My Michael has
been a time of reflection, as I battle with my feelings toward the main
character Hannah. As I began reading My Michael, I was not a fan of Hannah
whether in her actions, her relationships, or her all around personality. But
as I read further and discussed in class, differing ideas began to contradict
my initial opinions. This made it no longer optional to dislike her without
questioning my own motives. Why did I dislike a fictitious figment of some
author's pen? Is this dislike unjustly colored
by her story being told in first person revealing both her motivations and
thoughts? Why was Hannah developed in such a way by Amos Oz? Is Hannah
justified as a wife, a woman, and a character? And as merely a reader, who am I
to judge?
Realism, idealism, anti-heroism, psychoanalysis, are a few of the multiple terms and theories that I have analyzed in my attempts to answer these
questions. However, I have neither the time nor the word count to detail my
progression through every strand of thought, but here are a few of my ponderings.
Amos Oz is a male telling a very intimate story of from the perspective of a
woman. Why he made such an initial choice, I do not know. He must have felt qualified and confident in his knowledge what a woman of this turbulent time would feel or think. Hannah is a woman with
view positive female role models as we can see in Aunt Jenia, Mrs. Glick, and Yerdina. Each of these are considered unsuccessful as a successful wife during this time. Hannah also has little interaction with or respect for her mother, perhaps explaining some
of her own difficulties relating to Yair. Hannah instead was very close
with her father and his role in the male-dominated world. Like her father and many men of this time,
Hannah desires control and power in her life and in her relationships. While
her desire began in childhood, in her dominating the twins,
wrestling with other boys, and wanting to become a man, it is then carried
over into womanhood. Her marriage is reflects this as Hannah continuously struggles for power and
control. Consistently, Hannah pushes Michael to elicit a response from his cool
exterior and gain power over his emotions, only to fail time after time. Why Oz developed Hannah in such a way and whether or not Hannah is justified
in her actions, I think is left to each reader’s interpretation as we delve
into the depths of both her fantasies and reality.
For someone with such strong initial thoughts about Hannah, you have become curiously non-committal. To back off or to modify or even to reverse your initial position is understandable in light of the complexity of the narrative. But to have no opinion (did I understand that right?) is puzzling. Your initial sense that Hannah demands a response is correct, in other words. Oz makes it difficult to like her; that is true enough. At the same time he made a taking a position part of the endeavor.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, do you think it is not possible for a male writer to tell an intimate story from a female perspective? If you take that position, then you call into question the task that all writers undertake, namely, to imagine themselves into another person's mind and body.
I think that I was attempting to pull away from my emotions and question the book more objectively. In coming to a quick position about Hannah, I felt that I may have judged her unfairly. So, with this blog post I was attempting to retrace my steps and look at what exactly we are told to see if my readers along with myself would come to the same conclusion. A conclusion that I did not reach by the end of my writing, but I think by the end of my long paper. While Oz makes it difficult to like Hannah, I think in the end it was her decisions and thoughts that cause me to dislike her. She is awful. As to questioning a male author writing from a female perspective, I meant it more as an observation to Hannah's attributions than his or all authors achievement in such a role. He did an excellent job and the story of My Michael was crafted beautifully. However, I disliked Hannah and so disliked a retelling of her life.
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