Pg 45 -"You're all against me..."

"You're all against me, the hand of every man is against me, and he began to moan and cry."

This is the response of the girl's father when her mother tells him to quit hitting her son. I thought that this was interesting because of the way the sentence is constructed - there can be another meaning interpreted from it than just the context of which it is is.

First, it is ironic because throughout the book the father is portrayed as this failed being and it is evident that the narrator does not think highly of her father. It is also clear that the narrator thinks highly of her mother and that he mother also does not think highly of her husband. Yet, the husband is blaming the entire family for his failure. This sentance could also be a reflection of the narrators views of man - that they blame the rest of the world for their failures.

This sentence also suggests that "every man" which can be taken as society as a whole is against the father - or a male figure. This is interesting because it seems that this book could be going in the direction of a femanist type plot where the narrator may end up in fact being quite unreliable. Or the rest of the book could be a tale of the tragedy of women during the era - the ending is not known yet. However, up to this point in the reading it seems that the women in this book - at least as portrayed by the narrator - have much power even though they claim not too. There is also an interesting plot between "the man" or authority and "the man" as in the men of the society and even between the men of society.