new woman, all incorporate some of these heroic qualities into the creation of the.
characters.
The role of the "passive female" is one played by Marian, from Atwood's The.
Edible Woman, and by Lily, from Choy's The Jade Peony. Both of these women are.
similarly passive in that they don"t play an active part in the stories; in other words they.
receive actions from characters . Marian is consumed by the people around her and we can.
see this by the title, The Edible Woman, and through the text. "She(Marian) had been so.
thoroughly taken in"(Atwood,310). When Marian is speaking to Duncan about her.
relationship with her fiancee she says, "I realized Peter was trying to destroy me"(326). .
Lily could also be considered as a character who is consumed and she is absorbed by her.
culture's definition of what it means to be "appropriate wifely company"(Choy,14). Even.
though she is the mother to two of the four children and has played mother for all of them,.
Poh-Poh decides that they will all refer to her as "Stepmother" and she, the submissive.
Chinese wife, does not object. Poh-Poh, the elder, believes that it "keeps things simple,.
orderly. That was the order of things in China"(14). Marian and Lily are two characters.
that fulfill the stereotypical role of the passive female and in doing so, they both give.
something up.
Although Marian and Lily have both given up some of their needs and desires by.
playing non-active roles in their own lives there is still something to be admired about both.
of them. Marian eventually overcomes her fear of life and she takes an active role in it. .
She bakes a cake, decorates it to look just like herself, and consumes it. Marian says of.
eating again, "It was miraculous to me that I had attempted anything so.
daring"(Atwood,329). Norma Goodrich maintains that "Any true heroine must have.
proven herself more or less indifferent to danger and at some point able to triumph over.
it"(Goodrich, 8).