Gender Disparities in Mo Yan's 'Frog'

1095 Words3 Pages

“What is a woman born to do?”
Frog is a novel that explores the most culturally taboo subjects. From late term abortion to the brutality of family planning, Mo Yan exposes China’s history with ruthless honesty and complete love. This essay will analyze the way women are valued within this novel and the quotation “When all is said and done a woman is born to have children” (205). This essay will focus on the argument that women are perceived as less than human, based on the depiction of paid surrogate mothers, the value of male babies over female ones, the shame of being an infertile women, and the overall language used.
In book four of the novel Frog women are reduced from human to incubator. It is in this section that we hear the first mention of surrogate motherhood. Whether or not this pays any resemblance to modern day China, Mo Yan paints an image of women being only as valuable as their wombs. The façade of the ‘bullfrog farm’ is revealed as Xiaopao learns of his cousin’s illegal business. “To put it nicely, it’s a surrogate mother centre. Not so …show more content…

Renmei mirrors her, from prior chapters. Both women are seen as child crazed women who are going against their better judgment in order to have children. They are viewed as irrational and Little Lion is described as having an “Insane desire for a child” (268). These women are products of their environments. The men in their lives have shaped them. Renmei is quoted in this section of the book and attests to this feeling “Why don’t I create a son for you Xiaopao?” (268). These two intelligent women only value themselves based on their ability to bear children. Little Lion’s obsession with having a baby is even crazier because she understands the repercussions of an unregistered child. She was a huge advocate for China’s family planning programs. This character flaw only proves how deeply she devalues herself for being

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