RECLAIMING AGENCY IN A PATRIARCHAL FICTION: JUANA AS THE VOICE OF WISDOM AND RESOLUTION IN JOHN STEINBECK’S THE PEARL

Abstract

Since the publication of his first novel “Cup of Gold”, the fictional production of John Steinbeck has remained in focus for literary critics for its diminishing and essentialist portrayal of female characters. His female characters often lack fully developed three-dimensional personalities and remain subservient to the desire and plans of the male characters. Glaring schematic differences between male and female characters in his fiction have led some scholars to charge him of misogyny. However, in his novella “The Pearl”, Steinbeck portrays Juana more sympathetically, although not completely judiciously, as a female character who shows resolution, resourcefulness, wisdom, and foresight par excellence in comparison to her short-sighted and impulsive husband Kino. The present paper analyzes key positive characteristics of Juana that give her a superior role in the novel despite her silence during most of the narrative. These qualities redeem her humanity as a female in a patriarchal postcolonial world where women are mostly seen as lacking in several human traits and are thus relegated to an inferior subjugated position. Using qualitative thematic analysis, the current article argues that contrary to critical claims about Juana being a stereotyped female character who plays a marginalized character in the novella, her character has a more dominant role in the narrative and has better agency as compared to female characters in other fictional works of Steinbeck.