Feminism In The Dollmaker

Feminism in The Dollmaker Simon de Deauvoir complained that women writers seldom achieve the level of tragedy, but only five years later, Harriette Arnow published The Dollmaker and refused his statement (Rigney 81). Harriette Arnow writes The Dollmaker to shine a light on feminism in the 1950’s. Gertie Nevels is the main character in the book and when her husband goes off to war she is left to provide for herself and her kids. Rigney states that the protagonist, Gertie Nevels, is a mountain woman of heroic physical proportions that reflects the strength of her character (81). Based on Rigney’s statement, Arnow provides evidence that Gertie is a religious, strong, stubborn, independent woman.
In the beginning of the book, Gertie is traveling down an almost abandoned road and a few cars passed by. The mule began to tremble and then he fought back towards the pines. Then another car began to grow closer to Gertie and her mule, Dock. The car skidded and then ran off the road. Gertie went to the bluff’s edge to check on
Rigney describes it as Gertie being “proud of her independence, a truly heroic figure” (82). She is making it her responsibility to take Amos to the hospital and doesn’t rely on anyone else. After she helps the car get out of the bluff, Gertie realizes that her son has a “blue-lipped swollen mouth.” She knows that she must do something fast and not rely on the two men to do it for her. She takes the initiative and does it herself. “We are introduced to Gertie dexterity with the knife as she saves her son’s life by performing a primitive tracheotomy and then whittles a wooden tube which enables him to breathe” (Lee 94). Lee backs up that Gertie does not wait on the men to help her and does the tracheotomy herself. This is very important to the time setting. The time period was when feminism was just evolving. Gertie is an example of early feminism by not depending on a man and being