Feminism Essay

1171 Words5 Pages
In Lisa Tuttle’s short story “Replacements” the narrator and main character of Stuart Holder is haunted by the arrival of small alien creatures in the city of London, where he lives. It later becomes very obvious that these creatures have replaced not only Stuart but basically all men in their relationships with their wives. This is proved in the story because Stuart is not the only one who gets “replaced”, but there are several other examples of men being “replaced” as well. Tuttle also uses a very feminist point of view to get her message across to her readers. The narrative starts off when Stuart is walking to work and he encounters one of these creatures lying on the sidewalk along the street. It is described to the audience as something clearly horrifying: “It was about the size of a cat, naked looking, with leathery, hair¬less skin and thin, spiky limbs that seemed too frail to support the bul¬bous, ill-proportioned body. The face, with tiny bright eyes and a wet slit of a mouth, was like an evil monkey’s. It saw him and moved in a crippled, spasmodic way. Reaching up, it made a clotted, strangled noise.” (Tuttle, 1) Upon seeing it lying on the sidewalk, Stuart is instantly terrified of the alien creature and kills it by stamping on it with his shoe: “A little snarl escaped him and he took a step forward and brought his foot down hard.” (Tuttle, 1) Even though Stuart expresses feelings of guilt after having killed it, it is important to note that Stuart’s initial repulsive and intimidated opinion of the creature is significant. It is as if he is instantly threatened by the monster, yet he cannot pinpoint why at first. These feelings of intimidation are later justified as his wife actually brings a creature home to have as a pet. As the story progresses, Stuart gets pushed farther and farther out of his place in his marriage with his wife. “She planted a
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