We ran out of time in class today before anyone had a chance to say much about poor Joanna who lived alone on Shell Heap Island. I have been thinking about it since reading it and considering it quite a bit this afternoon, mostly because it was the story that affected me the most. Jewett spent such a considerable amount of time telling a story of a woman who was as strong willed as the others in the story when it came to making her own choices and doing what she wanted to do, but she was pretty much the only one who seemed so tragic for doing so. I couldn’t decide if she was sort of a hero standing up for what she believed in or just a sad woman who went crazy.
I think that this can be related to Elizabeth Ammons’ ideas of the strong female relationships and community in Country of the Pointed Firs while the men are portrayed as very isolated characters. Dr. Campbell concluded in class that Joanna had isolated herself by choice, much as the men like Captain Littlepage and Elijah Tilley had. However, I feel the important difference between the story we get of these men and the one that we are told about Joanna is not necessarily their own seclusion, but the reaction of the townspeople of Dunnet Landing. With Captain Littlepage, we get the sense that the other residents are content in letting him live alone with his books and his spoiled mind. The same happens with Elijah and we see it when the narrator tells Mrs. Todd that she has visited him and her hostess’ response is that she no longer likes to see him because he either talks of his dead wife the entire time or not at all.
When it comes to Joanna, who so obviously wanted to be left alone, the people of the town tried not to let her seclude herself as the others had done. They visited her without invitation, they sent her gifts and packages and many attended her funeral when she passed. We also get the scene when the narrator visits Shell Heap Island on her own and sees that the path is still worn leading to Joanna’s grave. People seemed to have accepted the “hermitage” of the men, but continue to even visit a lone woman on her island long after her death.
1 comment:
Ruchell, your point about poor Joanna and her isolation is a good one; everyone does try to bring her back into the community, albeit without success. Her story is, in a way, parallel to that of the narrator: both are lone women whom the community attempts to draw in, but only the narrator accepts. The narrator's insight in her pilgrimage to Poor Joanna's grave is interesting, though: she talks about the isolated places within each soul even in the midst of community, and this is something that we see in Mrs. Todd as well.
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