October 21, 2016 - 17:15
In the context of the relations between Dill and other characters, how is Dill’s identity represented and explored throughout the novel?
Exploring Identity without Labels
Throughout the novel Getting Mother’s Body the character of Dill continuously demonstrated to be a complex and interesting character. What was especially interesting was Dill’s identity, both in terms of gender and sexual/romantic identity. As the novel switched through different first hand perspectives, the image of Dill became more and more diverse until the idea of Dill’s identity became completely blurred. Ultimately, this diversity led to the question of if and how an identity could be established without any direct self-labeling from the person themselves.
During the time period of the mid 1900s in the United States, issues of identity such as gender, sexuality, and romanticism were largely unexplored. Therefore while parts of Dill’s identity are able to labeled and accepted currently, during the time period such notions of identity were largely unknown. Therefore certain aspects of Dill’s identity were given to the reader in puzzle pieces gained for various different perspectives.
One such example was the idea of Dill’s gender. Dill’s gender identity was explored in two ways, through the perspectives and anecdotes of other characters and through the perspective of Dill. In terms of outside perspective, while many of the characters referred to Dill with she/her pronouns, their interactions with Dill displayed their recognition of Dill’s very masculine traits. For instance, one could take Dill’s relationship to the townspeople. While all of them knew about Dill’s biological existence as a female, they still saw Dill as a very masculine figure. At first, when Willa-Mae revealed to the town that Dill was not a man, most of the town did not associate her statement with Dill’s gender. In the end it came down to “a woman’s word against a man’s word” (Parks 89) will Dill being the man. Even after the town slowly began to realize that Willa Mae was talking about Dill’s biological sex, Dill’s sex remained unspoken of. Dill’s ability to earn for themselves along with the way they acted gained the respect of the townspeople. The town accepted Dill as a man, even when they knew that Dill was biologically female.
In terms of Dill’s relationship with Billy and Will-Mae, Dill was definitely seen as the father/husband figure. Dill was a present figure in both Willa-Mae and Billy’s lives, so much so that the town saw Dill as Billy’s “father figure” (Parks 89) despite Dill being biologically female and not married to Willa-Mae. Dill even announced that they saw themselves as practically Willa-Mae’s husband (Parks 37). Billy also seemed to see Dill as at least a guardian figure. When she thought Willa-Mae was dead Billy instinctually believed that she would go on to inheriting Dill’s pig farm (Parks 160), like a child would assume they would inherit their parent’s livelihood. This idea of Dill as the male figure in this family demonstrated how Dill’s constant adoption of male attributes influenced others to see Dill as a man.
As for Dill’s own perception of themselves, it became clear that they viewed themselves as male. Their actions, from “[peeing] standing up” (Parks 192) to hunting with the men of the town (Parks 89) displayed how they saw themselves as more of a man than a woman. Dill’s satisfaction when their mother Candy recognized them as a man and proclaimed them “Mr. Dill Smiles” (Parks 241) also demonstrated their desire to be viewed as a man. Candy’s recognition as Dill as a man and as a separate entity from “her little Deliah” (Parks 240) showed both Dill’s establishment as a man along with their departure from their former female identity.
In addition to gender, aspects of Dills identity that are also confounding were their sexual and romantic identities. While characters who saw Dill as a woman believed Dill to be a butch lesbian, as seen with Homer’s use of the word “lezzy” (Parks 229) to describe Dill, it is unclear what Dill’s sexuality truly was. With Dill’s possible male gender, it was possible that Dill identified as a straight transgender man. Additionally, while it was shown that Dill was sexual attracted to Willa-Mae (Parks 225) it was not shown if Dill showed any sexual attraction to any other women beside Willa-Mae. In this case both Dill’s sexual and romantic identities may not have been oriented to be sexually and romantically attracted to women, but to solely Willa-Mae. This would explain Dill’s lack of attraction to other women and their near-obsession with Willa-Mae. This obsession was demonstrated with their need to control Willa-Mae in every aspect, such as when Dill stated that if Willa-Mae was to have sex with other men she had to do it Dill’s house, in Dill’s bed, and when Dill was present to witness it (Parks 191).
Dill’s identity was a complicated existence, especially with the terms commonly used in modern day being non-existent during the time period the novel occurred in. However, even without these labels, there seemed to be an acceptance of identities outside of the norm. This is especially so when Dill constantly presented themselves as a masculine figure without giving any regards about what others thought. Eventually others began to accept Dill as a man, even if they continued to use female pronouns. In addition, obscure ideas of sexual and romantic orientations were explored through a combination of the uncertainty with Dill’s gender along with Dill’s obsession with Will-Mae. Ultimately, Dill’s character represents a unique notion about identity in times when complex notions about gender and sexuality/romanticism were untouched.
Bibliography:
Parks, Suzan-Lori. Getting Mother's Body: A Novel. New York: Random House, 2003. Print.