FEMALE SUBJECTIVITY: DISRUPTING PATRIARCHY IN KRISTIN HANNAH'S “THE WOMEN”

Abstract

The research explores women characters who face and struggle against patriarchy in Karistin Hannah’s novel, “The Women” (2024). This study analyzes female subjectivity in the novel, focusing on the characters of Frances Frankie McGrath and her fellow nurses who perform heroically in the Vietnam War, equal to men, but patriarchal society ignores their struggle and contribution on the battlefield. The analysis process was carried out by reading Kristin Hannah’s “The Women” as a piece of literary criticism, divided into two parts, thirty-five chapters, and 414 pages, which was originally published on February 6, 2024, by St. Martin's Press in the U.K. Additionally, the methodology of this study is qualitative, uses a descriptive research design, and objects that focus on patriarchy that occurs against female characters. The novel is in primary sources, and different articles, websites, and The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir are chosen as secondary sources for data collection. Furthermore, the study objects to address these gaps by investigating two key areas: First, it seeks to analyze the literary techniques employed by Hannah to portray female subjectivity and how these techniques contribute to a deeper understanding of the characters' inner lives. Second, it examines how “The Women” challenges and deconstructs patriarchal structures through its representation of female characters. Applying Simone de Beauvoir’s existentialist feminism to “The Women,” researcher can explores how females struggle against patriarchy and resist for their existence in traditional patriarchal society. It gives the reader knowledge at a broad level that females are not suppressed in this modern era; now they are working equally to men. The results of this research show the patriarchy experienced by Frankie and her fellow nurses in the wartime environment; it also explores that women's subjectivity and struggle against patriarchy, aim to achieve their existence as intellectual, self-aware, and free individuals.