Foreignness

Alice is the most obvious outsider, as the story begins when she has only recently arrived to Baileyville from England. She is not a member of the community of the town, at least at the start of the novel, as evidenced by those who mock her accent or turn her away from their doors when she is trying to deliver books simply because they don't know her. In addition to her foreign national identity, she also has a foreign state of mind, specifically to the members of the community who live in the especially rural areas. The women out there, while still conforming to traditional gender roles, are hard-working and rugged, weathered by the elements and intense workloads. Alice is strange to them because she is soft and pristine like a proper English housewife. Ironically, the characteristics that help her to fit in with the rural...