Elizabeth’s Pencil Symbol Analysis

Elizabeth’s pencil is a symbol of female empowerment, capability, and self-possession. It also shows that change and instability can be possible in an otherwise masculine and unchanging world. The pencil first appears in one of the novel’s darkest moments. Seemingly out of nowhere, Elizabeth’s doctoral thesis advisor, Dr. Meyers, sexually assaults her. To fight back, Elizabeth grabs a pencil a thrusts blindly behind her, puncturing Meyers’s small and large intestines. In this moment, the pencil functions as a practical tool for Elizabeth to physically defend herself against a man who would otherwise overpower her. From this moment forward, Elizabeth uses a pencil to help keep her hair up. Although the pencil looks innocuous to people who do not know its purpose, it functions as a reminder of Elizabeth’s preparedness and potential in a world that wishes to take advantage of her in more ways than one. At one point, Elizabeth says that she prefers pencils to pens because pencils allow for the correction of errors, which is a fundamental and necessary part of scientific inquiry. However, given the novel’s interest in the shifting social and political landscapes of the 1950s and 1960s, Elizabeth’s preference for pencils also gestures toward her (and the novel’s) belief that society can and should recognize its “mistakes”—its systemic inequalities and flawed social norms—and work to change them.