Submission The Narrations of Female Subordination

This condition is narrated when she is alone in the house and feels the aura of threat comes from Sergeant Von Rumpel who stays in the house. She is depicted as hiding in the attic and confines herself there. The paragraph below shows the condition of the problem. “She keeps saying, „Help me.‟ She begs her father, her great-uncle. She says, „He is here. He will kill me.‟ ” A moan shudders through the rubble above them, and in the darkness Werner feels as if he is trapped inside the Nautilus, twenty meters down, while the tentacles of a dozen angry kraken lash its hull. Doerr, 2014: 442 She is narrated as badly needs a help from male figures. Moreover, the narration even becomes more dramatic by putting Werner in the passage. Werner, who is also actually badly trapped in the cellar and nearing his death, is narrated to fill the desire of a hero to save her. Werner is narrated as being moved by her broadcast. This probably shows how Doerr manages to tell the reader that the hero even though in his worst condition can rise and shine to save the needy. The narrations of Marie Laure’s submissiveness continue even after she has been saved by her male hero, Werner. Under this passage below, she even submits to Werner by showing him the treasure of the house, the transmitter. What wonders in this house She shows him the transmitter in the attic: its double battery, its old-fashioned electrophone, the hand-machined antenna that can be raised and lowered along the chimney by an ingenious system of levers. Even a phonograph record that she says contains her grandfather’s voice, lessons in science for children. And the books The lower floors are blanketed with them — Becquerel, Lavoisier, Fischer—a lifetime of reading. What it would be like to spend ten years in this tall narrow house, shuttered from the world, studying its secrets and reading its volumes and looking at this girl. Doerr, 2014: 472 Previously, it is told that the old ladies resistance as the resistance of female figures to the invasion is motored b y Etienne’s transmitter or radio. These female figures continuously gather any information from the war and spread it through Etienne’s radio. At first, Etienne rejected his involvement in the resistance organized by these old women because of their childish ideas according to him and by putting a crazy fellow named Harold Bazin to join it. However, due to his loss of Madame Manec, he eventually accepted the proposal. Etienne and many of the female figures collaborate to broadcast message through his radio. They send codes as well as just to tell the condition of the civilians during the war to let other people know. The narration above regarding the transmitter shows Marie Laure’s submission to the enemy. Werner is a Nazi soldier which invades her country. However, she is depicted as easily trusting this fellow just because he killed somebody who searched her. She is depicted as letting Werner know the exact location of the radio used by the resistance club. Then, the impression made from the narration is the depiction of Marie Laure in submitting herself to the enemy. Consequently, it raises a very big question. What is the point of the old ladies resistance then? Does it mean their struggle to resist are useless or betrayed by Marie Laure? Is Marie Laure a traitor? The answers from those questions cannot be detached from the depiction of Werner as a good Nazi soldier which does not put any harm to Marie Laure because of his connection with the past broadcasts of the radio. This means, from all those struggles, the one who decides the fate of the resistance is Werner. Werner is depicted as the decision maker who has a power to decide and Marie Laure is depicted as the one who submits to him. Marie Laure’s submission to Werner does not end here. She is still depicted as giving the treasure of France, the Sea of Flames, which worth five Eiffel towers to him also. This narration below shows her giving the key to the place she saved the precious stone, the Sea of Flames. “Goodbye, Marie-Laure.” Then she goes. Every few paces, the tip of her cane strikes a broken stone in the street, and it takes a while to pick her way around it. Step step pause. Step step again. Her cane testing, the wet hem of her dress swinging, the white pillowcase held aloft. He does not look away until she is through the intersection, down the next block, and out of sight. He waits to hear voices. Guns.They will help her. They must. When he opens his hand, there is a little iron key in his palm. Doerr, 2014: 477 It is unclear whether both of the people, Werner and Marie Laure, fall in love to each other or not. However, it is clear that both of them are connected through the radio. Werner is depicted as having a strong feeling and memory to the radio because it was the radio that makes him understand initially about the principle of mechanics. Meanwhile, Marie Laure is only a relative of Etienne the one who makes Werner knows about many things through the radio who broadcasts mainly to fill her lonely and pamper her fear from danger as well as to ask for a help. Thus, Marie Laure only acts as a bridge to Werner’s precious memory. The one who truly helps Werner is Etienne. Yet, in the above narration, Marie Laure is narrated as exchanging her life with the two precious treasures of the story, the stone and the radio to the enemy side. This narration shows how inherently problematic her submission is. The last example of submission comes from the women in Germany. It was narrated that the war has ended and the allies won over German. The narration below shows the struggle of female figures after the war ends. It narrates the time when several Russian armies rape some of Germany women. Frau Elena leads the boys into the other room. She makes a single noise: a cough, as though she has something stuck in her throat. Claudia goes next. She offers up only moans. Jutta does not allow herself to make a single sound. Everything is strangely orderly. The officer goes last, trying each of them in turn, and he speaks single words while he is on top of Jutta, his eyes open but not seeing. It is not clear from his compressed, pained face if the words are endearments or insults. Beneath the cologne, he smells like a horse. Years later, Jutta will hear the words he spoke repeated in her memory —Kirill, Pavel, Afanasy,Valentin—and she will decide they were the names of dead soldiers. But she could be wrong. Doerr, 2014: 491 The women above are the ones who live together with Werner in the orphanage. The peak of the conflict is when one of the prominent female figures in the novel, Jutta, is being raped. Jutta is Werner’s sister. All of the women above is narrated as giving no resistance when the male soldiers rape them. Frau Elena is narrated as welcoming those men. Claudia is narrated as only offering moans when she is raped. Meanwhile, Jutta does not speak anything when her turn comes. This narration clearly shows how those women are submissive beings who are afraid to resist and take a risk. The closure only shows that deep down Jutta prays for those who rape her by remembering their names to die.

