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Matthew Castellanos

Professor Ditch

English 115

6 December 2017

Choose to be Happy

Many are confused about the difference between sex and gender. To clarify, sex is male

or female which is determine by biological features. Gender is being masculine or feminine

which is determined by ones performance. In many societies each is assigned to a gender role.

Males are expected to act dominant, aggressive, competitive, serious, focused, etc.; all these are

masculine traits. Females are expected to act submissive, emotional, cooperative, playful;

dreamy, etc.; all these are feminine traits. However, it doesnt have to be that way. A man can

both masculine and feminine and a woman can also be both masculine and feminine. This is

shown through the characters in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. To be

thorough, Juliet Ashton and Dawsey Adams are just two characters of many who both break free

from and conform to their prescribed gender norms. Juliet is a female who breaks free from

gender norms by becoming independent and conforms to gender norms by appearance, while

Dawsey is a male who breaks free from gender norms by being shy and timid and conforms to

gender norms by being strong and having courage when he needs it.

To start off, Juliet is the main character in the book. She already shows feminine

characteristics from the beginning of the book by having manners and being classy. According to

Becoming Members of Society by Arron Devor, femininity must be expressed through modes

of dress, movement, speech, and action, (40) and Juliet does so throughout the book. She shows
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her femininity mainly through speech, but also through dress and action and shows it. In her

letters she sometimes has a gentle tone and acts in a way many refer to as ladylike. Being gentle

and having manners is consider feminine. To go more into detail, she conformed to her gender

norm while dating Mark, He (Mark) paid me compliments, and invited me out to dinner. I

acceptedand then spent the next three days fretting about my hair. Its lucky I have my lovely

new dress, (Shaffer 39-40). She prescribed to her gender role by having a feminine

performance. Juliet behaved in a way she was expected by trying to be attractive to Mark, and

submitting to him. She went to according his time. Mark will choose a time or change their

original time and she would just go along with it, she didnt realize by doing that she was already

submitting to him. She also made sure she looked pretty for him, she dolled up for him. This

relates to women in general. Many of them feel the need to or are expected to go to according to

the guys time and make sure they are pretty or appealing to them, but that shouldnt be the case.

A woman shouldnt have to submit to a man or make themselves more attractive just because

they feel they need to or are expected to.

Nonetheless, although Juliet shows feminine traits, she also shows masculine traits.

Throughout the book she shows to have leader characteristics and learns to be more independent.

According to Becoming Members of Society this shows her having a masculine performance

and breaking free of her gender norms, Two clusters of attributes are most commonly seen as

mirror images of one another with masculinity usually characterized by dominance and

aggression, and femininity by passivity and submission (Devor 39). To be more specific, Juliet

breaks free from her gender norm when she doesnt marry Lieutenant Rob Dartry because she

doesnt want to be married because she feels she has to and because she wanted more freedom.

She again breaks gender norms when doesnt marry Mark Reynolds because she doesnt want to
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be a trophy wife. Its an expectation for women to go off and marry a man, but Juliet wasnt

quick to follow that norm. One can see that she was the opposite of what is expected of her, she

wasnt passive and didnt submit. According to Rhetoric For Radicals Juliet was radical in her

behavior, We continuously work, act and communicate for better realities, and we undoubtedly

succeed in many of our efforts, (Del Gandio 1). She was an advocate for her life, she learned to

put herself first and did what was best for her; everyone should do this for their own life as well

and take a stand when something is not right.

Furthermore, Dawsey at times also follows gender norms. Although Dawsey is mostly

shy throughout the book, he did show some masculine traits. According to the article 7 Vital

Characteristics of a Man physical strength is one of the most important masculine traits a male

should have, Physical, the most primitive, yet still one of the most prominent traits, a mans

physical capability affects everything... strength and stature still prove to be influential factors in

both the social and business world, (artofmanliness.com). Dawsey is shown to be a strong man.

He is pig farmer and without his strength he cant do what he does. This relates to men in

general. Many them feel the need to be strong and show off their strength otherwise they would

be judge in a bad way, but it should not be that way. Just like females are told to be happy with

their bodies, males should also be happy with their bodies even if it does not fit into societys

expectations. Dawsey wasnt trying to live to societys expectations and just used his ability to

his advantage. Males shouldnt have to feel that they need to get stronger or bigger because of

society. Dawsey was his own person whether or not he lived of to his gender norms. For

example, Dawsey shown some courage which is a masculine trait. He did not do it because he

was trying to follow his gender role, but because he thought it was necessary to do so. An

example of that is when he befriends a German Nazi, which is consider to an enemy to him and
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his friends, but he still has the courage to become his friend. He acts in ways that benefit him, but

does not behave this way just because hes male. In short, he conforms to his gender role because

he has the strength that a man is supposed to have like carrying heavy things and little by little

breaks out of his shell corresponding to when he becomes friends with Christian Hellman, the

German soldier.

Moreover, just like Juliet, Dawsey mostly breaks free from his prescribed gender norms.

He is mostly a quiet and timid man throughout the book. In the article Shyness Doesnt Make a

Boy Any Less of a Man being shy is not a masculine trait, The stereotype that boys should not

be shy is even reflected in childrens memory (psychologytoday.com). If not all, many people

know its a stereotype for guys not to be shy. Therefore, just by him being shy Dawsey is already

breaking free from his gender norm. However, to go more into detail, Dawsey breaks free from

his gender role when Juliet proposes instead of him, What she said was, Would you like to

marry me? There was quiet-complete quietAnd then Dawsey, swore. My God, yes, he

cried, (Shaffer 272-273). He falls in love with Juliet in the story, but he was afraid to tell her

and traditionally the man is supposed to proposal to the girl, but it was the other way around. He

was the girl at that moment, meaning he broke free of the gender norm. Although he didnt

perform his masculine behavior, he was fine. He didnt mind not showing his masculinity, in

which guys also need to be okay with losing their masculinity at times because it shouldnt really

matter if a guy is masculine or not.

In conclusion, Both Juliet and Dawsey break free from their gender norms. Although they

also followed their gender norms at times, they were happy on who they became to be. If one

wants to follow the gender roles, thats fine. If one wants goes against the gender norms, thats

fine too, The trick is to create a more confident identity, (Del Gandio 116). One has to be
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confident with who they really and express that person. Just like Juliet and Dawsey were their

own person, everyone should be their own person. As long as one is happy with who they are,

gender norms and gender roles shouldnt matter. In all, people should be happy with who they

are.
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Works Cited

Brown, Christina. Shyness Doesnt Make a Boy Any Less of a Man. Psychology Today, 2014

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/beyond-pink-and-blue/201409/shyness-doesn-t-

make-boy-any-less-man

Crooks, Ross. 7 Vital Characteristics of a Man. A Manly Guest Contributor, 2008

http://www.artofmanliness.com/2008/06/08/7-vital-characteristics-of-a-man/

Del Gandio, Jason. A Call to Rhetorical Action. Rhetoric For Radicals, pp.1.

Del Gandio, Jason The Power of Language. Rhetoric For Radicals, pp. 116.

Devor, Arron. Becoming Members of: The social Meanings of Gender. Composing Gender,

Rachael Groner and John OHara, Bedford, pp. 42.

Shaffter, Mary The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society