A World of Curiosities

The novel depicts women suffering due to misogynistic and ignorant beliefs at a number of different points in time; it also depicts women coming together to form community and work toward a common purpose.

Anne Lamarque and other women accused of witchcraft in 17th-century New France were literally demonized and accused of colluding with supernatural forces; these accusations took place because the men around them did not want to accept that women could be intelligent, resourceful, and self-reliant. The punishment of banishment represented a desire to excise powerful women from a community because they provoked fear in others; however, Anne Lamarque was able to join forces with others and not only survive but thrive. They founded “a community where all were welcome. That was the real magic” (293).

Centuries later, the female engineering students studying at École Polytechnique are akin to modern-day witches because they also challenge assumptions and power dynamics within a historically male-dominated field. The violent attack explicitly targeting women for daring to study and hold professional ambitions represents a male attempt to assert control, but also terrible cowardice. The survivors of the attack, like the survivors of the witch trial, band together and work to create a better world by advocating for human rights and stricter gun control.