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Lauren Murdock

Mrs. Mann

AP English Literature/ Composition-Block 2

10 September 2017

The Other Paris By Marvis Gallant

Although the 1950s is often characterized as an era of mass gender conformity, a

product of growing suburbs and a decline in women's societal importance in the

workforce post World War II, this period was vital to the growing defiance of such

discriminatory norms. While pop culture and major media supported the ideal that

women would return to the comfort of family life and domestic duties, womens

opinions and actions often did not reflect these ideologies and thus marked the start of a

long-coming change in Americans views regarding gender roles in the aging 20th

century. In her short story, The Other Paris, Marvis Gallant, one such women influenced

by women's emerging voice for equality, comments on societys shortsighted tendency to

emphasize the necessity of marriage not as a product of love, but rather a dictation of

gender normalcy.

Gallant voices the irony in the fact that society claims marriage to be a product of

love yet illustrates a world where marriage is rationalized by ulterior motivation. She

paints the vivid picture that a proposal was not an affair to be had over lunch or on the

spur of a moment, but, a scene that involved all at once the Seine, moonlight, barrows of

violets, acacias in flower, and confused misty background of the Eiffel tower. Soon
however, her romantic imagery and majestic scenes are discredited as Gallant takes on a

far more powerful and omniscient voice in her introduction of the all too common 1950s

couple, Carol and Howard. With such she reveals that the two had known each other a

mere 3 weeks and until the proposal their relationship had been strictly professional, in

fact, Howard had proposed at lunch, over a tuna fish salad. Not only is Gallant drawing

attention to the non-existent, or at best, highly undeveloped rationale for marriage of the

time, but societys blindness towards their superficial reality of marriage. Carol did not

love Howard and Howard did not love Carol. This point is made blatantly clear as Gallant

writes, The fact that Carol was not in love with Howard Mitchell did not dismay her in

the least. Nonetheless, anyone who had seen the couple or attended the wedding would

have been under the illusion that the two were in love, an illusion so vast that even Carol

herself began to fall under its spell. Gallant further mocks people's reasoning for marriage

in her direct characterization of Carols relationships, both past and present. From

deeming a past proposal, a prospective medical student unsuitable out of his current

financial lack to her small-minded view that a common interest is the true basis of

happiness Carol, and by extension the entirety of 1950s society, is depicted as

increasingly shallow. Gallant further criticizes Carol in her relationship with Howard by

personifying the concept of love. Love is humorously compared to a plant which given

the right conditions will undoubtedly sprout and grow. People tend to consider love an

element of an almost magical reality, but when it comes to their societal practices, true

love, in this sense, is lost to marriage, the sad business of falling in love.u

In comparing the proportion of time spent analyzing Carol and time spent on

Howard, as well as the various reasons and opinions surrounding their impending
marriage, gender roles during this critical era, specifically a woman's necessity to marry

becomes a striking theme. While a good three quarters of the passage concerns Carol, a

significantly small portion is dedicated to Gallants characterization of Howard. This

conscious decision is reflective of how essential marriage was to woman in 1950s. The

notion that marriage, for women, is a prerequisite to success is further explored in

Gallants given reasoning for eachs support of their union. Carol frets that her age will

soon make it too late to find a husband. In Gallants words, Carol is under the illusion

that in a short time she would be so old nobody would ask her again. This

rationalization, while seemingly unvalidated and false at first glance, begins to gain a

level of concern as Carol worries about her future financial stability without a husband.

Employment for women in the 1950s was rapidly declining and for those who remained

in the workforce, pay was far from equal to that of male coworkers. Thus, for Carol,

Howard meant a deserved sense of stability as He was an economist who has sense

enough to attract himself to a corporation that continued to pay his salary. Her concerns

are legitimate and thus readers are lead to find some understanding in Carol's reasons for

marriage. Howard on the other hand is prompted to marry by a comment made by his

sister that without a wife he would soon become just a person who fills in at dinner. In

his response, Gallant mocks Howards serious concern over such trivial justification for

marriage in the final line, Howard saw the picture and was deeply moved by it.

Loneliness and societal embarrassment are Howard's primary motives for marriage and

when compared to Carols concerns towards financial and economic stability, Gallant

suggests that during this time, the brunt of the pressure to marry, at least for valid

reasons, was sadly placed on the shoulders of women.


Today, women enjoy the ability to decide for oneself whether marriage and or

family life is for them. Women go to college, vote, they are compensated equal pay for

equal work, but this was not always the case. It took years of protest and discontent both

active and in the form of literature before change was instituted. Thus, from undermining

her 1950s societies ironic and false understanding of love as a concept of marriage and

mocking her characters superficial justification for marriage to identifying the underlying

problems, Carols age and financial instability without a husband, which led Carol and

Howard to the conclusion that a loveless marriage is best, Marvis Gallant successfully

addresses the injustice of 1950s freedom of marriage for women, an element of a greater

movement towards equal rights and equal opportunity for all.

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