wheezie plays the typical housewife of her time period, religious, stern, and demanding. Juts is the more playful one, who is okay with bending the rules. Juts experience a mini crisis of sorts when she catches her husband cheating one night, while she and Louise are on “guard duty” watching for enemy planes (Brown 234). Juts is only able to snap out of it when she adopts the baby, of an unwed runaway mother that used to live in town. Her husband, Chester, really steps up to the plate as a father as well, and is able to reignite the bond between husband and wife. Meanwhile, the reader gets to watch how a small town deals with World War II when sending off their boys to war. The town also forms a group of people to help the war from town, by preparing for emergencies and watching out for enemy planes. Nickel, Juts’s daughter, takes after her by being unafraid to step over the lines that define her gender, much to the chagrin of Wheezie.
Brown’s novel shows how women’s roles change over the course of World War II and even through Nickel, sets the course for the sixties as well. Brown provides her own answer to English and Enrenreich “Woman Question”, of which what are women’s roles as society changes? (7).Wheezie would dictate the role as home maker, wife, and mother primarily. However, she is forced to step out of this role because of the damage to the store’s window that she and Juts have to pay for. Juts allows for a little variation than Wheezie because she’s a little more open minded, her role being more flexible however similar. Nickel is really when the reader sees a change in not only Juts’s point of view role wise, but Chester’s viewpoint becomes clear. They both desire to see Nickel happy, and that includes appeasing her unconventional tastes of wearing pants and doing “boy” things, like racing in the derby. Nickel causes Juts to question a why women are inhibited so much in “male things”. Chester is completely open to allowing his daughter to pursue her happiness in any shape or fashion, for him, a woman’s role has not set standard. With Juts being tolerant of Nickel’s behavior, Wheezie herself becomes more intolerable and inflexible with what women are supposed to and how they are supposed to act, her own daughters the model to be measured by.
Brown delivers Juts and Wheezie’s growth quite hilariously while being satirical throughout the entire novel. Juts and Wheezie are the main characters and over exaggerated, and who are always fighting over little things, never mind the huge things that are happening all around them. The ability with which Brown is able to deliver the humor, while having serious undertones is adept, providing many laugh out loud moments. The sister dynamic only enhances the humor, while the whole town is privy to the inside of their lives. Brown utilizes heavy symbolism throughout the novel to show the impact of war on a community as well as comic relief through the sisters. Brown also uses repetition, and a bit of irony with the phrase “loose lips”, a play on the idea that one might accidentally give the enemy information just by talking nonchalantly. It’s no small thing that Brown also chooses this as the title. Juts and Wheezie are oblivious to the world around them and use the idiom quite frequently to dissuade each other from telling their secrets.
Brown cleverly pokes fun at traditional roles, and small town communities by using Julia and Louise as the main source of ideology. Louise is horribly pious and almost cruel to Julia for her inability to be a mother, or for not having a child by blood. Julia responds childishly in the only way she knows how, by making fun of Louise’s impending age. Neither of the women seemed focused on the war, but are instead stuck in the small town obsession of gossip. The book seems to be a lesson on the never-ending circle that can consume life if one becomes too stuck on gossip, “loose lips sink ships”.
Works Cited
Brown, Rita Mae. Loose Lips. New York: Random House Publishing, 1999. Print.
English, Deirdre, and Ehrenreich, Barbara. For Her Own Good: Two Centuries of Experts’ Advice to Women. New York: Anchor Books, 2005. Print.
Rita Mae Brown has a history of being an activist, a feminist, and a lesbian, attributes of which she inputs a lot into her writing. In Loose Lips, published by Random House Publishing, and written in 1999, Rita Mae Brown chronicles middle age life for two sisters, in small town Maryland. The novel is set in the early forties and continues on into the late fifties. Brown conveys, satirically, through Julia (Juts) and Louise (Wheezie), the evolution of women’s roles, as well as life on the home front during WWII.
