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Effect of society on literature
Effect of society on literature
How can dystopian literary culture impact societal norms
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Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar brings race, politics, religion, and ethnic identity all to the table in his 2013 Pulitzer Prize winning play. In modern day society these are the major social issues we see. What the audience fails to realize is that in Disgraced Akhtar has caused them to involuntarily embrace the double standards involving gender present in America. Women walk a fine line to not be a victim of “slut shaming.” “Despite its moniker, slut-shaming has little to do with actual sexual activity. Rather, it is largely a function of gossip, cliques and social control.(Tarrant)” Both Amir and Emily, the two main protagonist in the play, are victims to the others misconducts at some point in this play. The audience however finds themselves empathizing …show more content…
It is revealed that Isaac and Emily are participating in adultery in the quote, “Isaac: If what happened that night in London was a mistake, Em, it’s not the last time you’re going to make it. A man like that…You will cheat on him again. Maybe not with me, but you will. / Emily: Isaac. / Isaac: And then one day you’ll leave him. Em. I’m in love with you. / Isaac leans in to kiss her. Emily doesn’t move. In or out.” (Akhtar 70) The actions in the beginning of scene three are now able to be understood. Isaac’s statement of, “You will cheat on him again.” hits the audience in the mouth and lingers in their minds for the remainder of the play. We have already scene in the beginning of scene three that Emily is very open about her sexuality, so it is easy to see that she might possibly go back and commit this act again. Also when Isaac leans in to kiss Emily, she does not flinch implying that she will likely steer down this path again. The mood set by this scene carries on into the climax of the play when Amir assaults Emily. “Amir: Em. / Something in Amir’s tone-vulnerable, intense-stops her in place. / Are you sleeping with him? / Pause.”(Akhtar 74) Amir is once again shown in a vulnerable position which causes the audience to express sympathy for him once again. Amir explodes with anger when Emily tells him what the audience is already aware of, she cheated on him. All …show more content…
“Amir: White women have no self-respect. How can someone respect themselves when they think they have to take off their clothes to make people like them? They’re whores. / Emily: What are you saying? / Amir: What Muslims around the world say about white women.”(Akhtar 17) At this point in the play, the audience is still unaware that Emily has committed a deceitful act, so in saying this he is foreshadowing the events that take place between Emily and Isaac. Amir in this dialogue though is wrongly stereotyping the whole population of white women. Emily is the representor for all white women in the world, and when she ends up having sex with Isaac, she turns into the “whore” Amir talks about. It seems like women are either seen as a do no wrong motherly figure, or she is the girl that can’t keep her legs closed. Now that the audience is has seen her cheating on Amir, she is branded as the “whore.” The shaming in the audience will more likely come from other women rather than men. “A woman is considered a slut not if she has lots of sex, but if she gives it up easily. She is shamed not by men but rather by women who are angry that her giving easy access to sex is causing the value of sex in the market to go down.
Both el Saadawi and Al-Shaykh both show how perception and expression are both affected within the confines of politics, social opportunities, and male privilege depicted in their stories. Whether the reader is a follower of the feminist movement or not, it is very clear and easy to see that these women are not being treated with the respect that any human being deserves. The misogynistic stranglehold on society, especially in this part of the world, is excessive and avoidable in today’s world but it is very likely that the traditional, conservative ways of the past will continue to control and inhibit women from being able to be fully treated as equals for many years to come, perhaps even after this generation has
This passage displays a tone of the men’s respect and sense of protection toward Emily, which is very different from the other women’s reaction to her death. It also shows the reader that Emily was honorable in the eyes of the men of the town. We have seen this need to protect women throughout history, but in recent years there has been a great decline and it is sad.
“Disrespect towards women” occurs many times during the play. In my opinion, women should not be disrespected just as much as men shouldn’t and especially not the way that they show this in the play. One case of disrespect
Victor Rios is a previous gang member, whom “was given the opportunity” to get out of the youth control complex. In his book “Punished”, he analyzes the experiences of young black and Latino boys in Oakland, California. Rios gives us an intimate description of some of the everyday forms of “hyper discrimination” these minority boys experience. This book review will focus on the main concepts explained in chapters one through three from the book Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys.
...n he tried to intimidate her earlier and that she would be so bold to his face. The criticism faced by the characters in the plays demonstrate the idea that women are inferior to men and should not speak out for themselves.
The two essays discussed in this paper are ‘My Name’ and ‘Shame’. Sandra Cisneros in ‘My Name’ presents a very strong point of view of how her name has different meaning and it gives her memories of her grandmother with who she shares her name and also regrets the fact that it is somehow related to the weakness she and her grandmother used to feel when they were supposed to be behaving in a certain manner because they were Mexican and were not given power and freedom. There name was a sort of reminder of the fact that they have to be soft and polite and quite because none of the meaning of the name represents something which is powerful and expressive and strong. Esperanza in English means hope while in Spanish it meant sadness and waiting and that inflicted nations of the society towards women.
