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Literature as a mirror of society pdf
Literature as a mirror of society pdf
Literature as a reflection in society
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In the excerpt “Two Cafeterias,” by Virgina Woolf she uses imagery of the meals that are served, her tone, and the behavior of the individuals to illustrate the men and women’s different place in society. In the first passage she is in the men’s cafeteria, in the second passage she is in the women’s cafeteria. She observes the meals and the people throughout the excerpt, comparing and contrasting them in more ways than most would think. We must take into consideration that women had a much lower place in society compared to men, the men were the higher ups, this is perceived through “Two Cafeterias.” As you read what Virginia has to say about her observations of the two different environments, they became clear. When she is in the men’s cafeteria,
On a tedious Thursday afternoon, the body of an extrusive racketeer named Fannin was found at Ernie’s Lunchroom by police officers. A testimony of the only witness, the proprietor and the only employee, Ernie has said “The murderer had leaned against the wall while firing at point-blank range”. There is also one imprint of the supposed homicidal murderer on one of the walls and the cash register had just been rung up at $8.75. The police believe that person C is the murderer from the hand position of the utensils/hand positions, the relation among persons B, D, and E, and the identification of the Y and X footprints. The victim of this heinous crime is also controversial and the media are portraying Fannin as a criminal due to his reputation of racketeering. Maybe Fannin did deserve what came to him but still the public ought to know the real culprit without no prejudices from the media.
Florence is in her headquarters at the hospital, she works at. She is writing a letter to a patient's mother. When all of a sudden, Mary, a fellow nurse, walks in. Mary and Florence talk about how nice it is to work with each other and how happy Mary is here. Mary quotes, “ I’m glad I’m here with you Miss Nightengale. Good Night.” at the end of their discussion.Also, they talk about how both of their families don’t really want them there. They talk for a little and Florence seems very at home and happy. Later, after Mary had left, two gentlemen come to talk to Florence. It is Dr. Goodale and Dr. Hall that have come to speak with her. After talking for a while they both leave and let Florence to her work. In the hospital, Florence seemed like an entire new person, she was much more
The difference between men and women is a very controversial issue, while there are obviously physical differences; the problem is how the genders are treated. It is stereotypically thought that the men do the labor work and make all the money, while the women stay in the house, cooking, cleaning and taking care of the children. While this stereotype does not exist as much in the 21st century, it was very prevalent in the 1900s. By using many different literary tools such as character development, symbolism, and setting, Alice Munro’s Boys and Girls and John Steinbeck’s The Chrysanthemums challenge this controversial topic of the treatment of women versus men in the 1900s.
Sam?s impression of the girls was obviously that they came from wealth, something that he could not claim for himself. And although he outwardly admired their bodies, he really admired their wealth. The girls walked in and by the lack of conformity of their dress, immediately they set a different tone within the store. They walked the wrong way down the isles and paid no attention to the way people were looking at them, Sam included.... ... middle of paper ...
From the beginning of society, men and women have always been looked at as having different positions in life. Even in the modern advanced world we live in today, there are still many people who believe men and women should be looked at differently. In the work field, on average women are paid amounts lower than men who may be doing the exact same thing. Throughout the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston brings about controversy on a mans roles. Janie Crawford relationships with Logan, Joe and Tea Cake each bring out the mens feelings on masculine roles in marital life.
In society, there has always been a gap between men and women. Women are generally expected to be homebodies, and seen as inferior to their husbands. The man is always correct, as he is more educated, and a woman must respect the man as they provide for the woman’s life. During the Victorian Era, women were very accommodating to fit the “house wife” stereotype. Women were to be a representation of love, purity and family; abandoning this stereotype would be seen as churlish living and a depredation of family status. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" and Henry Isben’s play A Doll's House depict women in the Victorian Era who were very much menial to their husbands. Nora Helmer, the protagonist in A Doll’s House and the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” both prove that living in complete inferiority to others is unhealthy as one must live for them self. However, attempts to obtain such desired freedom during the Victorian Era only end in complications.
The narrator and her husband’s interactions shows her as submissive in terms of gender equality. Although John perceives the narrator as a child with no volunteer ideas, it is shown in her journal that this theory is not valid because she was shaped to comply by the society and the norm. The narrator’s inferiority negatively impacts her mental and physical health to the point she had to rip off the wallpaper to break free. Nevertheless, when read critically, the story also unveil the women’s suffrage movement and its struggle. Since this story was published, women are slowly breaking away from men’s suppression and gaining more rights. In short, society and culture define gender roles; however, the changing economic, social, and education environment open up a new path for women. Nowadays, women are given the chance to prove themselves and can act beyond their gender roles. However, the equality between genders has not been achieved yet. Therefore, women should continue to fight for their rights and freedoms until they are treated with respect and enjoy
“it made her furious to be treated like a house agent or a messenger boy, to be made use of.” Mabel grows discontent with the conversation she is having as she realizes she is being used for sympathy, rather than being valued as an equal member of high-society capable of conversing properly. This is shown through the simile comparing Mabel to a “house agent or a messenger boy” two low-class positions that are used to serve rather than to be treated as equals. “and all the time she could see little bits of her yellow dress in the round looking-glass which made them all the size of boot-buttons or tadpoles;” The insecurity tied to Mabel’s dress also contributes to Mabel feeling as though she is not an equal, this is shown as Woolf compares the dress to small objects, through metaphors but clearly states the pain Mabel feels from wearing a dress she does not feel comfortable in. This is evidenced in the line,“and it was amazing to think how much humiliation and agony and self-loathing and effort and passionate ups and downs of feeling were contained in a thing the size of a threepenny bit.”, as even the smallest glimpse of the dress makes Mabel feel deeply unequal. “...it was impossible that the black dot, leaning forward, gesticulating, should make the yellow dot, sitting solitary,
In many southern areas, family and gender roles have been clearly defined and were generally followed closely for years. Carson McCullers’ The Ballad of the Sad Café features one character, Marvin Macy, who strictly abides by the set gender roles. However, The Ballad of the Sad Café also features Miss Amelia and Cousin Lymon, who do not abide by the roles set for their genders and instead exhibit the characteristics of the gender opposite of their own. As a result, Miss Amelia is seen as a somewhat intimidating individual while Cousin Lymon is seen as the weaker of the two. Even today, men and women are expected to fulfill certain roles and are often viewed negatively if they stray from them, though many of the expectations of gender roles have shifted over the years (O’Neil). This is partially due to societal changes and the factors that caused them. Characters like Miss Amelia and Cousin Lymon who do not abide by traditional gender roles influence the evolution and perception of gender roles over time.
