Extra credit presentation given by Ben Craske, one of my students, at the beginning of lecture 6 for students in English 165EW, "Life After the End of the World," winter 2013 at UC Santa Barbara. Posted with Ben's permission. Course website: http://patrickbrianmooney.nfshost.com/~patrick/ta/w13/

1. Gender Essentialism
in The Day of the Triffids
Presentation by Ben Craske

2. Thesis:
Even the End of the World
cannot change gender
relations in The Day of the
Triffids.
NB: All quotes are from Wyndham, John. The Day of the
Triffids. London, Penguin: 1951). Print.

3. ‘With the old pattern broken, we have
now to find out what mode of life is
best suited to the new. We have not
simply to start building again: we have
to start thinking again- which is much
more difficult and far more
distasteful.’
-Dr. E. H. Vorless
Chapter 7 p. 119

4. Epistemological Reading
• Sections like the quote on the previous slide
demonstrate that the text prompts and
encourages the reader to think about the reality
of a changed world.
• Therefore, one important element to the text is
Epistemology:
- how we acquire knowledge
- what it means to know something
- to what extent can a person know
something

5. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Classical-Definition-of-Kno.svg

6. Essentialism, n.
1. Educ. A theory advocating the teaching, on traditional
lines and to everyone, of certain ideas and methods
supposed to be essential to the prevalent culture
(opp. to progressivism n.)
2. Philos. The belief in real essences of things, esp.
the view that the task of science and philosophy is to
discover these and express them in definitions.
Source: OED online

7. Essentialism and Gender
• Affecting the perception of gender:
- Essentialism would argue that sex
results from biological differences between men
and women, which also affects gender
behaviour.
- Many feminists condemn Essentialism,
because it implies that there are inherent
“feminine” characteristics.

8. • Feminists see Gender Essentialism as binding
because:
- Characteristics associated with “essential”
male behaviour tend to allow greater “success”
in patriarchal societies:
a) Aggression
b) Experience
c) Independence
d) Non-emotional
e) Sexually aggressive
f) Competitive
g) Strength

9. - Characteristics associated with “essential”
feminine characteristics may inhibit women
from progressing in a patriarchal society:
a) Empathy
b) Sacrifice
c) Emotional
d) Dependence
e) Passivity
f) Innocence
g) Nurturing

10. My Argument
Despite:
- the upheaval and distress caused by the
blindness
- the threat of the Triffids
- new implications of a “post-apocalypse”
society (learning new skills, finding resources
etc)
- implorations by new leader figures to
embrace a “new order”
The Essentialist ideas regarding gender remain and
endure. This is because the characters do not
markedly change their way of thinking.

11. Evidence

12. Josella and Bill’s interaction

13. Capture
• „her hands were tied together behind her
back, and a cord tethered them to the man‟s
left wrist‟
Chpt. 4 p. 64
• „“I think,” she said judicially, “that thought you
wouldn‟t have guessed it to look at him, he
wasn‟t perhaps too bad a man really.”‟
Chpt. 4 p. 70

14. Release
• „She sipped at, and snuffled over, the first drink.
I gave her time to get sorted out…‟
• „The drink gradually did good work. By the end
of it she was sufficiently recovered for habit of
mind to reassert itself.‟
Chpt. 4 p. 65

15. Appearance
• Bill‟s first description of Josella:
„She looked as if she had strength if it were
necessary, but strength which, in her
approximately twenty-four years, had most
likely not been applied to anything more
important than hitting balls, dancing, and,
probably, restraining horses.‟
Chpt. 4 p. 65

16. • „Twenty minutes or so passed before she came
back. Considering the limited facilities there
must have been, she‟d made a good job: morale
was much restored. She approximated now to
the film-director‟s idea of the heroine after a
rough-house rather than the genuine thing.‟
Chpt. 4 p. 66

17. Reputation
• Josella‟s career as a writer before the
apocalypse endures, and she cannot shake the
implications of the book‟s title even after the
apocalypse.
- „“It was called Sex is My Adventure.”
I started, and then smote my forehead.‟
- „Two large circulating libraries had banned
it, probably on the title alone.‟
Chpt. 5 p. 90

18. • The reactions of others are very telling, pre and
post-apocalypse:
- „“I seem to have been keeping up a
permanent defensive ever since against
people I don‟t like…”‟ (Josella)
Chpt. 5 p. 91
- „“Well, really, Mr Masen, I can scarcely think
she would be the sort of person to care for
the kind of community we are building
here.”‟(Ms. Durrant)
Chpt. 10 p. 170

19. • However, it is her own response to the
controversy which is telling:
„“It sort of twisted everything,” she
complained. “I was writing another book to
try and balance things up again. But I‟m glad
I‟ll never finish it- it was rather bitter.”‟
Chpt. 5 p. 91

20. Mind-set
• Josella wanting babies
- „“And after all, most women want babies,
anyway… I‟m talking about real women, not
those in the magazine-movie-make-believe-
world.”‟
Chpt. 7 p. 122

21. • What legacy should be passed onto David, their
child:
Bill: „“I‟ve collected a mass of biochemical books… I
shall teach David all I can, and he must hand it on.”‟
Chpt. 15 p. 243
Josella: „“do you think we should be justified in
starting a myth to help them? A story of a world that
was wonderfully clever, but so wicked that it had to be
destroyed- or destroyed itself by accident?”‟
Chpt. 15 p. 245

22. Tynsham Manor and Shirning
Farm: a fresh start?

23. Gendered language- Tynsham Manor
• Coker‟s rant regarding the sewing machine, and his
opinion on women not understanding engineering or
mechanical devices:
- „“Failure to use them is not a virtue to be
praised: even in women it is a gap to be deplored.”‟
- “Men have played up to it by stoutly repairing the
poor darling‟s vacuum cleaner, and capably
replacing the blown fuse… Tough practicality
complements spiritual delicacy and charming
dependence- and he is the mug who gets his
hands dirty.‟
Chpt 10. p. 175

24. Gendered Roles- Shirning Farm
• „Josella was kept busy, mostly in the house, and
Susan was learning to help her.‟
Chpt. 14 p. 226
• „“Oh, Bill, Bill, I wasn‟t meant for this kind of life.
If you weren‟t here I‟d…”‟
Chpt 14. p. 228
• „my foraging expeditions‟ Chpt. 14 p. 225
• „ambitious plan‟ Chpt. 15 p. 229
• „It was a heavy, tedious job‟ Ibid.
• „I was endeavouring to learn the a-b-c of
farming‟ Ibid.

25. Why does Gender
Essentialism persist in Day of
the Triffids?

26. Epistemological Explanation
• „There was, too, a feeling that as long as I
remained my normal self, things might even yet
in some inconceivable way return to their
normal.‟
Chpt. 3 p. 53
• „The old doctor had been only too right when he
stressed the difficulties of mental adaptation.‟
Chpt. 11 p. 189

27. Question of Narrator
• The reader only understands the text through
the interpretive frame of a male narrator.
• Josella has her own exploits, challenges and
problems to overcome, yet the reader learns
much less of these than the male undertakings
in the narrative.

28. Conclusion
• The characters, opinions and events displayed
in Day of the Triffids demonstrate that “old world”
values are indeed difficult to change.
• Therefore, the text shows that Gender
Essentialism was difficult to shake, because the
characters did not evolve, develop or change
epistomoligcally.

29. Broader implications of this message
• Are there some Beliefs or Truths that are so
deeply embedded, that they are impossible to
change?
• If they are, are we, as able thinking human
beings, capable of changing the way we
think, even when we contemplate „Thoughts of
the Unthinkable‟?