Week 7- February 21, 2017
“Making bread—the kneading, the rising or fermentation, and the baking—thus becomes a metaphor for the formation of a live political self” (Tompkins, 2012, 124).
In Louisa May Alcott’s novels, when women bake bread, they seek independence. The skills that are gained from a life of domesticity are the key to what will free women from their families are provide them the opportunity to live their own life. However, Tompkins analysis of Eight Cousins and Rose in Bloom lead me to ask if the independence the characters find is truly liberating. I found discomfort while reading the assigned chapter this week and I come away from the reading this week and argue that Grahamite values and the domesticity that surrounds bread making does not allow for the liberation of women.
Rose Campbell’s relationship with her uncle ensures that she will maintain her domestic status no matter what independence she is able to claim herself. Rose is also separated from returning to the primitive, although she does experience it with her relationship with Phebe and her journey from the china-closet to the kitchen.
In Eight Cousins, Rose is adopted by her uncle, Alec; their relationship is erotic because of Alec’s unrequited lust for Rose’s mother. Dr. Alec replaces the medication given to Rose by her aunts with pills made from bread. Tompkins describes this gesture as “enclosing,” possibly because this separates Rose from female figures and introduces Rose to Grahamite values that demand temperance and therefore, evoke domesticity. Tompkins also mentions that the Campbells’ history of sailing and sea captains promotes the historical wealth and tradition of the family, something that Rose will never be able to leave. Rose, like many other female characters is Alcott’s books look for freedom, but it is unlikely that they will find it. They have been taught the gift of domesticity, and will only have independence from the house they grew up in, never the societal expectations that they will continue producing domesticity.