The boys call the girl’s slags, bitch and slut through out the whole play, but it's not just the name-calling, it’s the way males talk about having sex with the female characters. It is evident that all the male characters think the females are there for their own personal use. In the play, Enright display’s how male characters talk to the females. In the play, the male characters tell the women to piss off throughout the whole play. This is no way to talk to women. The males in this play are always insinuating sex; for example Scott makes a sexual remark to Shana. Shana says you know why I wear it, so when it rings, Scott cuts her off, then says so you know when I’m coming. This is just one of the instances in the play when males disrespect the females in how they talk about
Through this quote, it is observed that the psychodynamic perspective believes that a lack of controls being in place and weak internal controls can contribute to criminal activity. Emily comes from a wealthy upbringing, but the story describes her father as being a man who would chase away any other men who were interested in Emily. He seemed to be the only man who was allowed in her life. Being that he was the only man in her life, it only makes sense that after his death she would deny that he was dead and hold onto the body; she had no other men to hold onto. In the short story, it mentioned, “we remembered all the young men her father had driven away, and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will” (Faulkner, 2). This was the sad truth and everyone in the town knew it too. It can be inferred that she had some aggressive energy towards the townspeople when they wanted to bury the body and that this could be partially blamed on her father’s parenting. Once her father was dead and buried, she became involved with Homer Barron. Due to the way her
In the beginning Emily deal with self identity issues and that we can see from the first episode because she is having trouble with her boyfriend. They break up and Emily reveals that she is attracted to the same sex. She tries to hide this from her friends, but “A” doesn’t allow that to happen. Emily also has to be strong because she deals with her father being away from home because he is in the Army and all her mother does is worry about
As time goes on Emily grows up, her mother criticizes and blames herself for the distance between the relationships. It is causing tension in their already rocky relationship. The mother is obviously suffering from guilt on how Emily was raised and the unpleasant memories of the past. Emily was also suffering. We see her shyness towards those who care for her. She was a very depressed teen. She had quietness in her daily duties, and her feelings of not being good enough towards herself. She always felt that she was extremely ugly and not smart compared to her younger sister, Susan. She thought she was perfect. She was the typical “Shirley Temple” image.
Emily does not have much experience when it comes to boys. She would hangout with Sloan and her boyfriend, but she never has had a real boyfriend. Searching for love doesn’t always mean getting a boyfriend. You could be searching for love so you can love yourself. This list that Sloan had gave Emily was so much more than a list of crazy things. Emily was averse to the concept of love until she met Frank Porter. The search for love began on the first night Emily had the list. She met Frank at the Orchard while she was picking apples. It was evident that Emily had feelings for Frank, “I swallowed hard and felt my heart start to pound”(Matson 220). People’s hearts don’t start to pound every time they see someone. In addition to finding love for Frank, Emily also found love for herself. She tried on the dress that she thought looked ridiculous on her, but then she began to tell herself that she looked beautiful. The old Emily would not have done that. Lastly, Emily found love for her family. When Sloan was around it was always Emily and Sloan. She never spent anytime with her family, but since Sloan was gone she began to realize how much she loved her family. She realized that they love her just the way she
Anyone can be a hero, it is not a predetermined occupation, rather it can come out of anybody when a conflict arises. To become a hero all one has to do is step in to resolve an issue. In Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner the main conflict of the book is Amir's regret of past sins and desire for atonement. To atone for his sins Amir needs to recognize his wrongdoings, work to make up for them and change as a person. Throughout this story, Amir needs help to complete these steps. He gets help from Rahim Khan: the catalyst for his journey to redemption, Sohrab: Who saves Amir from Assef, and himself who by working hard to make a relationship with Sohrab is able to accept and move on from his past. To complete his journey for atonement Amir needs
In the 19th Century, women had different roles and treated differently compared to today’s women in American society. In the past, men expected women to carry out the duties of a homemaker, which consisted of cleaning and cooking. In earlier years, men did not allow women to have opinions or carry on a job outside of the household. As today’s societies, women leave the house to carry on jobs that allow them to speak their minds and carry on roles that men carried out in earlier years. In the 19th Century, men stereotyped women to be insignificant, not think with their minds about issues outside of the kitchen or home. In the play Trifles, written by Susan Glaspell, the writer portrays how women in earlier years have no rights and men treat women like dirt. Trifles is based on real life events of a murder that Susan Glaspell covered during her work as a newspaper reporter in Des Moines and the play is based off of Susan Glaspell’s earlier writing, “A Jury of Her Peers”. The play is about a wife of a farmer that appears to be cold and filled with silence. After many years of the husband treating the wife terrible, the farmer’s wife snaps and murders her husband. In addition, the play portrays how men and women may stick together in same sex roles in certain situations. The men in the play are busy looking for evidence of proof to show Mrs. Wright murdered her husband. As for the women in the play, they stick together by hiding evidence to prove Mrs. Wright murdered her husband. Although men felt they were smarter than women in the earlier days, the play describes how women are expected of too much in their roles, which could cause a woman to emotionally snap, but leads to women banding together to prove that women can be...
In the essay “Shame”, by Dick Gregory, the author narrates how two painful experiences during his childhood reflected how difficult it was to grow up as a poor African American. Gregory was ashamed of being on welfare and of his poverty, so much so that he got of rid of the warm hooded mackaw he received because it was a reminder that he and his family were on relief. Gregory also expresses his embarrassment, shame, and desire to hold onto his dignity throughout it all. In the essay “I Became Her Target”, by Roger Wilkins, the author describes how it was difficult for him to break the ice with his classmates because he was a new student in school. In fact, Wilkins was the only black student in this new school which only worsened the situation. Moreover, he was the target of both
"Emily is exempted from the general indictment because she is a real lady-that is, eccentric, slightly crazy, obsolete, a ‘stubborn and coquettish decay,’ absurd but indulged; ‘dear, inescapable, impervious, tranquil, and perverse’; indeed, anything and everything but human" (Fetterley 195). In order to be a woman in the South, one must be of a certain character. Any form of decay cannot tarnish this role or character unless you wish to retreat from the consistent status presented to you. Emily was a true incarnation representing the scale that originates in classism. Her character, however, engulfed the women and led the innocence to death in life itself. This immortal figure was a constant shadow hanging over an area of confusion and tradition. A tradition, which allowed Emily to fall deeper into the abyss of retreat and unconsciousness until reality was seen as a complete dream, filled with foolishness.