Comparison of the Hours, Change of Heart, and the Poisonwood Bible:

Women’s Expectations in Society
How women are expected to behave in society and their abilities to succeed or reach their potential can often times be directly and inevitably correlated. In The Hours, by Michael Cunningham, and The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver, two of the female protagonists are severely restricted in their actions due to what society expects from them. They are given few options to succeed or reach their potential, and are left with the job of being just a “housewife”. While some women may choose to rebel against this stereotypical image of what they should be, others unfortunately will submit to society’s will and suffer in a restricted lifestyle.
The “Typical” Life for a Women:
In both of these novels, the female protagonists already have a life planned out for them, where they are expected to perform such miniscule and demeaning jobs, because they fit the ideal domestic mother or wife lifestyle. Orleana Price in The Poisonwood Bible is portrayed as constantly submitting to her husband, where she does not dare challenge him. She is the typical, southern housewife, who caters to her children and her husband, because that is what she is supposed to do. Whatever her husband says is the ultimate decision, because being the man of the household, he is supposed to make all of the tough choices and control every situation. Similarly, in The Hours, Laura Brown is so caged in by her duties as a mother, where her main goal for a single day, is to make a cake and prepare a birthday celebration for her husband. The fact that at any given time, she has nothing on her mind, and no other objectives for the day other than to bake a cake, shows the ultimate stereotypical image of a women. What’s worse is that she doesn’t even really love her husband. When he came back from war, she married him, because she was supposed to. Orleana, too, was in this situation; where she married her husband Nathan and listens to him, because she is expected to. Both Orleana and Laura must submit to their husband’s wills not just because men are portrayed as being overbearing or dominating, but also because society dictates their actions. Although Orleana’s husband Nathan is quite tyrannical, Laura’s husband is rather caring and perhaps more passive. Regardless though, she neglects to do anything about her situation. Because society confines women in these novels to such fine limitations, they have no other choice really, than to perform their expected duties as a wife and mother. They have and care for their kids, because they are supposed to. Arguably, Orleana actually loves her children, but it seems as if Laura does not. At least when her son, Richie, is young, he seems to be a burden for her, and she seems to take no delight in her duties as his caretaker. Thus, because there are such expectations for women to behave in a certain way, they are restricted from achieving anything’s outside these boundaries.
Rebelling vs. Submitting to Society’s Restrictions:
Although there are certain expectations for women in society, sometimes female individuals will become so frustrated with what they are supposed to do instead of what they are capable of doing, and therefore rebel against these limitations. In The Poisonwood Bible, Orleana eventually realizes how important it is to break from her husband’s oppressive ways. When it becomes a matter of life and death in the Congo,Orleana is able to finally disregard what he wants and to do what’s best for her and her children. When he wants to stay to preach his message of salvation and baptism to the Congolese, even under life threatening circumstances where the country is in a state of political turmoil and instability, reasonably enough, Orleana takes her children and leaves. It is somewhat unfortunate that it takes a situation like this, where the fate of her whole family is at stake, to make her realize that by constantly submitting to society’s expectations and her husbands in order to fit her role as a women, she is only allowing herself to be more oppressed. However, what’s important is that eventually she realized her potential to break from subordination under her husband, and did so by leaving him. Unlike Oreleana though, Laura Brown in The Hours, never really seems to break from her restricted lifestyle. She literally runs from her problems instead of confronting them like Orleana, where she drops off her son at a neighbor’s house and takes off down a random highway to a hotel. There, she contemplates suicide, and even thinks about taking her own life. As if this extreme depression about her life isn’t enough to indicate how truly depressed she is about her lifestyle, she concludes that she could never go through with it because of her duties to her husband and son. Even though suicide is definitely a decision she should not be making, and it would not solve nay of her problems, because she becomes somewhat interested in the idea but then realizes she could never make that decision solely because she needs to continue to be a mother and wife, it shows the extent to which her need to fulfill her position as a woman in society supersedes any other option for her life. Rather than ever say anything to her husband about her feelings of depression ,she instead keeps them to herself and continues to seek freedom from her obligations and responsibilities as a women. Instead of eventually realizing that she should not have to always fulfill her predetermined duties as a women and start making decisions for herself, she becomes angry with herself for not loving her predetermined role as a mother and wife. Thus, while some women may choose to rebel against how society dictates they should behave, others never do, and because of this, they will feel the constant burden of having to live up to an image they do not fit or desire.
Changing View of Women Over Time:
While The Poisonwood Bible and The Hours portray women as confined within strict social boundaries of what they can and cannot do, not all novels depict women in this way, perhaps because of the difference in the time periods in which they are set. The Poisonwood Bible and The Hours, take place in the earlier half of the 1900’s, whereas the novels, The Bonesetter’s Daughter, by Amy Tan, and Change in Heart, by Jodi Picoult,are set in the modern day 21st century. This seems to be logical, because historically speaking, fifty years ago, there were much fewer opportunities for women than there are now. While the female protagonists in The Poisonwood Bible and The Hours occupy the position only of wives and mothers, in The Bonesetter’s Daughter and Change in Heart, some of the women are depicted more or less, the same way as men, in terms of society’s expectations for them. For example, Maggie in Change in Heart, is a somewhat stubborn, but successful lawyer, and Ruth in The Bonesetter’s Daughter, has a job in publishing. Clearly both of the women mentioned in these novels are educated and independent, whereas Clarissa and Laura Brown seem to be dependent on the status which society assigns to them, being housewives who ought to be obedient to their husbands. Again, this is seemingly because of the time period in which each plotline is set. Thus, the conclusion can be made that the role of women has certainly changed over time, where in the current age, society has expanded to accommodate more opportunities for women to reach their potentials as opposed to confining them into a single profession as wives and mothers.
The way society defines expectations for behavior can have a direct affect on an individuals’ lifestyle. For women, often times they are restricted to have minimal choice in what they do, often being confined to playing the role of a wife and mother subordinate to her male counterparts. However, while they may be oppressed in their inability to reach a higher status in society, because of a predetermined lifestyle stemming from their gender, some females may rebel against these limitations. When this happens, a women may then be able to break free from restricting boundaries and gain more opportunities for herself while simultaneously becoming more independent. Thus, while society dictates how a woman should behave, if she chooses to break from that order, she may also be able to break from her subordinate position under men.