Motherhood Within a Wisteria Tree

The short story The Giant Wisteria by Charlotte Gilman narrates the tale of a young woman who has birthed a bastard child. Her parents believed it best that she travel to England to wed her cousin who was still willing to take her. However, this venture would require the disposal of her newborn child. The reader is left with a sense of uncertainty as to what happens to the family as the story abruptly transitions to a group of romantic couples searching for a haunted house to reside in. These couples then uncover the mystery of what unfolded in that house many years before. The tree in this story encompasses the strength that motherhood instills within a woman. This wisteria tree provides structural support to the old house much like a mother provides structure to the home. Additionally, trees are generative in nature, always producing new vines and branches, much like a mother’s role in the family tree.

When the young mother was buried under the roots of the wisteria tree, the tree began to embody this woman and her characteristics as a mother. The wisteria plant structurally supported the old home just as a mother provides the support to her children. Not only is the mother, via the wisteria tree, supporting the house but also she is remaining steadfast in her decision to be the support for her child. She has done so in that she has remained with her child even in death. This can also be seen through the depth of the roots of the wisteria tree; motherhood had taken root in this young woman due to a connection to her young child regardless of its societal status. The depth of her rooted connection to this child and her devotion to its support even in death connect this wisteria tree to the qualities of motherhood.

Women are critical to the development of family lineage because they possess reproductive capabilities. This can be seen by the rings found within a tree once it has been cut down; the pattern of concentric circles continues to grow but still maintains a grasp on the older generations. This wisteria not only embodies the life of this young mother but the entire family line. In grade school students are often asked to depict their family line through a tree. The great grandparents start as the trunk; children, spouses and grandchildren sprout up to become the branches. This idea is supported when the young woman bore a child out of wedlock because although society believed she had bread poison into her family, the tree continues to grow and thrive over the years. This shows that a mother’s love is the strength that holds up the tree and cannot be broken by societies view on purity. 

Progression of Feminism Through Chinese Water Ghosts

In the late 19th and early 20th century, many men emigrated from China to the United States to earn a larger wage. However, American laws, such as the Exclusion Act, kept Chinese women from entering the United States to accompany their husbands, excluding them from this opportunity for a new life in the land of the free. Because of this, men were able to move to the United States and have a lover or second wife on the side. In the novel Water Ghosts, the author transitions from this historical narrative about Chinese emigration to a haunting story about Chinese tradition and culture.

Traditional Chinese water ghost stories involve spirits trapped in a body of water. The spirit must drown their human substitute in order to achieve reincarnation. In this story, three women exited a boat, trafficked by smugglers from China. During their journey to the United States they had become water ghosts, and were now wandering in search of the key to their rebirth. The two main characters of this story, Richard and Ming Wai, come together as husband and wife once Ming Wai has entered American society. Little does he know, Ming Wai has entered this marriage not in love, but in a quest to take Richard's spirit in order to regain her own.

One might wonder what that means in terms of feminism. A woman who needs to consume the sole of her husband in order to be alive doesn't sound like a story supporting the women's movement. However, the author, Ryan, is a known feminist. This piece of information calls for deeper analysis. Why would an active and well-spoken feminist write a story so stifling to women in promoting a dependency upon man for identity or self-worth?

Ming Wai is actually a representation of feminist progression. In early years, women were seen as mothers and keepers of the domestic sphere. However, as the hands of time traveled forward, women began to take on a more active role outside of the home. Although their role was more active it was not a distinct shift in gender roles, as it was still a world built around men and their accomplishments. The lines between male and female roles continue to blur as more women are the sole provider for families and the number of single mothers continues to rise. This progression of women's rights is shown through the haunting of Ming Wai.

When left in China, women were expected to run the home and raise the children while the men mailed home checks. Often times, women were still required to work low-income jobs in China to ensure ends meeting. Because they were left alone to raise the children and be the head of the household, they were forced to bear the responsibility of both the masculine and feminine. This began to blur the lines of gender roles within Chinese culture. By devouring the husband's sole, Ryan challenges us to think about the masculine role in the family. Fathers in the 21st century are becoming more stereotypically absent, especially in lower income families. As a result, mothers are forced to pick up slack. By consuming the sole of her husband, Ming Wai metaphorically consumes the responsibility of the male in the household. She is a representation of the progression of the women's movement.

