Guest Post: Inez Haynes Gillmore's *Angel Island*

What could be a more striking symbol for the loss of freedom than the snip of scissors removing one's beloved wings? Inez Haynes Gillmore's novel Angel Island, published in 1914 at the height of the women’s suffrage movement, is the story of five shipwrecked men meeting five winged women and the power struggle that ensues between the two genders. The women may lose their freedom when the men take their powerful wings, but in the end the women's determination leads them to regain control over the lives of their children.  Gillmore explores the general misconceptions of women based on their socially constructed roles in society, how they were considered the inferior gender, and their struggle to achieve equality.

Throughout the novel, the women are stereotyped by the men. From the beginning, the men have broad generalizations as to what role women play in their society and their limitations. In order to capture the women, the men rely on appealing to the women's vanity using “trunks … full of women's clothes,” they entice the women with mirrors (46). One of the women, Lulu,  was reduced to tears when she accidentally broke her mirror and was no longer able to see her reflection.

Lulu’s breakdown over the mirror is further proof of the idea that women are inferior to men, a constant theme throughout the book. An example of this theme is when Julia almost falls from the sky; Billy is frightened and states: “Women don't know what's best for them. We do. Unguided, they take the awful risks of their awful ignorance. Moreover, they are the conservative sex. They have no conscious initiative… I don't think they're competent to take care of themselves. I think it's our duty to take care of them” (41). From Billy’s perspective, he was acting in the best interests of the women and his acquiescing to cutting their wings seems to be out of concern for their safety.

By the end of the novel, the women have almost become accustomed to the loss of their own wings.  But, once their children's freedom is threatened they band together to fight for the right to fly. Julia says, “we have decided among ourselves that we will not permit you to cut Angela's wings … rather than have you do that, we will leave you, taking our children with us" (95). The prospect of seeing their daughters go through the same pain they experienced at the hands of their husbands is too painful to even consider for these wingless mothers. It is the teamwork that this threat inspires that allows the women to assert control over their own lives and overpower the desires of the men. Gillmore makes the point that in order to achieve equality within society, women must work together.

Through the themes in the book, Gillmore examines the misunderstandings between the men and women about their respective roles in society. The men think of the women as silly, vain creatures, susceptible to any trap they may devise and in need of protection from their own natures. However, the women have the final word when they work together to rebel and show the men how important their role in society really is. Angel Island shows the reader both the challenges that Suffragists faced when fighting against the misconceptions of men and the strength that women have when they fight as one.

- Written (as a class) by students in ENGL 203-01, Summer 2009