Women and the abortion controversy in Joyce Carol Oates's A book of american martyrs (2017)

Abstract

The present research work examines the wide-ranging impact of the abortion controversy on American women in Joyce Carol Oates's A Book of American Martyrs through the lens of the feminist theory. This study aims to show the destructive outcomes of extreme devotion to the abortion cause and its damaging effects on the female characters in the novel. The results reveal that women are the first victims of the conflict over abortion. The first generation female characters are doomed to subordination and subjugation whatever their political ideology, religion, and social status is. Oates places hope in the second generation female characters and shows that women may experience all sorts of oppression and marginalization, but there is always room for revolt, change making, and subsequently liberation