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adventurous
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Read for school, so excuse the wannabe professional journalist writing style of this review. Spoiler warning but mentioned too briefly and often to censor.
Miles Franklin is like Australia's, woman, teenage Mark Twain. Which isn't me comparing a young woman's achievements to an older man's, just me having read more of his work and noticing similarities. There's also something very Jane Austen about this, which I also see similarities between Twain and Austen, as much as Twain would hate that. This has more plot than their books, it isn't just people visiting each other's houses. But this has the adventure, the courage, the playfulness, the rebellion, and the depiction of classes of Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn with the strong, charming femininity and independence of an Austen book. Austen books tend to end with the lead woman marrying, albeit by her choice. So Sybylla's choice to not marry is, even if predictable, a powerful way to end the book.
Sybylla is an incredibly interesting character, most ones of a similar nature to her tend to be queercoded some way or just rebellious for fun. Sybylla is neither. She's happy as a woman, and doesn't prefer women's company over men's in any capacity. She just wants freedom. She likes Harold, but couldn't love him because that condemns her to a life of being his servant.
Even if Harold was the most progressive man of his time and didn't put anything on her, societal standards would. There is nothing Harold could do to make married life work for Sybylla and she knows that. She holds no grudge against him, she never goes out of her way to antagonise men, she just treats them as equals. She would have every bloody right to be a misandrist if she so pleased, but she's not. She's a nonconformist.
Harold's money doesn't entice her, yes that might make cooking more easy for her, yes it would mean she would have nice clothes. (Which is also necessary for comfort, not just a vanity thing.) But it his money doesn't ensure her freedom. The restraints of marriage are more than the freedom of money and having a man to help you through an insanely sexist society.
Sybylla is proud to be a working class woman, even with its hardships, because it's her, and she won't change herself under any circumstances. Sybylla is a compassionate, empathetic and smart person. Her horror at her father's treatment of their cows stood out to me. Throughout the book there are many instances of her concern of the welfare of animals, and empathy to their suffering about treatments that were normal for animals at the time.
When Harold goes travelling overseas, Gertie asks Augusta "if there was ever any lunacy in the family", this remark, to me, shows how the patriarchy and societal standards were intense for everyone. Harold, an wealthy white man is still judged by those around him for something we would consider normal now. When Sybylla says that she assumed Harold would marry Gertie, he says "Marry Gertie! Why, she's only a child! A mere baby, in fact. Marry Gertie! I never thought of her in that light; and did you think I was that sort of a fellow, Syb?" to which Sybylla says "I did not think you were that sort of fellow; but I thought that was the only sort of fellow there was." Which really makes you think. Gertie is 11 months younger than Sybylla, hardly any difference, but the dynamic is weird. Harold's involvement with Gertie's older sister would make him view her in a similar light nowadays, making the age gap seem bigger. But in this era people didn't tend to think like that.
A man marrying a woman 10 years his junior doesn't seem weird to me as long as they're both over 25 and he doesn't have a history of only going for younger women. But in this period people didn't think like that, they didn't notice patterns in men's behaviour, they let them do mainly whatever they pleased with women. Sybylla assuming all men think in that manner is so sad, and is still a mindset many women rightfully carry to this day.
As a man who has mostly women in his life, lives in a decent area, and only really knows other men who also mainly know women, I don't ever feel the need to watch myself around men because I avoid the bad ones majority of the time. But when I'm walking with a friend who's a girl and she gets catcalled, or some grump on the street only gets mad at her for a harmless thing we're both doing, I do feel the need to start looking over my shoulder more often. I can only imagine what it was like 100 years ago.
Sybylla is such a strong, intellectual interesting character, she reminds me of a specific one of my friends. She's street smart and book smart, despite being so 'queer' for her time and judged so heavily, everyone seems to still be fascinated with her. She's such a well written protagonist and I got really attached to her.
Miles Franklin is like Australia's, woman, teenage Mark Twain. Which isn't me comparing a young woman's achievements to an older man's, just me having read more of his work and noticing similarities. There's also something very Jane Austen about this, which I also see similarities between Twain and Austen, as much as Twain would hate that. This has more plot than their books, it isn't just people visiting each other's houses. But this has the adventure, the courage, the playfulness, the rebellion, and the depiction of classes of Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn with the strong, charming femininity and independence of an Austen book. Austen books tend to end with the lead woman marrying, albeit by her choice. So Sybylla's choice to not marry is, even if predictable, a powerful way to end the book.
Sybylla is an incredibly interesting character, most ones of a similar nature to her tend to be queercoded some way or just rebellious for fun. Sybylla is neither. She's happy as a woman, and doesn't prefer women's company over men's in any capacity. She just wants freedom. She likes Harold, but couldn't love him because that condemns her to a life of being his servant.
Even if Harold was the most progressive man of his time and didn't put anything on her, societal standards would. There is nothing Harold could do to make married life work for Sybylla and she knows that. She holds no grudge against him, she never goes out of her way to antagonise men, she just treats them as equals. She would have every bloody right to be a misandrist if she so pleased, but she's not. She's a nonconformist.
Harold's money doesn't entice her, yes that might make cooking more easy for her, yes it would mean she would have nice clothes. (Which is also necessary for comfort, not just a vanity thing.) But it his money doesn't ensure her freedom. The restraints of marriage are more than the freedom of money and having a man to help you through an insanely sexist society.
Sybylla is proud to be a working class woman, even with its hardships, because it's her, and she won't change herself under any circumstances. Sybylla is a compassionate, empathetic and smart person. Her horror at her father's treatment of their cows stood out to me. Throughout the book there are many instances of her concern of the welfare of animals, and empathy to their suffering about treatments that were normal for animals at the time.
When Harold goes travelling overseas, Gertie asks Augusta "if there was ever any lunacy in the family", this remark, to me, shows how the patriarchy and societal standards were intense for everyone. Harold, an wealthy white man is still judged by those around him for something we would consider normal now. When Sybylla says that she assumed Harold would marry Gertie, he says "Marry Gertie! Why, she's only a child! A mere baby, in fact. Marry Gertie! I never thought of her in that light; and did you think I was that sort of a fellow, Syb?" to which Sybylla says "I did not think you were that sort of fellow; but I thought that was the only sort of fellow there was." Which really makes you think. Gertie is 11 months younger than Sybylla, hardly any difference, but the dynamic is weird. Harold's involvement with Gertie's older sister would make him view her in a similar light nowadays, making the age gap seem bigger. But in this era people didn't tend to think like that.
A man marrying a woman 10 years his junior doesn't seem weird to me as long as they're both over 25 and he doesn't have a history of only going for younger women. But in this period people didn't think like that, they didn't notice patterns in men's behaviour, they let them do mainly whatever they pleased with women. Sybylla assuming all men think in that manner is so sad, and is still a mindset many women rightfully carry to this day.
As a man who has mostly women in his life, lives in a decent area, and only really knows other men who also mainly know women, I don't ever feel the need to watch myself around men because I avoid the bad ones majority of the time. But when I'm walking with a friend who's a girl and she gets catcalled, or some grump on the street only gets mad at her for a harmless thing we're both doing, I do feel the need to start looking over my shoulder more often. I can only imagine what it was like 100 years ago.
Sybylla is such a strong, intellectual interesting character, she reminds me of a specific one of my friends. She's street smart and book smart, despite being so 'queer' for her time and judged so heavily, everyone seems to still be fascinated with her. She's such a well written protagonist and I got really attached to her.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Classism
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death
adventurous
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Classism