{"id":12148,"date":"2017-08-09T15:30:58","date_gmt":"2017-08-09T19:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/writingprogram\/?page_id=12148"},"modified":"2017-08-29T12:51:32","modified_gmt":"2017-08-29T16:51:32","slug":"higgins-writer","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/writingprogram\/journal\/past-issues\/issue-9\/higgins\/higgins-writer\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Writer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When given the task of discussing identity in Vonnegut\u2019s work, I knew almost immediately that I wanted to center my essay around Judith Butler. I was immediately captured by Butler\u2019s idea that gender identity, unlike biological sex, is slowly constructed through factors like individual desires, historical patterns, and the expectations of others. As I read through more of her work, I started to think about how her ideas aligned with certain aspects of Vonnegut\u2019s female characters. Although Vonnegut is my favorite author, I\u2019ve always been bothered by the way he portrays women. Unlike his dynamic male characters, his female characters are alarmingly flat. It was initially difficult to decide which characters to focus on in my essay, but I eventually chose the Noth sisters from <em>Mother Night <\/em>and Susanna from \u201cMiss Temptation\u201d because their personalities are almost entirely dependent on men. Because of their one-dimensional nature, I thought it would be fascinating to analyze these female characters\u2019 identities by applying Butler\u2019s revolutionary ideas on gender identity and sexual performance.<\/p>\n<p><strong>LAUREN HIGGINS<\/strong> is a rising sophomore majoring in physical therapy and minoring in women\u2019s studies. She was born in Boston but has lived in Old Town, Maine for most of her life. She has been an avid reader since a young age, and enjoys playing with her dog, listening to music, and spending time with friends. She would like to thank Ken Alba and Ashley Cui for helping her succeed in WR 100, and her entire family for supporting her no matter what.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When given the task of discussing identity in Vonnegut\u2019s work, I knew almost immediately that I wanted to center my essay around Judith Butler. I was immediately captured by Butler\u2019s idea that gender identity, unlike biological sex, is slowly constructed through factors like individual desires, historical patterns, and the expectations of others. As I read [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4801,"featured_media":0,"parent":12095,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/writingprogram\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12148"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/writingprogram\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/writingprogram\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/writingprogram\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4801"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/writingprogram\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12148"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/writingprogram\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12179,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/writingprogram\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12148\/revisions\/12179"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/writingprogram\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/writingprogram\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}