There are numerous factors that enable to compare the American continent or the Appalachian landscape with feminine perspectives. An imagery of landscape being compared to a woman may be felt to be archetypal and most of the writers find it to be an essential phenomenon. This may be reasoned out with the usage of phrases including, motherland, and mother tongue and so on. The prime habitat of a man is the womb of a woman even before she is called, a mother. It is not to be taken just as an instance of comparing the landscape as a nursing mother, but to consider it as a woman as well. The phrase that was used to describe native America as a ‘Paradise with all Virgin Beauties’ describes it all that man has done to nature.
Taking into account all explorations in the ecocritical journey or in the nature literature, it may be observed that landscape is always denoted in its feminine form. AnnetKolodny observes this as a ‘pastoral impulse’ which from its basic level itself stems from the tensions and desires of the human mind (175). This chapter attempts to prove that the women in the fiction are not only realistic but also forces that drive themselves and the people and environment around them, affecting them into action, which is suggestive of their roles in the fiction, which further reiterates the view that women in McCarthy’s fiction are more emphatic, in the way the their roles have been characterized.
Many critics uphold the characterization of women in the fiction of Cormac McCarthy only as a dormant factor and not as a force that drives the fiction or the characters in the novel. Reading the novels of McCarthy with hypo masculine perspectives have become a stimuli to either view Cormac McCarthy as a misogynist or to debate on his novels refrain from women characters in general. But the research done intends to attempt to make in depth study of McCarthy’s women characters and to identify his considerations about women especially the women of Appalachia.
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The prime reason for the critics for looking at McCarthy’s fiction with an anti-women outlook is the lack of women characters in his fiction. Secondly, even if there is a presence of woman characters, the narratives focus on how they are abused verbally and harassed physically. Despite the above facts, it has to be noted that McCarthy has also sketched in his fiction, female characters, though a few who are resilient and swift.
As mentioned earlier, many writers have criticized McCarthy either as a misogynist or a supporter of hypermasculine traits, for his stereotypical fashion of representing women. But when witnessed with a neutral outlook, McCarthy’s fiction may not be gender- biased. The stances against women presented in his novels are not justified anywhere. If probed into the nuances that the feminist or ecofeminist writers adopt, it may be observed that their feminist representations are in the same way as that of McCarthy.
Before one could delve into how McCarthy has characterized women in his fiction, it mandates one to examine how an ecofeminist or a feminist puts forth their views or characterizes women in their works. Griffin explores on the notion of identification of women with the earth and finds women to be treated both as a food for humanity and as a victim of male rage.In Surfacing, Atwood is highly critical of the American patriarchal set up as well as the environmental crisis. In her outlook, it is not just an American who is responsible for the patriarchal set up and the exploited environment but whoever pretends to be an American.
Anita Nair in an interview to The Hindu, explains how in her work ‘Eating Wasps’, the female characters are either ostracized or abused and killed. She also puts forth a strong statement that the society has problem with the female desire and the repression over the incidents relating to women remain the same even if there is a time span.
Considering all the above, it is only a gender based outlook that often rejects to perceive Cormac McCarthy as an advocate of women. In order to comprehend the characterization of women as presented in his novels, one has to keep aside one’s conviction of looking at McCarthy as a misogynist. Further, the novels are to be read with an Appalachian lens. To understand the role of women in the novels of McCarthy is to understand the disposition of Appalachian women.
In his article, “The Evolution of the Dead Girl Friend Motif in Outer Dark and Child of God”, (2000), Sullivan identifies Rinthy as the ‘narrative force’ to be reckoned, for it is Rinthy in the fiction, who keeps the story moving in progress. Though acting as a catalyst for plot and action in the novel, Rinthy is not devoid of her ‘weaknesses’ The weaknesses referred to here are the those common to any Appalachian woman and the being of Appalachian woman in itself is looked down as a weakness; the weakness of a being a grief-stricken woman, it is the weakness of being born vulnerable in a society that looks down upon women.
