Speaking
of Miss Adele, I wonder how reliable she is as a narrator? What do you think?
Is the owner of the shop racist or transphobic? What do you think he's
listening to on his radio? How much can we trust Miss Adele's assumptions about
other people?
In a story like this, would Miss Adele be considered a narrator? I know we're seeing her from a third-person perspective, and what we come to know about her life is explained by this POV, but I would like to be clear about what that actually means. I think her experience is important, and from what we can see, the people at the shop were objectively pretty rude and unwelcoming while everyone else who visited the shop were received a little more kindly. I don't know what could have been on that radio, but it does seem that it was a zealous religious sermon of some sort, and it seemed to remind her of her own upbringing (maybe her family were fundamentalists, who could know for sure). Regardless, all of these behaviors would be considered textbook microaggressions. So I would say yes, they do seem transphobic and probably are racist (I feel like both usually go hand in hand, and don't always require hard evidence to prove). It does seems like a lot of her past and childhood experiences determines how she reacts to her treatment, not being sure how to read people and their motives says something about what her life is probably like. Throughout this scene, she's constantly dealing with old wounds without losing her composure, until it's just too obvious to ignore. She does appear jaded, but I would say that I trust her assumptions (I can just imagine my own friends going through something like this, and questioning their assumptions would be out of the question for me, imo).
Hi Steph: I think your reading of the story is very good and, for the most part, I agree w/ it. However, Miss Adele is clearly wrong about at least one of her assumptions, that the NYU student is a "Miss Tiny Exploited Migrant Worker." I think this is Smith slyly pointing out that assumptions are basically that, assumptions. I think that Miss Adelle is not wrong that Mr. Alexander doesn't respect her--and, at the point of conflict, neither does the Mrs. However, she's not right about everything.
ReplyDeleteAlso, you're bringing up something good about pov. The story is in 3rd so the narrator is not "in" the story. So, this is a good point, my question is a bit nonsensical. I think, by convention, we have to trust the third person narrator. However, this narrator is in Miss Adele's mind and I'm not sure that we can always trust Miss Adele's perception of reality. I guess that's what I meant. Good point.
DeleteThanks, I overlooked Wendy's character in haste it seems - I agree that definitely was an assumption. When I read the story the first time around, I got the idea that Miss Adele was also rebuffed by Wendy, but on closer read I see that she was just a harried shop assistant (constantly badgered by Mrs. Alexander) and I think toward the end she was even trying to honor the discount price of the other corset just before Miss Adele finally lost it. I understand what you mean about the point of view being ultimately in Miss Adele's mind, it was something I wasn't sure about at first. You mentioned how it was kind of like a camera following her around and that is exactly how I was visualizing the story while I was reading it. Those technical terms are helpful though, and I'll keep that in mind as I read on.
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