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Oh, Papa, My Papa! Patriarchal Parody in The Willoughbys
In The Willoughbys, by Lois Lowry, a local millionaire, Commander Melanoff has been quite depressed since he lost his wife. His fortune, which he earned by inventing a popular candy bar, isn't enough for him. When he finds a baby on his doorstep, however, he begins to turn his life around. It's hard for the Commander to do everything a baby needs, that is, until orphans and their Nanny arrive on the scene. The rest, as they say, becomes happily ever after. Right?
Activator
Choose one picture of a famous father from literature. Be ready to answer the following questions about that famous dad:
How does this dad act toward his children?
How is this depiction of fatherhood typical or unusual of fathers?
What qualities of traditional masculinity does this father demonstrate?
Argument
In The Willoughbys, children's author, Lois Lowry parodies the popular contemporary notion that males have embraced their feminine side and have now assumed equal roles to their female partners in child-rearing. In doing so, she asks her audience to consider how cultural transmission of masculinity in today's society does and does not promote gender equity.
Visual: Theme through Masculinity Theory
Three Areas of Support with Three Peer-Reviewed Sources
The Commander's inability to focus on career without a supporting wife and children is antithetical to today's contemporary view of males as multidimensional and capable of adopting formerly traditional female roles.
"Because of the harmful effects of hegemonic masculinity on boys and girls, some scholars have insisted that we begin to cultivate non-hegemonic masculinities (Pollack, 1998; Kimmel, 2006)" cited in MYERS, KRISTEN. "Cowboy Up!": Non-Hegemonic Representations Of Masculinity In Children's Television Programming." Journal Of Men's Studies 20.2 (2012): 125-143. Academic Search Complete. Web. 21 Feb. 2016.
Lowry parodies the masculine father figure who purports to need children in order to feel whole but, ultimately, replaces the infatuation with children by becoming mesmerized by the female nurturer/ caretaker/ sex object.
"The reader is being shown, comically, that a gendered subjectivity, in this case, becoming masculine, materializes from the appropriation of schemata of normative behaviors that must be reiterated in order to maintain their regulatory function." Stephens, John. (2013). Ways of Being Male: Representing Masculinities in Children's Literature. Routledge. Print.
The Commander becomes a role model not only for his adopted children and biological child but also for individuals who read children's literature.
"Young children are especially susceptible to these messages because they are in the process of developing their identities, and books provide some of their early exposure to expectations of how men and women are to behave (Gooden & Gooden, 2001). Masculinity, as a social construct that 'connects with but does not necessarily coincide with maleness' is an important concept to explore in children’s literature so that the assumptions about what it means to be masculine as portrayed in these books can be evaluated (Nodelman, 2008, p. 2). Thyssen, C.L. (2009). The Representation of Masculinity in Children’s Literature. University of Cape Town. Dissertation.
Closure
Create two or three doodles/ draw two or three concepts that answer the question, "What is Lois Lowry trying to tell us about our own lives and society through the Orphan Motif in The Willoughbys?"
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