I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark Literary Elements

Children’s illustrated non-fiction/Biography

America—including Brooklyn and Washington, D.C.—spanning the years of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s life, from the 1940’s to the 21st century.

Third-person narrative point of view focusing on the perspective of Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a young girl, college student, and through her long judicial career.

Inspirational, uplifting, and admiring

Protagonist: Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Antagonist: Discrimination against oppressed groups in America.

The primary conflict of the narrative pits Ruth against a systemic prejudicial bias against women seeking to do more than—not necessarily something other than—finding a husband.

The climax is Ginsburg’s successful nomination to the Supreme Court as just the second women ever to serve on the court.

The opening assertive metaphor foreshadows events described on practically every page of the book: “You could say Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s life has been one disagreement after another.”

At the conclusion of the two-page spread detailing her rebellion against being forced into bad penmanship by being a left-handed forced to write with her right hand, a deft bit of understatement is engaged: “And it turned out she had quite nice handwriting.”

The truly astounding and long legacy of ignorance manifested by those men who preceded her to the Supreme Court is made palpable through allusion by the use of a series of jaw-dropping pronouncements made by a few representatives: “Woman has always been dependent upon man” and “the natural and proper timidity and delicacy” of women makes them clearly unfit “for many of the occupations of civil life.”

Throughout the book, the text is accompanied by cartoon drawings of Ruth at various points during her long life raising an arm—sometimes ending with a closed fist and sometimes with pointed finger—which becomes recurring imagery of her overwhelming impulse to dissent, disagree and differ.

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“She was a woman…She was a mother…She was Jewish…Three strikes against her.”

“Court” and “the courts” are used throughout as metonyms symbolizing the entire extensive judicial process.

An absurdly offensive example of historically-based discriminatory personification is used to powerful effect in a sign which endows dogs and those of the Jewish faith with the same level of humanity.