Who Cares?:: Dependency and Domestic Labor in 20th-and 21st-Century US Literature

244 Pages·2013·4.53 MB·English

by  Sally Giles

UC San Diego
UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Title
Who Cares? : : Dependency and Domestic Labor in 20th- and 21st-Century US Literature
Permalink
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6xf5b4gh
Author
Giles, Sally Marie
Publication Date
2013

Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO

Who Cares?: Dependency and Domestic Labor in 20th- and 21st-Century US Literature

A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree
Doctor of Philosophy

in

Literature

by

Sally Marie Giles

Committee in charge:
Professor Michael Davidson, Co-Chair
Professor Rosaura Sánchez, Co-Chair
Professor Camille Forbes
Professor Natalia Molina
Professor Meg Wesling

2013
Copyright
Sally Marie Giles, 2013
All rights reserved.
The Dissertation of Sally Marie Giles is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form
for publication on microfilm and electronically:

Co-Chair
Co-Chair

University of California, San Diego
2013

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DEDICATION

To my immigrant grandmother, Lois Hess Giles, who spoke with an accent, walked with
a limp, sighed often, but loved much.

And to my late father, Stephen Michael Giles, who always said I would be a doctor….
Although, I don’t think this is what he meant.

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EPIGRAPH

“Those first years in America were not very happy years. I missed my friends in Holland.
I looked in the paper and found a job as a nursemaid to a little girl who was eight months
old. She was the only consolation in the first lonely year in America. She didn’t care how
I talked or that I was a stranger, she only cared that I loved her and took good care of her.
I made thirty-five dollars a months plus room and board. I could never go out, only on
Wednesday afternoon and Sunday afternoon, every other week.

“I found another job working for an older couple. This paid seven dollars a week along
with room and board. The older woman acted as if she begrudged me every bite I ate. She
was the most ornery woman I have ever met. There wasn’t a thing I could do that was
good enough. She had a habit of sneaking up on you to see if you were doing something
wrong. Besides it was very hard to be treated like a maid, someone so inferior to their
social standards. The only time they talked to me was to give me orders.

“She told me ahead of time I would have to stay Christmas Day, as she had company
coming for Christmas dinner. Getting ready for that dinner at five o’clock in the evening
started at seven in the morning. With dinner over there were dinner dishes. At two
o’clock in the morning I finally fell into bed exhausted. No sooner had I dozed off when
she started pounding on my door. She was missing a silver spoon. Where is it, she
exclaimed. I said I didn’t know, I didn’t have it. She sent her poor old husband down to
the garbage cans to look for it. An hour later she woke me up again. She found it. She
didn’t count right. I said, oh goody.

“It was then that I decided to quit. I couldn’t take this any longer. I had been there three
months. I still sometimes dream of that woman. I made up my mind that no matter what
job I would have to take, I would never again be somebody’s maid.”

Lois Hess Giles, personal history
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Signature Page…………………………………………………………………….. iii
Dedication…………………………………………………………………………. iv
Epigraph………..………………………………………………………………….. v
Table of Contents………………………………………………………………….. vi
List of Images…...…………………………………………………………………. vii
Acknowledgments…………………………………………………………………. viii
Vita.………………………………………………………………………………... x
Abstract of the Dissertation………………………………………………………… xi
Introduction: Who Cares?: Dependency and Domestic Labor in 20th- and 21st-
Century US Literature................................................................................... 1

Chapter 1: In the “White Kitchen”: 1940s African American Domestic Labor and
Motherhood in Petry’s The Street and Morrison’s The Bluest Eye………… 39

Chapter 2: “Something Always Told Me I Wasn’t No Rich White Woman”:
Postwar (In)Equality and the Care Burden in Hansberry’s A Raisin in the
Sun and Sirk’s Imitation of Life…………...................................................... 83

Chapter 3: Hollywood’s Other Half: Mexicana-Chicana Domestic and Care
Workers in Rechy’s The Miraculous Day of Amalia Gómez and Riggen’s
Under the Same Moon………………………………………………..….... 123

Chapter 4: Unsustainable Independence: The Global Care Crisis and American
Imperialism in Santiago’s América’s Dream and Cruz’s Let It Rain
Coffee……………………………………………...………………………. 167

Conclusion: Public Discourse and The Help: Any Help at All?......……………..... 212

Bibliography……………………………………………………………………..... 221

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LIST OF IMAGES
Image 1: From Imitation of Life, Douglas Sirk, 1959…………………………….. 1
Image 2: Walking During Bus Boycott, 1 Feb 1956……………………………… 83
Image 3: Homework in the So-Called Needlework Industry. Ponce, Puerto Rico.
1938.………………………………………………………………………. 167

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My co-chairs, Michael Davidson and Rosaura Sánchez, have both given their
unfailing support, not only of my academic work but of my motherwork during these past
years. They have even doted on my son when I had no option other than to bring him to
their office hours. And what mother can resist that? For two scholars with impressive
academic accomplishments and who are highly recognized in their fields, they are two of
the most personable individuals I have had the pleasure of knowing. Michael Davidson
continues to impress me with his literary acumen in a wide breadth of fields. He has kept
me writing, cheered me on, and guided my work at a level of detail that demonstrates his
genuine investment in good scholarship and in me as a person. Rosaura Sánchez has been
warm and caring during the many hours I have spent in her office as she has talked
through ideas and texts with me. I have learned from her scholarship, her teaching, and
her personal commitment to justice and equality.
I am grateful to the other professors on my committee, Meg Wesling, Camille
Forbes, and Natalia Molina. Meg Wesling has endured my changing timelines as I have
dealt with personal matters of immigration and marriage. From being on the committee,
to off, to back on, she has been patient, kind, and always brilliant. I have been able to
work as a teaching assistant for Camille Forbes, who amazes me with her passion for
African American literature and culture. Her continued support and insights have shaped
this dissertation and helped me evolve as a scholar and a teacher. Natalia Molina has
gone above and beyond the duties of what is called an outside committee member. Not
only did she graciously accept serving on my committee at our first meeting, she has
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willingly and actively contributed her knowledge at every stage in this process. I could
not have completed this dissertation without their generous gifts of time and talents.
This dissertation would have never gotten past the first chapter without the care
work, paid and unpaid, of so many women who have cared for my child. I am grateful for
Melissa Folkerts, Lucynthia Rockwood, Melanie Hales, Emma Gardner, Sara Huggins,
Monica Salazar, and many others for their labor and love. My sisters, Amy Giles Froerer,
Katie Giles Kleven, and Miranda Giles have earned extra gold stars for taking their
nephew James for days in a row so that I could be a full-time academic. And why not
thank my one brother, Jeff Giles, too, while I’m at it? He’s a good guy. My mother,
Diana Giles, deserves accolades and standing ovations for her long years of unpaid care
work, raising this dependent child (although she always said I was too independent). She
taught me to love books. She has given her full physical, financial, and emotional support
of my work and my family. She is now teaching my son to love books, too. And iPads.
My almost-two-year-old, James Benjamín, reminds me of what this is all for and changes
everything with his smile. Finally, I recognize my biggest supporter and fan, Eter
Rodríguez Hernández. He not only left behind his patria for me and endured the gauntlet
of DHS paperwork, he teaches me what love is everyday.

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