Girls Studies' Book Review: "White Oleander" by Janet Fitch

Janet Fitch’s work “White Oleader” depicts the young life of a pre-teen girl up until the age of 20, and recounts some horrific experiences that she endured on her way to reaching physical and mental maturity, as well as the ultimate outcome that those experiences influenced. The aim of this novel is to introduce the idea the horrible experiences may a girlhood make, and though they can have great weight on the outcome of that girlhood, the result does not need to be catastrophic but will always have the potential to reach greatness and contentment. The resiliency and elasticity of a young human heart that somehow continues to beat from one horrendous uproar to the next is portrayed throughout the entirety of Fitch’s novel. This work has been presented in a time where it is now potentially crucial to have a Girls Studies school of thought in order to better prepare young women for their transition into womanhood, where there is the question at the height of controversy whether to allow girls’ minds and bodies to develop unmentioned and yet still under the public eye of scrutiny or to educate all that could possibly be related to their development as young girls, and not simply young sexless, genderless human beings.


Fitch begins by introducing Astrid and her relationship with her mother, Ingrid, in the very beginning of the novel, and their relationship is nothing short of stilted and nearly indifferent on the part of her mother. “I liked it when my mother tried to teach me things, when she paid attention. So often when I was with her, she was unreachable.” (Fitch 8) As her Ingrid becomes more and more involved with a man named Barry, Astrid becomes increasingly afraid that her mother will abandon her for a new life and leave her all alone. Eventually, Barry and Ingrid’s relationship goes sour, as Barry is unable to tame his womanizing ways, and so Ingrid sprinkles Dimethyl Sulfoxide (DMSO) and oleander sap in his home in order to poison and kill him. After being sentenced to life in prison for Barry’s death, Ingrid must go to prison and forfeit custody of Astrid, who is then pilfered off on foster home after foster home, and experiencing so many negative measures in her physical and mental progression of rising out of girlhood and becoming a woman.


By experimenting with sexual encounters, drugs, affairs, and people, Astrid grows up in a world that will not teach her what it means to develop positively, and will not take her hand and care for her when she falls. She is cast off from some families, abandoned by others, and abused by still more. She rarely finds companionship, and it is generally ripped away from her if ever she finds it by suicide, accidental or natural death, or tiring of her company. When Ingrid and Ingrid’s lawyer wish to contest the charges of killing Barry, Astrid learns that her testimony is a surefire way to free her mother from prison. She offers her mother the choice of leaving her alone or asking her to lie, after telling her of the abandonment she suffered and only recently remembers when she was left with a woman named Annie for over a year. The damage that this caused upon her mind and her heart are scars that she believes cannot be healed and she tells Ingrid so. “Who was I, really? I was the sole occupant of my mother’s totalitarian state, my own personal history rewritten to fit the story she was telling that day. There were so many missing pieces.” (Fitch 406) Ingrid lets her walk away from the trial without guilt and this decision sets Astrid free. Years later, after her mother has been released from prison, Astrid must choose whether to remain with her new life or to return to the new one that she has built for herself. She decides not to return and this creates strong feelings of hope for any reader that experiences the text. “I pressed my hand to the frosted pane, let the heat from my body melt the ice, leaving a perfect outline against the darkness.” (Fitch 446) This quiet illustration of Astrid’s hand making a mark upon a window pane stands for the greater life choice that she has just made; to make her own mark upon her own life without returning to anything negative that had existed in the past. Astrid’s strength in moving forward with or without overcoming grief or moving on is deeply moving.


The approach is unyielding, uncompromising, and unwaveringly truthful when expressing the emotions and acts that continue to swirl Astrid’s life up into a whirlwind of confusion, doubt, and feelings of being without the basic necessities of human nature such as love and hope. The story is bold in nature, told from the perspective of a young girl which is not only considered unconventional but also unrelated when there are older voices that can be viewed as more credible sources upon the same subject. Fitch blatantly argues by utilizing Astrid and her story as a mouthpiece, and counters by illustrating that there is no one more equipped to tell a young girl’s life story than the young girl that is living it. By forcing society to consider that girls need a school of study revolving around them and their complex development, Fitch accelerates the progress the world can make when it comes to girl power and a better understanding of what it will take them today and tomorrow and the day after that to become successful women.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Film Review

Maiden, Mother and Crone by Vianny Nunez

The G[r]ay Area Between Female Friendship & Sexuality