Fantaisie Printaniere

Jacqueline Procter
Journal # 25
March21, 2008
Frank Norris

Quote:
“Heretofore it had been the men who were enemies and their wives who were friends. Now the two men are fast friends, while the two women maintain a perpetual feud.”

Summary:
The women who were friends get into an altercation arguing over whose husband is tougher and meaner – friendship dissolves.

Response:
It was rather tragic that the women didn’t have each other to support and be supported – They defended their scumbag husbands and lost each other’s only friend -- and their husbands still beat them. I was rather disappointed that the fantasy didn’t turn out to be where the women conspired to end their misery – like maybe have the men kill each other in a fight to the death. I would have enjoyed that.

While reading this I was thinking which of the two men it would be better to be married to. I would think that the woman who got beat only when her husband was sober would get fewer beatings than the woman whose husband beat her when he was drunk. It’s hard to keep a drunk sober.

This story speaks about the working class struggles of the Irish as well as the racial stereotypes of the Irish loving their booze and brawling. Norris does a terrific job in describing the setting of a squalid neighborhood – What a dismal, depressing, existence.

Although this story isn’t very empowering for the women I think that it should be made into a modern day play. It would be very difficult to watch but the message to women enduring abuse would be powerful. Women don’t have to put up with that crap. It’s funny how this story coincides with the Women’s History Month Clothes Line Project – documenting the abuse women here on campus have encountered in one form or another.