Slavery Stripping Masculinity: Part 2

A similar condition tied Sandy and Paul D, a character in Beloved, together. Chains of slavery bound both Sandy and Paul D. A black slave was always property of his or her master, regardless of whether the slave believed they have been freed from the slavery’s shackles. Property has no sense of personhood and thus it assumes the identity of the owner. For example, an iPod assumes its owner’s identity by containing songs in the owner’s preferred genre. It might have scratches on the sides where the owner dropped it. The iPod is an actually a prop in giving identity to the owner. This is also true about Paul D and Mr. Gardner’s relationship as slave and owner.

After leaving Sweet Home, Paul D struggled with creating a masculine identity. By being treated differently than other slaves at Sweet Home, Paul D thought he had already had a sense of manhood. However, since being freed he questioned previous assumptions. This is exemplified through this quote from Paul D:

“Only the five of them were men. Allowed, encouraged to correct Garner, even defy him. To invent way of doing things; to see what was needed and attack it without permission. To buy a mother, choose a horse or a wife, handle guns, even learn reading if they wanted to-but they didn’t want to since nothing important to them could be put down on paper. Was that it? Is that where the manhood lay?” (Morrison, 147)

While questioning his masculine identity and how it can persist under the chains of slavery, Paul D finds himself envious of the life of Mister the rooster. Mister had been unable to break free from the confinements of his shell when entering the world, and so Paul D cracked the egg containing Mister and thus gave him life. Much like Paul D, Mister escaped the barriers that once held him captive, yet Mister confidently held an identity. A master owned Mister, much like how a master once owned Paul D; however, no matter if his physical form changed he would always remain Mister in both name and personality. For example, if he were slaughtered for meat he would still hold the identity of Mister the Rooster. Paul D makes this assertion by stating:

“Mister was allowed to be and stay what he was. But I wasn’t allowed to be and stay what I was. Even if you cooked him you’d be cooking a rooster named Mister. But wasn’t no way I’d every be Paul D again, living or dead.” (Morrison, page 86).

In this way Paul D is admitting that although he has a name and has been valued as a possession, he has never found his own identity and therefore no true Paul D exists, as he cannot form an identity. 

Paul D did not hold an identity the way Mister did, despite their similar beginnings as the possessions of others. In this way, Paul D’s envy of Mister is similar to how Sandy yearned to be a tree. Both lacked a sense of personhood, and sought a life with certainty and that was rooted in a sense of self.  Both men regarded other creatures and things around them as having a definite sense of self while they continued to search for themselves after having been turned loose from the identifier they had grown up with, of slave.  Being released from slavery took away any sense of self Paul D had and therefore he continued to search for himself while envying those secure around him.

Slavery Stripping Masculinity: Part 1

Upon entering into marriage, females are expected to change their role and identity. They are immediately expected to transform from girl to wife and mother. Traditionally, husbands pass down a family name, while the wife replaces her last lame with his, showing that the man truly possesses his wife. In history this has not only been a case of changing names, but relates to a larger issue of women being viewed as property. In contrast to the role of women in marriage, men are expected to keep their identity. One way this is shown is through maintaining the family name.

Without a strong sense of identity a man is stripped of his masculine role in society’s eyes. If he does not have roots to hold down the family tree, how can he expect to support its branches? In this story, Sandy questions the strength of his identity as both a man and a human being by transforming himself to a plant.  Sandy felt so rootless in his role of a husband that he became a tree.

After being shipped around to different family members and losing his wife, Sandy dreamed of a life of stability. Sandy expresses his frustrations through his quote:

“…en hit’s Sandy dis en Sandy dat, en Sandy yer en Sandy dere, tel it ‘pears ter me I ain’ got no home, ner no marster, ner mistiss, ner no nuffin. I can’t eben keep a wife: my yuther ole ‘oman wuz sol’ away widout my gittin; chance fer ter tell her good by; en now I got ter go off en leab you, Tenie, en I dunno whe’r I’m eber gwine er see you ag’in er no. I wisht I wuz a ree, er a stump, er a rock, er sump’n w’at could stay on de plantation fer a w’ile.” (Chessnutt, 47)

Sandy no longer wanted to be uprooted by his white masters, he wanted to plant his feet somewhere and make his own home and identity. Thus, with his own home he would create his own identity as the male and head of the household. The idea of rooting himself in one place signified the ability to choose his own identity, a luxury Sandy did not have, as he was a possession of his master.  Due to his inability to decide his own character, Sandy felt as rootless as the wind being blown along by Mother Nature.

Po’ Sandy embodies the idea that a black slave is always property of his or her master, unable to create a separate identity, regardless of whether the slave thinks they have been freed from the shackles of slavery. This was proven when Sandy turns himself into a tree. Even as a tree, he was cut down and possessed by another owner. He, as the tree, assumed the identity of a one room home. He would never be Sandy; he would always be someone’s slave or someone’s home.