POPE JOAN
Donna Woolfolk Cross
Random House
1996
Ms. Hen decided to read this, because again, one of her hen
friends gave it to her because she was getting rid of some books. Ms. Hen had
heard of this novel many years ago, and she didn’t quite understand how a woman
could have become pope. When she read the novel, she became angry over the way
women were treated in the Dark Ages.
Joan is not allowed to go to school or learn how to read
because she is a girl. All the girls in her village care nothing for books,
they only care about gossip and needlework. Her brother Matthew teaches her to
read in secret, against their father’s wishes. After Matthew dies, a tutor comes
to the house to help teach Joan, and her brother John. Joan is much quicker in
her studies than John.
Joan and John escape to go to the schola, or school in
another town. The boys at the school torment Joan. The idea of the day is that
it is not natural for a woman to want to learn. Joan has a crush on the man
with whom she is living, Gerold, a married lord with children. Joan becomes
friends with his daughter Gisla, who marries when she is fourteen. Eventually,
the town is attacked by Vikings, and everyone is killed, including Gerold’s
entire family, but not Gerold. Joan escapes death by concealing herself in the
church. Joan steals her brother John’s robe and hides in the woods. She joins a
monastery disguised as a man, and becomes a renowned scholar and healer. She
finds her way to Rome, and eventually becomes elected Pope.
It made Ms. Hen upset that women of this age were treated so
badly. They were not allowed to have property, or any money; they were
treated as inferior beings to men, and were not allowed to read and write. If
they were married, they were owned by their husbands. Ms. Hen likes to think
the world is better now, but the results from the Presidential election make
her think otherwise. Twelve hundred years have gone by since the ninth century,
but women still don’t have as much power as men.
Pope Joan is a legend, and it is said that no woman has had
as much power before or since she was on the throne. A woman could have had
that much power, but the citizens of the United States are ignorant wretches
who would rather have a fascist as President, and the electoral college system
is dysfunctional.
Pope Joan was erased from history because the men in power
in that day did not want it to be known that they were fooled by a woman. The
only way Joan could have held the office she did was to be disguised as a man.
There are some scattered hens in this novel, but that did
not make up for the fact that Ms. Hen was angered by this book. Also, the
writing in POPE JOAN is a bit inferior. Ms. Hen has read a lot of
books, and there is substantial lacking in the quality of this novel. Ms. Hen
thought it could have been because the author was trying to write in the style
of the ninth century, but it was more than that. A character dies, and Joan
thought, “It was impossible that he was gone.” Ms. Hen expects more from a
character when someone important to her dies. Ms. Hen wants her to be
devastated, but Joan’s reaction fell flat, like most of the writing in the
novel.
Other than inadequate writing, Ms. Hen enjoyed POPE JOAN. It
wasn’t the best book she has ever read, but it wasn’t the worst. Ms. Hen thinks
POPE JOAN is an important novel, because it shows how far we’ve come, but also
how far we have to go.
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