The Grace Year

The Grace Year is a story of sexism, brutality, and the dehumanization of young women in a fictional society. Garner County may not be real, but the issues Liggett tackles have very heavy real-world implications. As the world evolves, discussions around misogyny, gender roles, and sexual manipulation are ever-changing. While religion can be fulfilling to those who choose to practice it, it is often brought into these discussions as a trump card meant to shut down ideas of progress and equality. In The Grace Year, Liggett demonstrates how religion is weaponized to keep women of all ages in a position of subservience and enforce inequality in a society.

In Garner County, women are valued for one thing only: their ability to bear sons. Tierney remembers the day she had her first bleed and how it was a “heavy reminder of [her] place in this world” (271). The men use the Bible to remind women that their bodies have a divine purpose: to grow babies for their husbands. In church on Sundays, the preacher calls women “the weaker sex,” and this idea is “pounded into [the women]” along with a regular reminder that “everything’s Eve’s fault” (14). By repeating this idea that women are responsible for the fall of mankind, the men in Garner County believe they have successfully indoctrinated the women to believe that they must make themselves small, quiet, and submissive to make up for their supposed sins.