Cultural Relevance

            Maria Semple’s, Where’d You Go, Bernadette, highlights the stereotypes that are embedded in our culture in today’s society. An epistolary novel uses emails, letters, and journals in the book. Semple has utilized this to further explain the interaction between characters through emails and how the settings draw to the stereotypes presented that are present in our culture.

            Emails are used to communicate between characters and it offers a way to forma an opinion about the character. The fact that Soo-Lin and Audrey, who are close friends, email instead of calling each other or physically talking to the other ties into the lack of communication in today’s society. Emailing is even thought of the old way to talk among friends, everyone now just texts. When the mailman comes he usually drops off junk mail, some bills, and if you are in high school an acceptance or rejection letter from a college. No one write to one another or calls. The very concept of having a house phone is going extinct. Chuck Martin wrote an article on the importance of face-to-face communication, “67 percent of senior executives and managers say their organization would be more productive if their superiors communicated more often by personal discussion (Martin 1).” Elgie, Bernadette’s husband, emails and IMs his assistant the work she must do on his behalf, and if it were not on her persistence they may have never talked. It was agreed upon the executives that verbal communication makes sure that everything is understood and clear. Advancements in communication have caused for a lack of interaction not just in the work place, but also among friends and family. If no one can even pick up the phone to say hello, then sending a handwritten letter asking about how someone is must be prehistoric. When someone receives a handwritten thank you note or letter it is treasured more because the person had taken the time to write it. There is a company that will send handwritten letters on your behalf. They take a sample of your writing, and have a robot create an exact replica of it. “The bot doesn't just copy letters; it learns spacing patterns, angulation, how a person connects certain letters, and how far someone veers from the margins (Greenfield 1).” Semple’s depiction of the communication used among the Galer Street gnats, Bernadette and Paul, and Elgie was spot on with how people communicate in the 21^st century.

            Stay-at-home moms are thought of to be similar to the housewives of New Jersey. Although, no one in Where’d You Go, Bernadette has a nanny or legal problems, the same amount of drama is presented. The Galer Street gnats are the typical stay-at-home moms, but with way too much time on their hands. Audrey Griffin, neighbor to Bernadette, exemplifies how much time housewives have on their hands. She is the mom who participates actively in school activities, member of the PTA, and enjoys to gossip about other moms. She had the audacity to break into Bernadette’s backyard to have an expert see how much it will cost her to have Bernadette’s blackberries removed. This is only one example of how Audrey cannot seem to mind her own business. Another instance was when Bernadette had “ran over” Audrey’s foot, and Audrey had made sure that it was said in the school email to everyone that Bernadette was the one done it. When she had gone to the doctor to get her foot checked out, he did not believe Audrey needed x-rays or to be on crutches. Semple’s characterization of the stay-at-home mom is completely accurate to the mom of our culture. In an article by Parenting Weekly it says, “Full-time mothers get the first call when volunteers are needed for any school function, field-trip or fundraiser…You will find yourself organizing trips, running bake-sales and driving children whose parents are stuck at work to museums. You put in all the work of "working parents" without the paychecks or the breaks (“The Myth of the Stay-at-Home Mom by Parenting Weekly” 1).”

Through Semple’s usage of emails and characters she has told a story that can be easily related to in today’s society because of our culture. The stereotypical stay-at-home in Where’d You Go, Bernadette is the PTA mom our culture. The usage of emailing instead of talking face to face is the texting era of today. These stereotypes of Bernadette’s upside down world are within our understanding and gave us some insight into her life.