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The Hotel New Hampshire Analysis

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In the novel The Hotel New Hampshire, John Irving sets the beginning of the story in 1955 where women are portrayed as innocent, vulnerable individuals suit for cleaning. As the Berry family is discussing how Mr. and Mrs. Berry met each other, John Berry, the narrator informs the audience of what his mother did as a job while working at a hotel, he states, “My mother was a chambermaid, although she dressed in her own clothes for serving dinner, and she helped serve cocktails under the tents to the lawn parties” (Irving, 5). It was common for women during the 1950s to be the one’s who clean wash clothes, and prepare dinner. Earlier, John mentions how education was also different for his mother, “My mother, who (being a girl) could never go to Dairy School, attended the private female seminary also in town” (6). Girls were not admitted into the school which John’s mother attended. The Dairy School, which is across from the family hotel had not yet accepted girls into the school, the time setting in the novel was now early nineteen fifties. While Chipper Dove is walking and steps in a pile of poop, he turns to another football player and demands that he cleans his shoe for him. The football player that was instructed to clean Dove’s shoe, Poindexter, shows resistant. Dove then rudely states to Poindexter,“‘They don’t have girls here yet, Poindexter,’ said the running back from Boston, ‘so there’s nobody but you to clean the shit off my shoes’” (51). It is clear to see that Dove’s words portray him as a person that believes girls are the one’s who are responsible for all of the dirty work, and the cleaning - of his nasty shoe. Later in the novel The Hotel New Hampshire, as the story progresses the date progresses dramatically. During the mid fifties of this novel, in the story the Dairy School, as previously mentioned above decided to admit girls into the school. The school did not want to admit girls into the school, but, “...the Dairy School realized it had to admit women to its student body, in order to survive, the Thompson Female Seminary was put out of business…. In 1955 Franny went to the Diary School; that was the first year women went there...” (66). Although the women were not necessarily wanted, they

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