"He, She and It"

Book Review # 118044

Gender and Sexuality > Gender Studies
Literature > American
Women Studies > Women and Society

"He, She and It"

A book review on Marge Piercy's "He, She and It"

2,204 words () | 0 sources | 2009 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper summarizes and reviews Marge Piercy's "He. She and It", a novel set in the future about gender and gender roles. The author introduces Shira, the novel's central character who is a highly educated divorcee living in a Jewish slum. The paper describes the roles that each gender is supposed to upkeep in the novel and notes that even though the book is set in the future with gender role reversals, the lives of the characters in the book mimics many facets of contemporary society

From the Paper:

"The story's central character is Shira Shipman, a highly educated recent divorcee, who has lost custody of her son to her ex-husband. While the deterioration of the marriage may mirror modern circumstances, the decision to give custody to the father is definitely a creation in Piercy's arcane world. Already, the reader is greeted with a gender role reversal. Typically, almost every society views the mother as the more crucial parental unit. Most American divorces result in children going with the mother, with fathers on weekends. Additionally, American society is replete with dead-beat dads or fathers who walk out on their families. In Norika, Josh is awarded custody of Ari simply because he has higher credit earnings, which would roughly translate into having more income in today's society."