Elisabeth Sanxay Holding: The Blank Wall

Part IIISanna Lehtinen and Luis Daniel González Alva

Part III

• The evolution of Lucia´s character

- Gender

- Social class• Domestic novel – Crime novel

Lucia´s character

• Struggling throughout the book– Always putting other people´s needs first– Doesn´t want to face the consecuences of her

actions: lies– Wants to keep up the appearances of white

middle class family: trying to live up to the expectations of being a mother, a daughter, a wife, a ”housekeeper”

– > Seeking for adventure and own personal space

Gender• Lucia feeling empowered towards the end of the book

- Close to becoming a cold-blooded criminal- Can´t stand any kind of lack of personal space: irritated with other people- Admires and disapproves her daughter´s active behaviour:

- Lucia begins to act like Bee would act, Bee begins acting like Lucia

-> ”the new woman”- Admires Donnelly, an active masculine character

-> feels drawn to the masculine world (”masculine” crime novel vs. ”feminine” domestic novel)

- Women during the war: taking over men´s jobs and roles, dual role in the house- Cigarrettes as a symbol of self-actualization and taking personal space- Often thinks about her life being ”like in a movie”- Active, even aggressive thoughts inside her head- Relationship between the two women; Sibyl and Lucia

Class

• Lucia feels like the social status should save her from being punished- Feels criminals cannot exist in her class (herself) or among people she likes (Donnelly)

- Donnelly gets distroyed because of Lucia (like Nagle predicted)- Expects Sibyl to help her without questions- Things described through the book as ”queer” or ”eccentric”

- Strict codes on how people should be like and how to behave to become socially approved

Domestic novel – Crime novel

• Ends up to be more of a domestic novel than a crime novel?- She gets away with her crimes because of her social status

- Lucia´s disappointment? - Disappointment of the reader? Lucia an un-reliable

narrator?- Lucias ”moral”: built on social class, good manners, Bible, parents (father)- The criminal characters from the world of crime novels, Lucia from domestic novel

- A mix of ”masculine” and ”feminine” genres (same controversy in Lucia´s character: active – passive,

conservative – liberal, old world - new world)- A mix of social classes- A clash of two worlds

- The title: why is the book called The Blank Wall ?