Song Character Analysis Worksheet - The University of North ...

of social motherhood developed as women tended the graves of strangers and cared for
the widows and extended families of the community. 41
The Southern Belle’s common trait is the ability to adapt to social upheaval with a
gracious smile and impeccable manners. Sociology professor Sarah Brabant summarized
the tripartite code of the Southern Belle, exemplified in her own upbringing, as survival
at all costs, survival with dignity (“for fear of being ‘tacky’”), and responsibility for
others, especially one’s own offspring. 42 And yet, the stereotype of the fragile, dependent
Southern Belle lives on, perpetuated by coquettish behavior with a shorthand of legend-
ary “Belle-speak” that seems to belittle the speaker. 43 In Show Boat, Magnolia Hawkes is
introduced as this stereotype with the characteristics of the coquette, and as a survivor
with dignity and responsibility.
The Ethnic Other
The Ethnic woman stereotype of the nineteenth century is typically described in
the dual context of slavery and sexuality. 44 She is classified as Other in gender, race, and
class. She has always had to work both outside and within the home as factory worker,
plantation hand, or middle class domestic. Ethnic women attempted to adopt the philos-
ophy of “separate spheres” in family life after emancipation from slavery, but racial (and
41 Kleinberg, 177-78.
42 Brabant, “Socialization for Change: the Cultural Heritage of the Southern Woman,”
Sociological Spectrum 6/1 (1986): 51-61.
43 See Wolfe, 18. The ultimate character representative of this stereotype is, of course, Margaret
Mitchell’s Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With the Wind.
44 The Ethnic woman of this period may refer to either the southern African-American or the New
England immigrant Jew. As a parallel to Show Boat, I am limiting the stereotype to the African-American
woman.
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