Touching Bottom by Kari Strutt - Feminist Literary Criticism

The narrator in Kari Strutt’s short story, Touching Bottom, experiences a strong feminine awakening. Through her back story, it becomes clear that the majority of the narrator’s actions are to please men. She takes up swimming, and remains committed to it, to make her father happy. Later on in life, she marries into a relationship she knows she will be unhappy with. However, it is this moment that we first get some idea of the “seeing with fresh eyes” as described by Adrienne Rich. For the first time in the story, the narrator is defying her father. Even though he too warns her of the doubts of her marriage, she decides to follow suit, partially to spite her father.

Adhering to dominant male ideas of her dad, the marriage is rocky. Even at the beginning, the narrator states, “the day I got married I felt lonely and afraid.” She hides in unhappiness, repressed by her husband. Fearful of the male dominated world, she refuses to express her emotions, and instead puts up with her miserable relationship. Later on in the story, however, the narrator is given hope, and realizes that as a female, she can be just as much of a hero as a man. While saving her step-son from drowning in the sea, her husband ironically flirts with young, attractive, bikini clad women on the shore. As horrible as the event may seem, it is this act that allows the narrator to acknowledge her power as a woman. This feminist awakening occurs through her understanding of not needing a man, and that she could do things any man could, if not better. Confident, she leaves her husband.

Touching Bottom is filled with feminist qualities. The female in the story is presented as meek, repressed, and taken advantage of, while her husband comes across as objectifying and chauvinistic. Overall, the man is painted as a villain, and the woman a hero. It is this blatant gender comparison that gives Touching Bottom its feminist power. Classic stereotypes, such as the negligent father and the caring, savior mother are used to further reiterate this idea, and ultimately, re-enforce the narrator’s feminist awakening.