Patriarchal Surveillance and Female Vulnerability in A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder: A Feminist Study of Power and Resistance

Abstract

In modern patriarchal communities, young women still face constant supervision and control, which makes them vulnerable to all kinds of factors. Patriarchal surveillance operated based on social norms, moral policing, and gendered expectations that restricted women’s autonomy and, at the same time, did not help women to be subjects of violence. A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson gave a vivid example of this truth by introducing a character of Pip Fitz-Amobi. This paper examines the concept of patriarchal surveillance to create female vulnerability in the novel through the themes of social control, fear, gendered violence, and psychological pressures. Through the analysis of Pip in the investigative trial, the paper has found that young women were supervised, evaluated, and coerced in a male-dominated social system. Meanwhile, the novel highlighted female resistance and agency and demonstrated how young women challenged patriarchal constraints. This article argued that the novel reflected the lived experiences of young women in contemporary society, where surveillance and vulnerability existed together with strength and self-confidence.