Ind Aff

The narrator is the protagonist of the piece; she both tells the story and acts as the main character within the story. The fact that she is unnamed constructs her as an everywoman; it also is a reminder that she is just one of many students to her professor. The fact that the male antagonist is celebrated with a title while she remains unnamed reflects the patriarchal structures that the novel critiques.

In the text, she is characterized primarily through her feelings toward and connection with Peter. It is stressed repeatedly throughout “Ind Aff” that she loves him and cares about his approval. For example, she thinks, “[a]h, but I loved him. I shivered for his disappointment” (Paragraph 4). The word shiver suggests that she embodies his feelings, highlighting the extent to which she has shaped herself around him; it also draws a binary between an objectified woman of the body and a male subject of the mind. The narrator also comes across as deferent to him through their dialogue throughout much of the story. For example, she says nothing to Peter’s complaints of being unable to see

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