This thesis examines the figures of the American Adam and American Eve, exploring how the American Eve can still be considered a problematic figure, despite being created by feminist critics to...Show moreThis thesis examines the figures of the American Adam and American Eve, exploring how the American Eve can still be considered a problematic figure, despite being created by feminist critics to free female characters in American literature. It specifically analyses two twentieth-century American novels, Jeffrey Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides and Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping, and how the female characters in these novels are subversive figures, embodying a more flexible version of American femininity.Show less