B. The Narrations of Male Domination

Feminism, in this analysis, acts as a reminder to people regarding the misleading narratives of women. It addresses the problem which is nurtured in history. Centralizing males as the only influential figures in society may trigger abuses of power. This male domination can easily be seen in many societies. Patriarchy has legitimized male power and irresponsible males may abuse this power and harm females. The effect is a contradiction of result to the expectation of virtues exclusively owned by males. Good things do not exclusively come from males. Females actually also have the capacity to produce them as well. Both of the sexes can be civilized humans who are able to echo virtues. Doerr in his novel narrates that males and females embody certain characteristics which is contingent to their sexes. These characteristics are probably the stereotypes of the characteristics of males and females in society. In patriarchal society, males and females are always identified and characterized with certain qualities that differ both of them. These characterizations are the markings of what males and females are. The male characters in Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See are found very dominant. The pattern of male dominations is found narrated in the novel. Those dominations are in the form of power, bravery, rationality and intellectuality as well as heroism of the male figures.

1. Power

Males are always symbolized as the sources and holders of power. This power usually stereotyped through the biological capacity of males which is perceived as a symbol of strength. There are three kinds of power manifestation found in Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See. Those three are strength, toughness, and durability. Hornby 1995: 1181 elaborates strength as “the ability to resist force”. Toughness is defined as “not easily broken or weaken” Hornby, 1995:1264. Meanwhile, durability is synthesized as the “likely to last for a long time” Hornby, 1995: 361. In the novel, the strength is depicted commonly through the display of male’s physical strength. The toughness is depicted through the endurance of male figures in facing problems. Meanwhile, the durability is depicted through the longer period of endurance those male figures are capable of during their survival in unexpected states. Biological determinism is a popular belief which is by some people used to subjugate females. Male and female are indeed biologically different. The differences lie on how their organs function. Male cannot pregnant and breastfeed while female can do these acts. These biological differences make females are close to nurturing activities, especially in their newly state as mothers. However, it does not answer the question regarding the inferiority of female’s body. The problem is people managed to say that a female’s body does not embody power. This means female’s body is regarded as fragile. Thus, it is inferior in nature. Meanwhile, the problem found in the novel is the narrations of power are integrated exclusively to the male figures. This is done mostly by highlighting the display of male’s strength. This passage below is an example of narrations of power owned by the German’s soldiers in the novel. The Germans, a gardener claims, have sixty thousand troop gliders; they can march for days without eating; they impregnate every schoolgirl they meet. A woman behind the ticket counter says the Germans carry fog pills and wear rocket belts; their uniforms, she whispers, are made of a special cloth stronger than steel. Doerr, 2014: 59 The passage tells how powerful German soldiers are. They are depicted as having capacity to march for days even without eating. This narration shows all of those three qualities mentioned previously namely strength, toughness and durability exist in males. They are strong for its capability to walk for days. They are tough for not stopping regardless their hungry stomach. They are durable for surviving the pain to last for days. The passage also depicts them as virile for being able to impregnate every schoolgirl they meet. This narration indirectly subordinates females for depicting them getting raped by the soldiers. Moreover, the following sentence also shows the narration of a woman impressed by their strength. It is indicated by her judgment that the uniforms worn by them are stronger than steel, just like they are. There is also a paragraph which narrates three important points which contrast the embodiment of males and females in the novel. This paragraph below shows the narration. A one-armed bunk master sets forth rules in a belligerent torrent. This is your parade uniform, this is your field uniform, this is your gym uniform. Suspenders crossed in the back, parallel in the front. Sleeves rolled to the elbow. Each boy is to carry a knife in a scabbard on the right side of the belt. Raise your right arm when you wish to be called upon. Always align in rows of ten. No books, no cigarettes, no food, no personal possessions, nothing in your locker but uniforms, boots, knife, polish. No talking after lights-out. Letters home will be posted on Wednesdays. You will strip away your weakness, your cowardice, your hesitation. You will become like a waterfall, a volley of bullets —you will all surge in the same direction at the same pace toward the same cause. You will forgo comforts; you will live by duty alone. You will eat country and breathe nation.” Doerr, 2014: 137 It is told that there are three important points which should be noted for every young soldier in the camp. Those three are their weakness, cowardice and hesitation. The boys should strip them away by forgoing comfort so that they could eat country and breathe nation. The narration is so powerful that it is so obvious that the boys are constructed to be powerful creatures capable of holding a nation. Meanwhile, linguistically a nation is usually addresses as “she”. The narration above shows the strength and toughness of the boys. The boys are strong for stripping away their bad qualities. The boys are tough for being able to forgo comforts. They should leave their comfort zones so that they can be even more powerful as in the metaphor of eating country and breathing nation. These powerful qualities are doomed to be the good qualities in the novel. Meanwhile, the female figures in the novel are lack of these qualities. In the novel, the female figures are narrated as having none of those three important points to be called powerful. They are continually narrated as fragile beings which are afraid of many things as well as full of hesitation. The power is also narrated in the strength of male figures which have the dominant capacity in education. This passage below shows one of the male dominated educators in the novel. Some of the boys whisper that Dr. Hauptmann is connected to very powerful ministers. …. Dr. Hauptmann says we can do anything, build anything. He