The story starts off with disaster for the sisters. Juts makes fun of Wheezie’s approaching forty, and it results in a fight that breaks the window of a local store. In order to make money, and to keep their husbands from having to work extra, the two sisters open up a hair shop. The hair shop becomes quite popular and soon becomes gossip central. Juts and her husband struggle with trying to have a baby, eventually adopting the daughter of a local unwed mother. All the while, Wheezie makes fun of Juts for not being a mother, and then later for not being a “real” mother, “Well, you didn’t’ carry the baby. It’s different when they grow inside you” (Brown 254). Wheezie plays the typical housewife of her time period, religious, stern, and demanding. Juts is the more playful one, who is okay with bending the rules. Juts experience a mini crisis of sorts when she catches her husband cheating one night, while she and Louise are on “guard duty” watching for enemy planes (Brown 234). Juts is only able to snap out of it when she adopts the baby, of an unwed runaway mother that used to live in town. Her husband, Chester, really steps up to the plate as a father as well, and is able to reignite the bond between husband and wife. Meanwhile, the reader gets to watch how a small town deals with World War II when sending off their boys to war. The town also forms a group of people to help the war from town, by preparing for emergencies and watching out for enemy planes. Nickel, Juts’s daughter, takes after her by being unafraid to step over the lines that define her gender, much to the chagrin of Wheezie.
Brown’s novel shows how women’s roles change over the course of World War II and even through Nickel, sets the course for the sixties as well. Brown provides her own answer to English and Enrenreich “Woman Question”, of which what are women’s roles as society changes? (7).Wheezie would dictate the role as home maker, wife, and mother primarily. However, she is forced to step out of this role because of the damage to the store’s window that she and Juts have to pay for. Juts allows for a little variation than Wheezie because she’s a little more open minded, her role being more flexible however similar. Nickel is really when the reader sees a change in not only Juts’s point of view role wise, but Chester’s viewpoint becomes clear. They both desire to see Nickel happy, and that includes appeasing her unconventional tastes of wearing pants and doing “boy” things, like racing in the derby. Nickel causes Juts to question a why women are inhibited so much in “male things”. Chester is completely open to allowing his daughter to pursue her happiness in any shape or fashion, for him, a woman’s role has not set standard. With Juts being tolerant of Nickel’s behavior, Wheezie herself becomes more intolerable and inflexible with what women are supposed to and how they are supposed to act, her own daughters the model to be measured by.
Brown delivers Juts and Wheezie’s growth quite hilariously while being satirical throughout the entire novel. Juts and Wheezie are the main characters and over exaggerated, and who are always fighting over little things, never mind the huge things that are happening all around them. The ability with which Brown is able to deliver the humor, while having serious undertones is adept, providing many laugh out loud moments. The sister dynamic only enhances the humor, while the whole town is privy to the inside of their lives. Brown utilizes heavy symbolism throughout the novel to show the impact of war on a community as well as comic relief through the sisters. Brown also uses repetition, and a bit of irony with the phrase “loose lips”, a play on the idea that one might accidentally give the enemy information just by talking nonchalantly. It’s no small thing that Brown also chooses this as the title. Juts and Wheezie are oblivious to the world around them and use the idiom quite frequently to dissuade each other from telling their secrets.
Brown cleverly pokes fun at traditional roles, and small town communities by using Julia and Louise as the main source of ideology. Louise is horribly pious and almost cruel to Julia for her inability to be a mother, or for not having a child by blood. Julia responds childishly in the only way she knows how, by making fun of Louise’s impending age. Neither of the women seemed focused on the war, but are instead stuck in the small town obsession of gossip. The book seems to be a lesson on the never-ending circle that can consume life if one becomes too stuck on gossip, “loose lips sink ships”.
Works Cited
Brown, Rita Mae. Loose Lips. New York: Random House Publishing, 1999. Print.
English, Deirdre, and Ehrenreich, Barbara. For Her Own Good: Two Centuries of Experts’ Advice to Women. New York: Anchor Books, 2005. Print.