Throughout the books, it is clear that she is most powerful when she acknowledges all of who she is and allows herself to show it. It takes a long time for Alanna to accept her girlhood and her Gift (which is strongest when she‚Äôs using it to heal, a stereotypically feminine profession). Using my Gift doesn‚Äôt seem fair, somehow. Alanna is deeply suspicious of her ‚ÄòGift‚Äô, but in many ways it becomes a metaphor for womanhood throughout the books. ‚Äì Tamora PierceĪlanna is every bit the ‚Äòsword-slinger‚Äô, but Pierce does give Alanna a hefty chunk of supernatural powers as well, both in the form of magic and a special relationship with the gods. I wanted to see female sword-slingers most of all. None of them was a superhero because she could hit a bad guy. So many of the female superheroes were superheroes because of magic. Unlike other literary girl soldiers, who are often portrayed as model-beautiful rather than functionally strong ( I‚Äôm looking at Game of Thrones‚Ķ), Alanna is portrayed as stocky, scarred, and, like many women when compared to men, short. Pierce is also realistic about what that means for Alanna‚Äôs physical appearance. There is no easy glory and Alanna never gets an easy ride ‚Äì Pierce is realistic about the challenges that she faces in making the grade as a knight. She does extra training in her free time and learns to turn her ‚Äòweaknesses‚Äô (her size and her strength) to her advantage, by seeking out extra tuition from people outside the court and the chivalric code.
She also has to work far harder than her peers, as the smallest ‘boy’ in the group. Alanna, on the other hand, becomes Alan and has to spend the next eight years lying to her friends, avoiding public baths, and hiding the changes to her body as she hits puberty. He goes to the convent, where she would have learnt to be a lady, but Thom has no need to cross-dress or to deceive anyone. It’s interesting that it’s far harder for her to follow her dreams than it is for her brother. There seems to be no way around her gender – no woman has become a knight before – so to get her training, she disguises herself as a boy and goes to the court of Tortall, in the place of her twin brother, who wants to become a sorceror. Shoulders back, Alanna.’ As if that’s all I can do with myself! –Alanna in Alanna: The First Adventure
Tamora Pierce‚Äôs Song of the Lioness quartet follows Alanna, a young girl who wants desperately to escape the conventional life planned for her and become a knight.ĭ‚Äôyou think I want to be a lady? ‚ÄòWalk slowly, Alanna. For a great dissection of different cover art, try this blog.īeing a woman in a man‚Äôs world is never easy: now imagine that world is a fantasy kingdom in which chivalry, might, and the sword rule. Alanna on the cover of the fourth book in the series, Lioness Rampant.
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