October 21, 2016 - 16:58
Suzan-Lori Parks takes on many controversial issues in her novel Getting Mother’s Body: abortion, race, socioeconomic status, homosexuality, and countless other topics are explored throughout the work. One of these important matters is that of gender roles. Two of the main characters in the novel, Billy Beede and her Aunt June, find their lives dictated by men, and share a common struggle to regain control of their respective paths. In Getting Mother’s Body, June’s arranged marriage and Billy’s unplanned pregnancy highlight men’s tendency to make decisions on behalf of women, acting dually as women’s initial downfall and ultimate savior. This is precisely how women, not men, are portrayed in the Bible; this novel, thus, reverses gender roles from traditional stereotypes that label women as the ultimate evil, and instead portrays men in this multifaceted light.
The story of Adam and Eve portrays the first woman created by God as an antagonist to the entire human race. When Eve eats an apple from a forbidden tree and shares it with Adam, she gets them both expelled from the idyllic Garden of Eden. For this, she is blamed for the difficult and complex lives people lead outside the utopian realm where humans once lived alongside God. The Bible makes its stance on women, from then on, decisively clear: women are evil, bound to ruin all that is good in the world and be man’s downfall. An alternative stance, which the Bible cannot dispute, is that women, by giving birth, are the only way for the human race to continue, making them, in a way, the ultimate saviors of the race, as well as the initial downfall. By bringing herself and Adam to Earth, she brought the human race intelligence, consciousness, and the freedom to choose their own fate. This makes women walking contradictions, acting both as the cause of hardships and the creation of life. This story shifts, however, in Getting Mother’s Body.
When June is introduced, readers are bound to respect her for her strength, kindness, eloquence, and talent as a mediator. What is uncovered later in the novel is the fact that when June was seventeen, her father permanently removed her from family without her consent. While on the way to California with her family, they passed a preacher performing a sermon in a river. June’s father “picked [her] up and carried [her] into the water on his shoulder,” and she was taken into the hands of Preacher Teddy Beede (132). As she remembers be “carried me to the shore and sat me down…Young Preacher Beede walked back into the water to talk with my father and, after a minute of talking, they shook hands. Father turned and walked away, across the river, back to the family. Them on one back and me another…all getting in the truck and driving on” (133). The two made a deal in the river; Teddy would take in June so her family would not have to be burdened by her anymore. In this way, June’s father led to her initial downfall; she was left, what she thought was for dead, with no goodbyes or sentiment at all. He abandoned her, something no family member should ever willingly do to a loved one. However, June’s father did, in his meddling, ended up giving her a loving husband; although he is flawed, Teddy cares for June very deeply.
When Teddy comes into June’s life, and the two get married, all June asked for was to go to California. He promised to follow through and take her to see her family, but she never saw them again. She remembers in one of her chapters, “I wanted to go to California. We didn’t. And I still ain’t got my leg back” (133). Teddy, initially, only aids in June’s spiral away from normality, as he never brings her back to her family; instead, he uses his money to buy a church, and when it falls through, the two run a gas station for a white family. Because of Teddy, not only is June separated from her family, but she is forced into failure after failure, although her husband is one of an incredibly kind nature. However, Teddy, ultimately, turns this around by the end of the novel; with the money Teddy retrieved from Willa Mae’s jewelry, “Aunt June got her leg…She walked her first steps the same day as her grandbaby did” (257). He fulfilled one of his promises to June at the end of the novel, making him ultimately one of the saviors of the story; while he contributed in many of the negative events in June’s life, like Eve led to her and Adam being driven from paradise, he ultimately got her what she needed, getting her what he initially promised her when they first got married, contributing in the gender role reversal this novel creates.
The central character in Getting Mother’s Body, Billy, is betrayed by someone she trusts early in the novel. The man who impregnates her, Clifford, promises to marry her, although he already has a wife and kids. According to Billy, he also promised that she “wouldn’t get bigged,” or pregnant, “the first time” they had sex, but she did, leading to the spiral of events in the novel (6). He systematically manipulates her to get what he wants, telling her he loves her, referring to her as his “treasure,” and promises her a secure future with him. In this way, he is obviously meant to be an antagonist in this story; his sleaziness is made obvious from the very beginning of the novel, but, because of him, Billy is ultimately able to become a mother. When the novel wraps up, and Billy ends up happily with Laz, she reflects that she “could feel the baby inside me. [She] hadn’t never really thought of a name for it, but riding home [she] felt like [she] could. Not pick out a name though, just let one come to [her] without thinking. Like it had a name already, and if it had a name already then it already was. And if it already was then it was always gonna be” (257).
Billy, by becoming pregnant unexpectedly, gets to make the decision to keep the baby and reverse the negative connotations she has of mothers, due to her own. Even though, by the end of the novel, Billy has the means to get an abortion, she decides to become a mother for the rest of her life, and this is a major indication that she has matured since she first got pregnant. Like she says, “Folks take after they folks. That’s the law of nature,” and by getting her pregnant, Clifford pushes Billy to confront her fear and decide to become a mother (257). Laz, the man Billy ends up with, acts as Billy’s final savior, becoming a father figure for this child. He fulfils Billy’s need for love and support, as unlike with Clifford, it does not fall through. When Laz gets her a wedding band, she comments that she thinks that it “was nicer than diamonds,” showing the extent Billy craves the security marriage would give her after seventeen years of diffidence (256). He uses his savings so Billy gets to keep her mother’s ring, showing an unrivaled level of sacrifice for her happiness. Billy does get a happy ending, due to the actions of both Clifford and Laz, but Laz comes out as Billy’s most obvious savior, giving her child a father and herself a secure future.
Men play a dual role in both Billy and June’s lives, and this is an innate part of all of their experiences. This raises a complex and difficult question of who gets to make decisions on another’s behalf, and to what extent people, especially women, have a say over their lives. This is especially true now, over fifty years after this novel was set, with the high-profile debate over abortion. Women are publicly shamed for deciding what to do with their bodies, which is completely under their jurisdiction. The difference between an initial setback and an ultimate salvation can be a question of life or death for these women, and both analyzing men’s dual role in women’s life and disputing women’s perceived inferiority to men is crucial in settling this issue, and many others, including those of sexual assault and female genital mutilation. A solution will come from changing the public’s perception of women, and for this to occur, traditional gender roles must be overturned, as they were in this novel.