becomes an eerie reality. Deeper throughout the novel, there are many themes presented through Manon’s eyes. Through the use of many paradoxes, the themes of racism, gender oppression and marriage in Property, by Valerie Martin is ultimately connected with the institution of slavery in America. The aristocratic life of the early 19th century is defined in the use of these themes through the pictures they create. Not only do the themes cause the novel to
In Valerie Martin’s novel, Property, the reader is drawn into the engrossing story of Manon Gaudet and her life on a Louisiana sugar plantation in 1828. Manon lives a life full of bitterness as the wife of a plantation owner, a man whom she completely detests. Interestingly enough, the husband is never named, he is always referred to as just her husband which I believe reveals the fact that their relationship is not one of love but one of power. She rejects the stereotypical idea of a wife of the
E SSAYS ON TWENTIETH-C ENTURY H ISTORY In the series Critical Perspectives on the Past, edited by Susan Porter Benson, Stephen Brier, and Roy Rosenzweig Also in this series: Paula Hamilton and Linda Shopes, eds., Oral History and Public Memories Tiffany Ruby Patterson, Zora Neale Hurston and a History of Southern Life Lisa M. Fine, The Story of Reo Joe: Work, Kin, and Community in Autotown, U.S.A. Van Gosse and Richard Moser, eds., The World the Sixties Made: Politics and Culture in