As women, there has always been an issue with equality between themselves and men. Even though there has been a significant amount of progress in the United States throughout the years, there are women that still suffer with equal rights around the world. In A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, and “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway, there are many aspects throughout them that relate to each other in numerous ways. The main theme between them is the way woman are treated and how they appear to be less equal of the men in their lives. Even though men are presumed to be the more dominate gender, women should be just as equal socially, financially, and academically, and not feel pressured by men. For the women and girl in A Doll’s House, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, and “Hills Like White Elephants”, they suffer with the idea of feeling compelled to do what the men say and follow his direction of how their life should be.
Katherine Mansfield belongs to a group of female authors that have used their financial resources and social standing to critique the patriarchal status quo. Like Virginia Woolf, Mansfield was socioeconomically privileged enough to write influential texts that have been deemed as ‘proto-feminist’ before the initial feminist movements. The progressive era in which Mansfield writes proves to be especially problematic because, “[w]hile the Modernist tradition typically undermined middle-class values, women … did not have the recognized rights necessary to fully embrace the liberation from the[se] values” (Martin 69). Her short stories emphasized particular facets of female oppression, ranging from gendered social inequality to economic classism, and it is apparent that “[p]oor or rich, single or married, Mansfield’s women characters are all victims of their society” (Aihong 101). Mansfield’s short stories, “The Garden Party” and “Miss Brill”, represent the feminist struggle to identify traditional patriarchy as an inherent caste system in modernity. This notion is exemplified through the social bonds women create, the naïve innocence associated with the upper classes, and the purposeful dehumanization of women through oppressive patriarchal methods. By examining the female characters in “The Garden Party” and “Miss Brill”, it is evident that their relationships with other characters and themselves notify the reader of their encultured classist preconceptions, which is beneficial to analyze before discussing the sources of oppression.
She talks about how women and men act similar because of their emotions such as happiness, remorse and sadness but due to a different part of their brain, their reactive response to each emotion makes them different. This is where the stereotype of each gender comes into play with the female coming as better caretakers because they react better to happiness and comfort whereas the males are better workers because they react more to a reward. This is proven throughout time and history because while the women stayed home in many societies, the male was able to go out hunt, get food and provide for the
The reader, in the opening to the book's final chapter, leaves for a moment the precincts of old and ancient institutions and the pages of books. He or she is invited to contemplate, for a moment, the contemporaneous, everyday, and real world. It is a dynamic and modern world filled with automobile and foot traffic, factories, and businesses. And what this dynamic fast-changing world promises is that for which the author wishes, which is progress. A bright, certain future is expected just as rivers inevitably reach the sea. In this fortuitous and synchronous meeting of young woman, young man, and taxi, Woolf points to a future in which women and men are on an equal footing, meet each other half way, and travel together in a direction of mutual harmony.
“Girls wear jeans and cut their hair short and wear shirts and boots because it is okay to be a boy; for a girl it is like promotion. But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading, according to you, because secretly you believe that being a girl is degrading” (McEwan 55-56). Throughout the history of literature women have been viewed as inferior to men, but as time has progressed the idealistic views of how women perceive themselves has changed. In earlier literature women took the role of being the “housewife” or the household caretaker for the family while the men provided for the family. Women were hardly mentioned in the workforce and always held a spot under their husband’s wing. Women were viewed as a calm and caring character in many stories, poems, and novels in the early time period of literature. During the early time period of literature, women who opposed the common role were often times put to shame or viewed as rebels. As literature progresses through the decades and centuries, very little, but noticeable change begins to appear in perspective to the common role of women. Women were more often seen as a main character in a story setting as the literary period advanced. Around the nineteenth century women were beginning to break away from the social norms of society. Society had created a subservient role for women, which did not allow women to stand up for what they believe in. As the role of women in literature evolves, so does their views on the workforce environment and their own independence. Throughout the history of the world, British, and American literature, women have evolved to become more independent, self-reliant, and have learned to emphasize their self-worth.
Woolf divided this thought into three categories: what women are like throughout history, women and the fiction they write, and women and the fiction written about them. When one thinks of women and fiction, what they think of; Woolf tried to answer this question through the discovery of the female within literature in her writing. Virginia Woolf Throughout her life Virginia Woolf became increasingly interested in the topic of women and fiction, which is highly reflected in her writing. To understand her piece, A Room of One’s Own Room, her reader must understand her.