58 pages • 1 hour read
Louise PennyA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
The novel depicts women suffering due to misogynistic and ignorant beliefs at a number of different points in time; it also depicts women coming together to form community and work toward a common purpose.
Anne Lamarque and other women accused of witchcraft in 17th-century New France were literally demonized and accused of colluding with supernatural forces; these accusations took place because the men around them did not want to accept that women could be intelligent, resourceful, and self-reliant. The punishment of banishment represented a desire to excise powerful women from a community because they provoked fear in others; however, Anne Lamarque was able to join forces with others and not only survive but thrive. They founded “a community where all were welcome. That was the real magic” (293).
Centuries later, the female engineering students studying at École Polytechnique are akin to modern-day witches because they also challenge assumptions and power dynamics within a historically male-dominated field. The violent attack explicitly targeting women for daring to study and hold professional ambitions represents a male attempt to assert control, but also terrible cowardice. The survivors of the attack, like the survivors of the witch trial, band together and work to create a better world by advocating for human rights and stricter gun control.
By Louise Penny
A Fatal Grace
A Fatal Grace
Louise Penny
A Great Reckoning
A Great Reckoning
Louise Penny
All the Devils are Here
All the Devils are Here
Louise Penny
A Rule Against Murder
A Rule Against Murder
Louise Penny
Bury Your Dead
Bury Your Dead
Louise Penny
How the Light Gets In
How the Light Gets In
Louise Penny
State of Terror
State of Terror
Hillary Rodham Clinton, Louise Penny
Still Life
Still Life
Louise Penny
The Beautiful Mystery
The Beautiful Mystery
Louise Penny
The Brutal Telling
The Brutal Telling
Louise Penny
The Cruelest Month
The Cruelest Month
Louise Penny
The Long Way Home
The Long Way Home
Louise Penny
The Nature of the Beast
The Nature of the Beast
Louise Penny