A piece of string (symbol)
A piece of string that Janet brings with her into this world is a symbol of her pacifism, she doesn’t mean any harm. Though Janet is well aware of the fact that people can behave completely unpredictably, she doesn’t seem to bother. She doesn’t “expect us to be peaceful,” but she hopes that we will be. If she was armed, she would have been “more formidable,” for “an armed person” inspired fear “more readily.” As it has been already mentioned, she doesn’t want others to be afraid of her. A piece of cat’s string can only make us laugh and this is her intention.
A wolf (allegory)
A wolf that Jane Evason “stalked and killed a wolf, alone” is allegory of power. She was only thirteen, armed only with her “rifle.” Being a little bit vain, she wanted to bring the wolf’s body home to brag about her courage and fearlessness. However, she had to abandon that bizarre idea and took only “a paw” as “proof.” That act of violence was meant to show the rest of the world that she became a fully-fledged member of the society. This is a really strange form of initiation – not to mention brutal – but this is the way it is in Janet’s world.
The future (motif)
What does the future hold for us? Almost everyone wants to know. The author of the Female Man imagines it as a place where men and women live in a conflict. There is a world where men are nonexistent, there is a world where there is “a war” between these sexes, and there are worlds where “feminism” only starts to bloom. What can readers learn from it? “The New Feminism” is not a threat; it is a sign that it is high time to do something, so that we could say that equality is really achieved.
