The Reef by Nora Roberts, a suspenseful romance novel, is my favorite text. First published in 1999 and set in the Caribbean Sea, it tells the story of a boy, Matthew Lassiter, who together with his uncle, witnesses the murder of his father on board a ship. Although the death appears to be an accident, Matthew suspects that Silas, a wealthy businessman who had quarreled with Matthew's father over an amulet they were both looking for under the sea, was behind it all. Eight years later, Matthew and his uncle decide to avenge his father's death and find the amulet he died for. During their expedition, they come across the Beaumonts, a wealthy family also searching for this underwater amulet, and the two groups form an alliance. The Beaumonts have the resources while the Lassiters have the expertise. Tate, the Beaumonts' daughter, falls in love with Matthew; but as soon as they become lovers, they must separate. Another eight years later, while still searching for this amulet, the two families meet again, and even more romance erupts between Tate and Matthew. Together they find the amulet and Matthew finally takes revenge on Silas. An extrinsic analysis of a text is a method of interpreting it based on what it tells us about society. It does not consider the value that a text has in itself but rather its value in relation to social issues. An example of an extrinsic attitude, from which I will analyze my text, is “feminist theory”. This theory aims to eliminate male supremacy to achieve gender equality. Globally, women are represented as the subordinate gender; such sexism is what feminist theory criticizes. Nora Roberts, in her history as a novelist, has never declared herself a feminist nor has anyone of... middle of paper... shown much pride. It is also for this reason that the popular phrase “Be a man” is used, to show that a male is not as proud as he should be, according to social standards. The portrayal of Nora's characters also adds to the "masculinity" of this text, as the male characters are the ones mostly talked about. Women are treated as "the other" and we don't hear much about it, in any dialogue or conversation. In my opinion, and always from the feminist point of view, Nora Roberts' novel is "masculine" because it describes the superiority of the male gender as society sees it. Simply put, female characters are ignored. Although it is my favorite text, I believe it could have been better if only Nora had put more “feminist” thought into her work. But who knows? Maybe it wouldn't have been such a great read!