It is also a book featuring heroic knights. Joe asks Ann what she is reading and she responds with Ivanhoe, which is a book about the animosity between the conquered and the conquerers. The punishment is growing up to be a woman living in a patriarchal society who is unable to use her knowledge to escape the confines of the prescribed sexual roles. Ann commits a sin because she is tempted by knowledge, like Eden was tempted by the forbidden fruit, and she will be punished for it. It’ll ruin your eyes.” We look over Ann’s shoulder as she blatantly ignores her father and continues to read her book. As Joe turns to go upstairs, to the heavens, to see his elder daughter, he utters a commandment to Ann : “Don’t read too much. Joe Newton is more of a child figure than the patriarchal head of the family but he refuses to be aware of this fact.
Although Ann never says it explicitly, she implies that mysteries are so childish that even she, a child, won’t read them. Ann tries to clarify what she means but her father does not want to listen and interrupts her twice, asking about the whereabouts of his two other children.
Her father takes this to mean that she would have bad dreams if she read mysteries, but Ann says he has misunderstood her. She comments that, as a child, she would never read her father’s mysteries. Throughout the scene, Ann refuses to remove her attention fully from her book, even while following her elder sister’s request to answer the telephone, until her father kisses her on the cheek and she eyes her father’s “Unsolved Crimes” booklet. Ann Newton, like Isaac Newton, is interested in gaining knowledge. These two juxtaposing symbols are coupled with the symbol of the apple, which is the forbidden fruit that Eve was tempted to eat and then shared with Adam and also the apple of Isaac Newton, symbolizing scientific discovery. As we discussed in class, the glasses portray Ann as an intellectual in search of knowledge and someone who looks at things rather than is looked at, while the flower is a symbol of female sexuality. We watch as she munches on an apple and reads her book, unbothered by the insistent telephone ring. From this shot, we can clearly see she is wearing glasses and has a flower behind one ear. Ann is laying on her stomach on the floor with her legs and arms crossed, which suggests a more sexually closed off position in contrast to the image of her elder sister laying on her back in bed with her arms by the sides of her head.
Ann Newton, the youngest daughter of the Newton family, is introduced to us from the perspective of someone looking down at her from the top of the staircase, as if from the heavens.
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