Hudan Sulthani Hidayat

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Analyzing Short Story About Women Based on Feminist Literary Theory

In the first part of the short story "Crazy They Call Me" by Zadie Smith's there is
a narrative "Well, you certainly don't go out anyplace less than dressed, not these days.
Can't let anybody mistake you for that broken, misused little girl: Eleanora Fagan. "In
my opinion, this is a stereotype that has occurred from the past, which is to think of a
woman who is not dressed as a naughty or bad woman. This is an injustice to the
standard of dress, where if there is a man who is not dressed then he is not immediately
considered a man who is naughty or bad. The definition of feminism itself is according
to Najmah and Khatimah Sai'dah in his book entitled Revisi Politik Perempuan (2003)
mentions that feminism is an awareness of oppression and exploitation of women who
occur in families, at work, and in society as well as the conscious action of men and
women to change the state lexically. Feminism is a demanding movement full equality
of rights between women and men.

In the third part of this short story, there is a quote from Miss Crawford and
Miss Stanwyck which is " Honey, you should get a dog. They never doubt you’re Lady
Day—matter of fact, they knew you were She before you did. You get a dog.". which in
my opinion is a very deep satire related to gender injustice. In this section, the story line
is telling about the twists and turns of romance. Where there is a satire who uses the
parable of a man as a dog. This may be too harsh, but this parable relates to the actual
situation where men are like dogs who only come when they need something.

then in the fifth section there is a line " Maybe a lot of people wouldn’t guess it
but you can be the most wonderful aunt, godmother, nursemaid, when the mood takes
you. You can spot a baby across a room and make it smile.". This also goes into
stereotyping women as messengers / servants of men in a household. Where, should a
woman and a man who build a household work hand in hand to run it. instead of
imposing all the burden on the house on the woman.
 The last thing I want to discuss is in the last section, is " They ask dull questions
about the songs, about which man goes with which song in your mind, and if they’re a
little more serious they might ask about Armstrong or Basie or Lester. If they’re sneaky
with no manners, they’ll want to know if chasing the drink or the dragon made singing
those songs harder or sweeter.". In this part, the main character is fed up with the habits
of men who are too verbose. He poured out all his complaints to be a woman.