I for Isobel Practice Essay

[Poet]

Heyo,
This is pretty last-minute, but I wrote a practice essay and I'm wondering if anyone will be kind enough (or, well, mean enough) to tear it apart for me? Thanks to the moon and back if anyone finds the time <3

kill it dead

‘I for Isobel’, a Bildungsroman written in 1989 by author Amy Witting, is the story of a young girl, raised in an emotionally abusive and ruinous household, discovering herself and healing her broken past. A timid and quiet character, Witting portrays a young woman with perfect inner turmoil, fighting the demons of her tumultuous childhood and the expectations of a woman in 1950’s Australia. This has long-lasting effects on Isobel’s life, and throughout the novel evidence of such effects can be seen in her behaviour, both in thoughts and actions, in personal cases and social isolation.

Isobel’s family are the main cause of her long-lasting issues and Isobel’s social ineptitude around others in her life. Cruel and demeaning, May Callaghan, Isobel’s mother, belittles Isobel constantly, and displays masochistic characteristics in her relentless emotional “blows” and obvious favouritism of Isobel’s sister, Margaret. Raised in such an oppressive environment, Isobel’s character develops strong defensive techniques in enclosing her vulnerability as an “idiot in the attic”. This internal struggle is displayed in full by Witting’s fluid first- to third-person narration, exhibiting the conflict between thought and action. Contrarily, Witting creates lively and “gregarious” characters, such as Kenneth and Betty in order to further exacerbate this difference in character – where Isobel is quiet and socially awkward, others are “special” or “beautiful”, with admirable social finesse. Therefore, Isobel’s internal battle with her “idiot” brings her to both social and personal isolation and displacement, all due to her mother’s original influence in forcing Isobel to “build up walls” mentally, emotionally and physically in an unconscious effort to avoid hurt.

Alternatively, Isobel’s “quiet” nature is also partially to blame for her interpersonal complications. Her obsession with reading and its ability to remove her from reality is detrimental to her development of relationships and her own future as a “writer”. Throughout her childhood, being told she was a “born liar” and a “loner”, bullied by all around her, led Isobel to retreat inside herself, her imagination acting as her only friend. However, although running from the cruelty of her reality may have been a temporary fix, Isobel’s character is stunted in her social growth by this form of retreat. This is displayed by Witting’s first-person writings, and her conveyance of Isobel’s confusion in the most simple situations – both in her own emotions, and others’. Portrayal of the “invisible knife”, “cobwebs” and “idiot in the attic” all act as examples of the protagonist’s lack of familiarity with her own emotions and the outcome of her actions. The “invisible knife” is a representation of her fear of insulting those around her, the “cobwebs” are symbolic of her traumatic and lack of clarity, while the “idiot” acts as an example of her smothered emotion and the two sides of her personality. While outwardly Witting develops her character as shy and fragile, inner depths are explored in a manner that overall displays an inner vulnerability and yet strength. Thus, Isobel’s retreat into her own imagination as a youth ultimately leads to a lack in outward confidence.

Indeed, Isobel’s childhood experiences are the cause of her long-lasting social and personal difficulties, but also her point of healing. Where her mother’s tyranny allowed for little more than reading “children’s books” and an ultimate suppression of emotion, this use of time eventually leads Isobel to her point of happiness – becoming a “writer”. Witting foreshadows this effect throughout the book in Isobel’s job as a “mail translator”, or consistently writing in metaphor and metonymy as complexities arise in Isobel’s accommodation and work. In light of this, the metaphor of the “baby in a baking dish” represents Isobel’s writing ability, a “work factory” hidden within her, almost lost forever and yet rescued at the last minute in her realization that her “joy” lives in writing. This full circle from beginning to end is also demonstrated in the fourth chapter of the novel, where Isobel returns to her old street and finds herself in the company of Mrs. Adams, an old neighbor who kept a poem Isobel wrote about her cat. It is this poem that brings Isobel to the realization that “[she is] a writer”. Thus, Isobel’s triumph over the adversity of her own mind resolves her intrapersonal issues, but still leaves a yawning chasm between her understanding of characters in a book and people living alongside her. Consequently, although Isobel’s understanding of her own happiness is discovered through a childhood of isolation, this also has an overall negative impact on her ability to become “one of the crowd”.

Altogether, The ‘I’ in Isobel accounts for personal healing, yet a lack of external relations. Whilst a tumultuous upbringing has a severe effect on the protagonist’s ability to interact with others, it also makes her much more self-aware and gives Isobel a “strength” she would not have without it. Isobel, with the “word factory” to keep her company, finds her place in a crowd “of her own”, one that attempts to scab over the difficulties of her childhood and the cruelty of her mother, albeit without much attempt to fight her social ineptitude.