I have, since my last post, managed to acquire Ruiz de Burton’s ‘Who Would Have Thought It?’ from the bookstore. I power read, and finished it this weekend. Overall, I would say I was pleasantly surprised with the novel. I had a bit of a different experience as we had discussed the novel before I’d had a chance to read much of it. This did, however, give me a chance to read it more critically, and ask myself the questions that we had addressed in class.
Is this novel a feminist text? I have resolved to say no, taken in the present context, and yes, taken with its contemporaries. I compared it with Austen’s ‘Emma’, which was written in 1815, 58 years earlier than Ruiz de Burton’s text. I saw several similarities between these novels, as I would say both present smart, engaging heroines who achieve their success through marriage. As well, both Lola and Emma are taken care of by older, paternal figures throughout their lives, and exhibit little true independence. These factors taken in the present context would communicate a clearly non-feminist viewpoint, however one cannot pretend that the status of women is the same now as it was in the mid-late 19th century. Overall, I believe that the very existence of the novel, published anonymously or not, constitutes an advancement for women of the time, and especially women of minorities.