Research Paper on:
A Feminist Reading of Dorothy Allison's, Bastard Out of Carolina

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
the outside world. The way in which this system affects behavior is not only evident externally, or through a persons actions, but also by language (specifically, names), and the  ultimate determination of ones identity, based upon how a person feels on the inside. Dorothy Allison addresses these issues from a feminist perspective in her 1992 award-winning, semi-autobiographical novel,  Bastard Out of Carolina, which is the story of Ruth Anne "Bone" Boatwright, a Southern fourteen-year-old who is experiencing a difficult coming of age, as a result of gendered attitudes  and expectations. In many ways, as the novel points out, the institutional system of gender relationships that still flourishes within the Southern patriarchy is little more than an extension  of the historical master and slave relationship. Society had been structured in such a way that a slave without a master had no identity whatsoever, except within the parameters  of that relationship. This enabled master to completely dominate the slave, leaving the slave little recourse but passive acceptance. Similarly, within the rigid gender structure of the Southern  social patriarchy, a female has no identity other than that provided for her by a male, whether it be a husband or father, for she is dependent upon him economically,  and for whatever social status she hopes to realistically acquire. In his literary criticism, Vincent King wrote that Allisons text "exposes and seeks to counter the physical, emotional, and  economic domination that women suffer within a patriarchal system" (122). Because they have been conditioned by society to believe they have little choice, most women simply acquiesce to their  subservient position. It is these women, their shared plight, and how the elect to deal with it that tell the story of Bastard Out of Carolina. All of