Sadly, this is going to be my final post about When
She Woke. My last four posts have been all about the content of When She
Woke, so for this last post I thought that I would talk more about the
author, Hillary Jordan, and how she created such an interesting novel.
Hillary Jordan is an American novelist who grew
up in Texas and Oklahoma. She went to Wellesley College in Massachusetts and
then attended Columbia University in New York. While she was at Wellesley
College she got her BA, and at Columbia University she got her an MFA in
creative writing. She has now written two books, Mudbound and When
She Woke. As I have described in my previous posts both of her novels have
won, and been nominated for, a variety of awards. Her novel Mudbound was
even made into a movie, which came out in January. She has also written a short
story called “Aftermirth,” and is currently writing her third novel. This third
novel is going to be the sequel to Mudbound. Clearly, Hillary Jordan is
a very skilled author who has the literary prowess to be writing incredible
books like When She Woke. She definitely has the skill and capability to
create such a thought-provoking book, but how did she come up with the idea for
such a novel?
To answer that question I ended up doing a bit of
searching. I found and watched an interview of Hillary Jordan where she
explained how her novel came to be. I found it all very interesting, and I
thought that it would be fun to share it with all of you. This interview was
from Connecticut 8 Style wtnh.com. It is about five minutes long and I will
leave you the link at the end if you want to watch it after reading my post.
The interview beings with the interviewer asking Hillary Jordan if she planned
for When She Woke to be a modern take on The Scarlet Letter from
the very beginning. This is a big question that I had because the novels tie
together so well. I thought that she must have had the idea early on for this
connection to be so developed. I have named many of the similarities in a past
post, but I thought that I could go over a few. The first is that the main
characters in both books share initials. The letter HP stand for Hannah Payne
and Hester Prynne and the letters AD stand for Aidan Dale and Arthur
Dimmesdale. Also, both Hannah and Hester had to show their shame with something
red. Hester had her red letter A and Hannah wakes up in prison “the solid,
declarative red of a stop sign”(3). There are many other similarities present
in When She Woke, but let’s get back to the question of whether this
connection was a part of Jordan’s plan from the beginning. In the interview
Hillary Jordan replies to the question by stating that at the very beginning of
her process The Scarlet Letter was not involved in her story at all. It
did become a part of the story relatively early on, but she explains how her
idea for When She Woke started as a red woman waking up in a prison
cell. Her whole first chapter shows how this idea came to fruition especially
in the lines “When she woke, she was red”(3) and “her hands had been
honey-toned pink, deepening to golden brown in the summertime. Now, they were
the color of newly shed blood”(3). As time went on Jordan’s story began to
evolve and she later incorporated the idea of The Scarlet Letter. I
really find this to be one of the coolest things. It is so surprising to me
that one simple idea, like the red woman waking up, can grow and change into
something so much bigger and more important. Later in the interview we learn
that Hillary Jordan’s idea for chroming came from one of her family members.
She describes how they were speaking about the drug problem in America. Her
family member thought that all drugs should be legal, but that the drugs should
turn the people who take them bright blue so that other people can stay away
from them. This had an impact on Jordan and clearly inspired the way that
characters are punished and treated once others see them as Chromes. Throughout
the novel people treat Hannah terribly because of the way that she looks. At
the prison one guard describes how “the world ain't such a friendly place for a
Chrome”(68). A few paragraphs later we learn that “‘ain’t many cabs’ll even
pick up a Chrome’”(69). Both of these quotes show how her idea became a reality
and one small interaction with a family member can start something huge.
When Hillary Jordan had the idea to make her
story a more modern version of The Scarlet Letter it helped her to
create quite a bit of her book. This connection caused Hillary Jordan to try to
have a correlation between her characters and the number of characters to
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s characters in The Scarlet Letter. She tried to
think of parallels between the world that Nathaniel Hawthorne created and her
more advanced and futuristic world. As an example of these parallels Hillary
Jordan describes a scene in The Scarlet Letter where Hester Prynne is up
on a scaffold for people to hear about her crimes. Jordan made a parallel in When
She Woke by using reality television to show Hannah’s crimes and cause her
shame. This was clearly put in the book in the very first chapter. The first
section of the book is titled “The Scaffold” and the first section of the book
includes passages showing how reality television is a big thing inside the
prison. In the very first chapter there are multiple mentions the use of
reality TV such as the quotes “She could sense the cameras… and the millions
watching at home, feet propped up on the coffee table…”(4) and “While ‘acts of
personal hygiene’ were censored from public broadcast, she knew that guards and
editors still saw them”(6). Another example that Hillary Jordan gives to
highlight different connections between The Scarlet Letter and When
She Woke is how she thought that a very charismatic minister would be the
equivalent to a mega church preacher in the more modern era. To me, this is a
very fitting change and is highlighted in this quote, “His voice was sonorous
and compelling… it traveled through her [Hannah] like hot liquid, warming her
and calming her fear”(17). As you can see, there are a few different things
that made an impact on Hillary Jordan’s creation of When She Woke and
each one helped make the novel what it is today.
Wrapping everything up, I just want to say that
I have found When She Woke to be incredibly thought provoking, creative,
and inspiring book. All of the many themes and ideas that the book touched upon
were very meaningful and relevant. It talked about abortion, women’s rights,
oppression, and rebellion. I also found it to be AP worthy but still a book
that many people would be capable of reading and enjoy reading. I would
recommend this book to those who may have read the Scarlet Letter and liked the
idea, but perhaps found it a bit old fashioned or too difficult to read. When
She Woke is more modern, and the language is less complex. I would also
recommend this novel to anyone who enjoyed The Handmaid’s Tale by
Margaret Atwood. The books share many similar themes, like that idea that there
will always be people who will rebel in an oppressive society. Lastly, I think
that people who enjoy novels that fall into the dystopian genre would find this
to be a great read. In conclusion, I have loved reading When She Woke
and I hope that I have done it justice in my all descriptions and explanations.
If When She Woke sounds even the slightest bit interesting to you I suggest
that you take a chance and read it, because it will definitely be worth it.
Here is the link to the interview if you want to
watch it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wZU02pkmXU
