The Role of Women in My Antonia
In her novel, My Antonia, Cather represents the frontier as a new nation. Blanche Gelfant notes that Cather "creat[ed] images of strong and resourceful women upon whom the fate of a new country depended" . This responsibility, along with the "economic productivity" Gilbert and Gubar cite (173), reinforces the sense that women hold a different place in this frontier community than they would in the more settled areas of America.
One manner in which this unusual place can be seen is in the women's privileged relationship to the land in the text. While Jim Burden attends school, it is Antonia who shapes and works the new land that the pioneers inhabit, going "from farm to farm" to fill the need for agricultural hands (111). While Otto and Jake fill this need early in the text, it is predominantly Antonia's cultivation of the land that is followed throughout the remainder of the text. Similarly, the concrete contributions of the "hired girls" stand in pointed contrast to the invisible and/or passive employment of male characters such as Mr. Harling.
In the same way, Jim recognizes that it is the "hired girls" like Antonia who will form the backbone of the society when the next generation comes: "the girls who once worked in Black Hawk kitchens are to-day [sic] managing big farms and fine families of their own; their children are better off than the children of the women they used to serve" (150-1). These assertions--of the women's direct involvement of the development of the region, both agriculturally and socially--highlight an important point: "it is insufficient to think of nationalism affecting gender in a one-way relationship" (Walby 237). In other words,...
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My Antonia, by Willa Cather, is a book tracing the story of a young man, Jim Burden, and his relationship with a young woman, Antonia Shimerda. Jim narrates the entire story in first person, relating accounts and memories of his childhood with Antonia. He traces his journey to the Nebraska where he and Antonia meet and grow up. Jim looks back on all of his childhood scenes with Antonia with nearly heartbreaking nostalgia. My Antonia, is a book that makes many parallels to the sadness and frailty, but also the quiet beauty in life, and leaves the reader with a sense of profound sorrow. One of the main ways Cather is able to invoke these emotions in the reader is through the ongoing theme of separation. Willa Cather develops her theme of separation through death, the changing seasons, characters leaving and the process of growing apart.
Through the thirty four page analysis, Lanser invokes her audience to consider the influences of gender practices taken into account by writing styles, sexual oppression, the feminine consciousness, and political privileges.
Subordination of women to men is prevalent in large parts of the world. We come across experiences where women are not only treated like less than but are also subject to discriminations, humiliations, exploitations, oppressions, control and violence. Patriarchy literally means rule of the father in a male-dominated family. It is a social and ideological construct which considers men superior to women. Patriarchy is based on a system of power relations which are unequal where men control women’s production, reproduction and sexuality. It imposes masculinity and femininity character stereotypes in society which strengthen the bas power relations between men and women. Patriarchy within a particular class also differs in terms of religious and regional variations. This control has developed historically and is institutionalized and legitimized by several ideologies, social practices, and institutions including, family, religion, education, media, society and more.
In 1891, marking the elimination of "free land," the Census Bureau announced that the frontier no longer existed (Takaki, A Different Mirror, 225). The end of the frontier meant the constant impoverishment, instead of the wealth they had dreamed of, for a large number of immigrants from the Old World: they came too late. My Ántonia, however, illuminates another frontier, a frontier within America that most immigrants had to face. It was the frontier between "Americans" and "foreigners." The immigrants were still "foreign" to the "Americans" who came and settled earlier. They had to overcome the language and cultural barrier and struggle against the harsh conditions of life. The novel focuses on the ironic moment that the frontier spirit - a uniquely American one - is realized through "foreigners." Furthermore, it is women, the "hired girls," who are put in the foreground in the novel. What has made America is the foreign within, or rather, the foreign women on the frontier.
Their fear of the beast is one that causes many arguments and fights. The revelation of the beast's true identity is not understood by all the boys despite many of the obvious clues. At one point, in the dark, the boys confuse Simon for the beast and attack him: “Now out of the terror rose another desire, thick, urgent, blind. Kill the beast! Cut its throat! Spill its blood!” (152). This evil trance like state that the boys were in cause them to kill Simon in a brawl of savagery. This scene is near the peak of climax because the change in all the characters perspective is prominent. Its when this scene is over that the characters start to realize who the beast is. The savagery behind their gruesome chant deepens the complexity of how the boys are changing; it isn’t a fight for survival, but rather an excuse to kill.
...y uses anecdotes and stories of women in the 17th and 18th centuries to provide evidence to the reader and demonstrate the roles women filled and how they filled those roles. Furthermore, she illustrates the individuality in each woman’s story. Although in several of the stories the women may be filling the same roles, the uniqueness of the situation varies from woman to woman. Ulrich’s use of period stories helps add to the credibility of the arguments she makes. She makes the reader feel the weight of responsibility on the shoulders of colonial New England women. A sense of appreciation is gained by the reader for the sheer number of roles fulfilled by the women of New England. In addition, Ulrich’s real life accounts also give valuable insight to life as it was during this time period in American history and the silent heroes behind it – the wives of New England.
The book is set out in chronological order, starting with the first American women in the indian civilizations and going until the new century. It goes in depth on how women influenced major social changes that occurred in the history of America. It offers a section in the back with further reading including ...
Throughout previous class periods in English, I’ve encountered a lot of class discussion about gender role in the recent units we’ve read. Since the beginning of the era when gender quality came upon there has always been an issue. These problems people face have been expressed in their daily living. Several authors such as Eveline, Charlotte Gilman, Virginia Woolf, and Mary Leapor have well-known writings on gender issues. In their writings, they express how they felt about the issues of the gender and what they’ve experienced while being held to an expectation.
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Fisher, Jerilyn, and Ellen S. Silber. Women in Literature: Reading Through the Lens of Gender. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 2003. Print.
Women in the nineteenth century, for the most part, had to follow the common role presented to them by society. This role can be summed up by what historians call the “cult of domesticity”. The McGuffey Readers does a successful job at illustrating the women’s role in society. Women that took part in the overland trail as described in “Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey” had to try to follow these roles while facing many challenges that made it very difficult to do so.
“Men are from Mars Women are from Venus” A book written by John Gray. Venus and Mars are two different planets, but men and women are not different from one another, other than their gender. God made us not so we can judge others, but so that we are all equal, and we can all share any opportunities possible with each other. We can help each other develop both physically and mentally. Men and women are humans and both must be treated with the same and or equal respect!
Truth is dominated by one’s subjective thoughts and beliefs. It is a concept that’s created by man, and therefore can never have any absolutes. And if a concept such as the truth has no absolutes, it becomes subjective based upon your perceptions of it. However, an individual’s experiences, thoughts and beliefs shape their perception of truth. Truth is timeless, abstract and unchanging ideals based on the individual. All truth is subjected to an individual’s opinion. It is based on person’s perspective on society and developed by their past experiences.
Throughout American Literature, women have been depicted in many different ways. The portrayal of women in American Literature is often influenced by an author's personal experience or a frequent societal stereotype of women and their position. Often times, male authors interpret society’s views of women in a completely different nature than a female author would. While F. Scott Fitzgerald may represent his main female character as a victim in the 1920’s, Zora Neale Hurston portrays hers as a strong, free-spirited, and independent woman only a decade later in the 1930’s.