Postfeminism lies within the pages of “River Run,” by Anthony Doerr

by Josie Walz

On its surface, River Run is entirely about one man’s fascination with fly fishing. However, reading between the lines reveals the mindset of an unfaithful husband’s intense  misogyny. Mulligan views things that are male favorably; the regal salmon he catches, described as “A red-flecked salmon, male, with a  mean blunted head, black-eyed, the pale bag of the underbelly, the slick white-pink mouth, the soft throat, the long slip of the body” (Doerr 328). Mulligan strokes the fish before releasing it, praising it, displaying the first touch of positive sentiment we experience from Mulligan. Next Mulligan checks his knot before he “feels the energy rush out of him, the tightness the always comes when he has a fish” (Doerr 328). It’s not a far leap to suggest there is something ultimately Freudian about this particular passage; Mulligan clearly is fixated upon the fish and the psychological release he gets from fishing, that he is unable- or unwilling- to get from interacting with women. In fact, it reminds me of Toril Moi’s piece Feminism, Postmodernism, and Style: Recent Post Feminist Criticism in the United States, Often considered the mother of postfeminism, Moi, a  Professor of Literature and Romance Studies and Professor of English, Philosophy and Theatre Studies at Duke University, coins the term “postfeminism” in her paper, and displays a fixation on the phallus as a symbol of status and power in her work, often associating phallic imagery with narcissism and self-aggrandizement.  I would argue that this is appropriate for Mulligan, who certainly seems to display at least some level of narcissism considering his predicament with his affair.

I earlier alluded to the dichotomy Mulligan seems to hold between women: women who are attractive to him, and those who are “off-limits”, or otherwise unattractive to him. His wife falls into the latter category. Early on he describes her sleeping figure as ox-like, with “her bulk rounded under blankets” (Doerr 321) to further emphasize her size and inelegance. Later on, he mentions her baking bread, a sweet domestic task. We could assume this would be a favorable memory but no; he pictures her “fisting bread dough and planting it into a buttered bowl.  His wife bends, and he sees her wide back, her rotten ankles, her floured wrists” (Doerr 326). Even kind acts, like baking bread for him, are perceived as a negative- it further enforces his image of her as unkempt, and unfit. We see this not infrequently in society, as Holmlund touches on in her piece, Postfeminism from A to G, women’s worth is often reduced to their sexual attractiveness. Attractive women are usually women who experience greater privilege and societal opportunities, whereas less attractive (or women who are overweight, oftentimes are of color, disabled, or queer) women enjoy less privilege and chances than their conventionally attractive sisters.

It’s not just his wife- his hostility with “unattractive” or unattainable women extends to his wife’s niece who he encounters while fishing, describing her as “thick and with a hard look to her. A woman who fishes, hunts, and gambles. When he recognizes her, he cringes. (Doerr 326)” Once again his niece is described as large, and, when she speaks later, Mulligan complains internally that she speaks too loudly . In fact, Mulligan likens her speech to a bark, continuing the unfavorable analogies of women to animals, like comparing his wife to an ox early in the story. “How’s my aunt? The niece barks. There is jerky in her teeth. Mulligan wants to be rid of them… He wishes hard that they would leave him. (Doerr 327)”  The niece approaches Mulligan with a man, yet he is hardly a blip on Mulligan’s radar- his ire and disdain are focused solely on her. Her inelegance, her messiness and crassness, is emphasized to him, everything she does making him dislike her intensely- she is of course doomed to be disliked by Mulligan, as she is unattainable due to her relationship within the family, and unattractive to him between her mannerisms and her large frame, which is clearly a big strike against women for Mulligan.

One would be forgiven for thinking that Mulligan at least treats his mistress somewhat better- after all, judging by her letter, she is smitten with him- however this is not the case. He seems dismissive of his (unnamed) mistress at best. She writes to him, “Maybe I am greedy, maybe wanting you all for myself is selfish. Isn’t love real Mully, or was that a lie, too? (Doerr 323)”  Clearly Mulligan has filled her head with pretty lines about their relationship. He stuffs her letter in his pocket however, and when he gets to fishing, she is all but forgotten immediately. She wonders, “P.S. If you married me and left to go fishing, would you really go fishing?  (Doerr 324)”. Clearly despite her feelings for Mulligan she knows better than to fully trust him, for completely valid reasons. This demonstrates that even if a woman was head-over-heels in love with him, Mulligan still is too deeply entrenched in his own misogyny to appreciate any woman in his life. Despite having another woman totally pining for him, Mulligan is still dissatisfied with her, like his wife- the only psychological release he can get is through fishing. In his disdain for women, he has lost the ability to connect with them.

As noted by Moi, “Given women’s lack of equal rights, this value (the desire for women to be as valuable as men) must be located as difference, not as equality: women are of equal human value in their own way. (Moi 5)”  This is a facet where Mulligan fails in; he fundamentally does not view women as equals. We can see this in his prolonged affair; he is stringing at least one woman  along, likely both– I’d be surprised if he harbored real feelings for either woman. But in participating in this type of prolonged affair, he is showing a fundamental disrespect towards both women, indicative of his feelings overall towards women. In his interactions with his wife’s niece, this is further compounded by his obvious disdain for her- her barely notes the man with her in his disdain. Also of note, to me, is that none of the women are named, yet the inconsequential man at the beginning of the short story, Weatherbee, is named. Men are worthy of this respect, not women.

Mulligan is a deeply flawed man  who is incapable of perceiving the positives of women, instead using fishing as his catharsis. He is ultimately drawn to masculine ideals and traits, though he vilifies these same traits in women such as his wife’s niece. He seems to divide women between attainable and off-limits, though he treats both poorly. It is a truly interesting piece, one which details a man who is stuck in his own misogyny. When viewed through a postfeminist lens, River Run reveals the depths of Mulligan’s disdain for women who do not fit into his category of attainable, attractive women. In much the same way as society, Mulligan judges women based primarily off appearances and availability.

Works Cited

Holmlund, Chris. “Postfeminism from A to G.” Cinema Journal, vol. 44, no. 2, 2005, pp. 116–21. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3661099. Accessed 5 May 2024.

Kavka, Misha. “Feminism, Ethics, and History, or What Is the ‘Post’ in Postfeminism?” Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, vol. 21, no. 1, 2002, pp. 29–44. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/4149214. Accessed 28 Apr. 2024.

Moi, Toril. “Feminism, Postmodernism, and Style: Recent Feminist Criticism in the United States.” Cultural Critique, no. 9, 1988, pp. 3–22. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1354232. Accessed 28 Apr. 2024.