Some may argue that the movie The General conforms to traditional patriarchal gender roles. Annabelle Lee, the heroine, is kidnapped (albeit inadvertently) by hostile soldiers and needs the heroic exploits of her lover to rescue her. She is portrayed as submissive to her father and brother, ineffectual in plotting her own escape (such as throwing a stick of wood into the train furnace or failing to stop the engine so her lover can board it), and often exhibiting domestic inclinations ( as when she sweeps the engine with a broom).
Do you agree with this picture of Annabelle Lee -- or is it more complicated? Is Annabelle a stereotypical damsel in distress or is she a more progressive figure? Is there something about her a feminist could admire? What is this film saying about gender roles?
As I feel Annabelle Lee acts submissive to many males in her life and her actions would make it seem like she is a ‘damsel in distress’, I feel in reality, her actions throughout the movie help show that she had the power all along in herself to escape and many actions that helped them were done by Annabelle. As for the intent of the picture painted for Annabelle, that is something that I do not know. It could be true that originally the film was supposed to have more sexist viewpoints but the film actually came out to go against those ideas in the end. Throughout the whole trip, Annabelle helped a lot in the escape. Yes, she messed up sometimes but this wasn't a stab at her intelligence, it was solely a result of never operating a train before and although most of the mistakes were bad, a few actually helped them. As for the sweeping on the train, this was definitely a play on gender roles but I feel it wasn't viewed as a, “ she doesn't know what else to do than clean”. I had the idea that she wanted to be helpful and keeping the train clean was helpful. There is a certain play on power in the beginning, as she was kidnapped by multiple guys, which shows the extreme of power. But in the end, she did escape. Part of the escape was because she got saved by her lover but the other part was because she genuinely survived and that right there shows the strength and evidence that she was more than just a ‘damsel in distress’.
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