Lovelace And Flickinger: Novel Analysis

“Lovelace and Flickinger were also curious to determine whether women could measure up to the same demanding physical standard that the Mercury astronauts established…. were reluctant to accept general assumptions about women’s inferiority and wanted to scientifically evaluate women and compare their data to men’s.” (11). The paragraph ties in to the rest of the novel because it raises the issue and theme of sexism. However, unlike most of the novel, it described two men who went against societal views to come to a scientific conclusion about whether or not women were capable of becoming astronauts. This is significant because these were the men who would assist the Mercury 13 women in training to achieve their dreams of space travel. It
It develops the common theme of sexism. The quote did a perfect job of showing the two differing views of female astronauts. The first view, the one of the Air Force personnel, stating that women would never be welcomed as astronauts and shouldn’t be allowed to train. The other, the view of Ruth Nichols, which believed that women are fully capable of traveling to space and had a
This depicts Cobb’s daily routine before and after work. Although the work and tests she took during the day significantly outweighed her routine in the aspect of difficulty, her routine was consistent and she never ventured off of it. This adds to the theme of working hard because it shows how Cobb didn’t give up her routine, despite how physically demanding it was, because she knew it would help her in the long run. It made her stronger and built up her stamina for when she would be working with Lovelace to train to pass the astronaut tests that only men had succeeded in