Abeng by Michelle Cliff and Mistreated Women of the Carribean

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The Caribbean regional colonial imperialism produced institutions and movements that deeply affected and continue to affect the lives of Caribbean women. Caribbean women’s literature represents sexual violence and the ideological appropriation of gender identity, gender roles, sexuality, race and ethnicity, and culture and class. The impressionable and forming years of an individual are too often controlled by what society feels correct is based on gender, race and culture. Although one may not behave as their society feels is appropriate, in no way should this result in making someone feel less or wrong because they are of color, female and strong-minded.
One identification category that affects Clare’s identity is gender, specifically how restrictive gender roles disempowered her. Clare Savage is a light-skinned, twelve-year old, middle-class girl who grew up in Jamaica in the 1950s. She lives in a conservative and heterosexist society where they are strict on gender roles and norms. Clare tried to find her own identity and place in her culture; however her mixed heritage creates some problems for her and one of those problems is how she is faced with gender roles. Cliff states that “Clare’s relationship with her father took the form of what she imagined a son would have, if there had been a son” (Cliff 9). When Clare spent time with her grandmother, she usually played with her friend Zoe, but Zoe was not around so she spent time with her cousin Joshua. However,
Miss Mattie told Clare that she could not partake in or watch the boys destroy the hog because that is not what girls do. Cliff states, “They (the boys) had the power to hurt her because they were allowed to do so much she was not - she was supposed to be h...

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...ruck down, especially after trying to play the role of a son by killing a wild pig which resulted in the death of Miss Mattie’s bull. She was challenged with her parents pulling her in different directions with her father wanting her to ignore her black roots but her mother wanting her to remember her roots. Clare was sent off to live with Mrs. Phillips due to pressures her parents felt based on gender, race and ethnicity of whom and how Clare should behave. Imagine being restrained by the fine lines that are drawn by a society which forms one to be someone they are not or because the actions of those who are superior push or mold you into someone who is a stranger. Finding one’s identity, with the added expectations based on gender, race and culture, is extremely challenging and confusing. Clare’s challenges, in the 1950s, are real and prevalent even today.

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