Womanhood and Resilience: The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

The Four Winds is a gripping tale of a woman’s strength, familial ties, and people’s resilience.

From start to finish, author Kristin Hannah delivers a heavily charged page-turner through Elsa Martinelli’s narration and her daughter Loreda. Set in the 1930s United States of America, they tell us the strength and double standards that women have had to endure then (even until now).

Elsa was born in a family that withheld love from her, raised to take up as little space as possible, and conditioned to be silent instead of vocally embracing her thoughts, feelings, and desires. She had always been left to her insecurities, encouraged to let it fester and ruin her spirit. But that is what made her the most courageous character in this story.

She continuously defeats her demons and possessed defiant strength in her vulnerability. Her capacity to love unconditionally, endurance through life’s hardships, gradual growth into taking up space, and gaining her voice is both a heartwarming and inspiring experience as a reader. Where Elsa is a practical mother seeking to provide for her children, her daughter Loreda is an idealistic dreamer.

Loreda may seem unlikeable at first glance with her rebelliousness, bratty demeanor, fluctuating anger, and stubborn idealism. But the things she had to do and go through were horrific to imagine on a child, plus her upbringing from a father that left their family are enough to make you sympathize with all her rage and angst. She is also unyielding, can recognize injustices, and stand up for herself and others.

This book has a wide range of characters that you will come to hold dearly, despise, and criticize. As Hannah goes in-depth with their thoughts and world views, you will find yourself pausing to ponder on their dialogues and opinions.

Throughout the story, we witness the repercussions and the widescale effect of 1930s America sinking into the Great Depression. We see how it thrust people into the trenches of poverty, desperation, and dehumanization from the upper class. The Four Winds depicts people’s grit followed by adversity and calamity as they live through dust storms, disease, and daily uncertainty on every penny.

This book was published this January 2021 in the middle of a pandemic, making it timely in discussing out-of-touch government responses, resistance towards modernization, people reverting to pinning the cause of misfortune on outsiders, and the call for unity.

It would be a deliberate dishonor to this book to avoid being political when that is one of its main foundations. It may be fictional and inaccurately following the order of historical events, but the situations it posed were genuine and tangible. Its delineation of the horrors stemming from classism, the evil that is capitalism, and the villainous self-righteousness of capitalists will make you see its manifestations and personifications in the present day.

Nevertheless, the blood that flows to and from this book’s heart is courage and persisting love.

Elsa and Loreda’s story is the story of every woman, and multiple times I have seen myself and other people that I know in them.

To those with a close relationship with their family, whether by blood or fate.

To bookworms who love escaping into infinite worlds enclosed by a handful of pages.

To advocates of not only workers’ rights but also other causes.

And to women who continuously redefine, reclaim, and shatter the standards imposed by patriarchy and society – this book invokes many emotions and food for thought.

Let me end this review with a quote from The Four Winds itself that I firmly believe in and will always live by:

“The world can be changed by a handful of courageous people.”