It is easy to get caught up in the thrill—peeping into the intricacies of human relationships. Relishing in the scandal with nothing to lose. From the safety of our… erhm... lofty views on reality thinking we aren’t subject to the same trials with which Isadora grapples. When I say “caught”, I should really be saying “trapped.” Just as Isadora is stifled in a stagnant relationship facing the issue of defining herself, so too are we locked on the little details to see what Jong really gets at. The following passage illuminates the crotch—I mean—crux of Erica Jong work Fear of Flying. Moving past just sex and scandal, Jong explores the topic of freedom and what it really means for a woman.
But maybe I was already a hostage. The hostage of my fantasies. The hostage of my fears. The hostage of my false definitions. What did it mean to be a woman, anyway? If it meant being what Randy was or what my mother was, then I didn’t want it. If it meant seething resentment and giving lectures on the joys of childbearing, then I didn’t want it. Far better to be an intellectual nun than that. (68)
Wittig’s theory resonates within Isadora, who creates an almost perfect embodiment of it. Isadora moves through historical womanhood, which ultimately allows her to become her own heroine in the story without the need for a man.
In the beginning of the passage, she was “already a hostage.” She recognizes that there is really no choice but to accept it. The oppression we feel from the first four sentences mimics the oppression experienced by women. The repetitiveness is apparent. It feels like it could go on. But Isadora breaks the oppressive cycle with her question—something historically constructed women aren’t supposed to do. At this point, we can notice the change of tone from resignation to curiosity and resentment. Now she is empowered. Whereas before when she was “maybe…already a hostage” it seemed as if she didn’t have a choice, but now when she expresses that she “didn’t want it,” she realizes that she does. The final image that we are left with (that of an intellectual nun) directly opposes the historical entrapment of women. Even though it stands apart from the influence of man and approaches the political lesbian concept, it is almost as unnatural as the obsequious birth-machine woman are forced to assume. However, the sarcasm voices Isadora’s final display of womanly freedom.
I totally agree with your point about the repetition in the passage mirroring the oppression of woman who are forced into a continual cycle of becoming the woman that their mother (and grandmother and sister) is/was. I too think that the image of the nun is in stark contrast to society's mold of a woman--a nun will never seek out a man with whom to have children, will not perpetuate the cycle.
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