Feminism as seen in Gabrielle Roy’s ‘My Almighty Grandmother’

“My Almighty Grandmother” is a story being narrated by a six-year-old girl. It illustrates the grandmother as an old woman with a dimming eyesight and a problem of failing memory. The story is set on a family background joined by bloodline and separated by generations. Such a generation consists of the grandmother, the girl, and her mother. The theme of feminism has been covered at length in this story. The recognition of feminist campaigns considered in the play embodies those behind societal changes relating to the rights of women.
The theme of feminism appropriately fits the story. It is an extension of undertaking a feminine perspective as deployed by the author. It arises from the way the story reaches climax through the treatment of various roles of women, childhood, and motherhood by describing numerous encounters in the play. “But why did she look so pleased with me? I was only playing, as she had taught me to do, as Memere also had played with me one day” (Roy and Marshall, 30). It portrays some form of motherly love especially after being pleased when looking at the playful nature of her grandchildren.
The life of Roy can be said to have been spent in a society dominated by women. Such portrays an environment of care, warmth, and love. For this reason, the author has been radiated into becoming a beloved mother. “for it was her idea that I should spend part of the summer in her company. Send the little sickly one to me” (Roy and Marshall, 3). It shows the element of tender love and care portrayed by women characters.

Having been influenced greatly by her mother, Roy has been in a constant recreation of numerous versions of a loving home in a complicated relationship. Such is the relationship which occurs between the grandmother, mother, and daughter. “I WAS six years old when my mother sent me to spend part of the summer with my grandmother in her village in Manitoba. I balked slightly at going. My old grandmother frightened me a little” (Roy and Marshall, 3). Similarly, Roy has an experience in handling French-Canadian family matters, an attribute which makes her portray authentic traits of female characters. For this reason, it beats logic for the author to appear a radical feminist and a happy homeowner.
The description of “My Almighty Grandmother” by a woman offers a classical view of feminism since the narrator is a woman. The theme of feminism is illustrated further by the explanation of the role played by a girl-child in the family history. Girls are depicted as caregivers to the elderly. “I just can’t rest knowing she’s alone in that little solitary house. She might fall while pulling that trapdoor” (Roy and Marshall, 16).The excerpt shows how a girl child provides adequate care to other members of the family. Children are viewed as a lineage of successive generations which passes within the family unit.
The theme of feminism offers a classic example of the stages of growth of a girl child through the revelation of main characters. The recurring theme of feminism can be explained further through the attributes of painful separation. The aspect of separation is seen to occur between the daughter and mother. There is a little account of his father, showing a form of separation of the father-figure from the life of a girl-child. For this reason, the child only recognizes her mother. It is the grandmother “who makes her a beautiful rag doll out of some scrap materials, as a godlike figure, a creator” (Stouck, 155).
The theme of feminism has been illustrated clearly by Gabrielle Roy’s ‘My Almighty Grandmother.’ Much contribution has been made by the fact that majority of these characters are female. Women characters dominate the society. A loving home in a complicated relationship. The narrator is a woman. A painful separation between mother and daughter. Tender love provided by women characters. All these are a perfect example of the theme of feminism as employed by the author.

Works Cited
Roy, Gabrielle, and Joyce Marshall. The Road Past Altamont. , 1966. Print.
Stouck, David. Major Canadian Authors: A Critical Introduction to Canadian Literature in English. Lincoln u.a: Univ. of Nebraska Pr, 1988. Print.