Dear Pulitzer Prize Judging Board,
The winner of the Pulitzer Prize Award in 1999, The Hours by Michael Cunningham is an astonishing novel worthy of this award for its brilliant creativity, use of themes throughout the text and literary devices that support the themes in the text. This novel explores the lives of three women by going through the hours of their days, the concept is very intriguing and likely to draw in several readers.
A big theme in this novel, and novels that are based on the lives of women, is the oppression of women in society. In 1998, when The Hours was written, Madeleine Albright just been sworn into the Secretary of State the year before. She was the first woman to obtain that position. Women have always been breaking glass ceilings, which are typically highlighted by the news and the public, however the trials and struggles are often not. Michael Cunningham highlights what society expects of women and what society requires of women. At the time of the novel, women are generally expected to please their husbands and that would presumably make women happy and feel as if their lives are fulfilled. Laura is independent and this brings on the feelings of her life being boring. Rather, society is bringing on these feelings to Laura. Clarissa rejected societies expectations by being in a same sex relationship, however she also confined to the expectations of society by confining to a domestic role in her relationship. Those two things are also major themes in the novel, defying societies requirements and same sex relationships. There are several recurring literary devices that help support these major themes, such as domestic objects.
It was brilliant of Michael Cunningham to keep the themes of the text so consistent and to have little things, like domestic objects, back the themes of the book. Virginia lives in the suburbs, usually when one pictures the suburbs, they picture a husband and a wife with a happy and financially stable family. However, Virginia is frustrated with this life. Laura feels restricted in her life as a housewife. She has the picture perfect life, however she is not fully pleased with a domestic life. Most women believe that at a certain point in their lives, they have to settle down and take on that domestic life. This is not true though! This novel highlights that the domestic lifestyle is not for everyone and that women.
This book is extremely relevant to several lives in America at the time of this award. Women have always struggled in society for an extremely long time, even now in 2019, women are still struggling to break glass ceilings and reach equality with men. When you watch a movie, nine times out of ten, there will be a domestic housewife somewhere in the film. This is how society forces women to fulfill this role. The use of media has only grown since 1999, making it even easier for society to try and tell women what to do.
In the end, this novel deserves all the fame and glory it has received for making the novel relevant to women’s lives in America through brilliant use of themes and symbols to support those themes.
Sincerely, Ariadna Garcia
Ari’s Blog 