Gubar’s piece on female creativity allows the book The Good Women of China to be read through a more critical lens. Women in the piece are consistently taking a back seat to their stories until they are given the opportunity to share and be told that their experience is important. What Xin Ran offers to these women is a change to be heard. It allows them to be the painter and their tormentors the subject. One woman in particular, Jin Shuai, talks critically of the world she lives in and offers a modern insight into the tragic backbone of the other women’s stories. Xin Ran meets with a college student who gives Xin Ran a definition of a “good woman”. The good Chinese woman is conditioned to behave in a “soft, meek manner” (42). She then goes on to say that the bad woman, or the mistress, is a woman a man despises and that is why he does not marry her. This idea of a good woman is a topic that is explored by a lot of literature. Looking at Shakespeare’s Hamlet, …show more content…
Women have been allowed to take part in public spheres as a source but never allowed to take ownership. In American Literature we read Harriet Jacobs slave narrative Incidents in the Life. Many times she would down play her experience by undercutting herself and basically saying “what do I know, this is just my experience. I am only a mother, just a slave woman.” Find quote in book. Similar to the Jin Shuai, she is willing to say what she feels and means but is not willing to follow through and claim her thoughts. She is not willing to give her viewpoints the title of feminist, Harriet Jacobs is not willing to say that her work is important. Even when women have something important to say, it must be approved by the men in the culture. We may only be as radical as our culture allows. Once we have approved a certain way of being, it can be next to impossible to change
Do you believe in equality? Regardless of gender, age, education, religion, etc. all people should be treated the same. However, not everyone is. This literature review shows that. My literature review is on the Gender Matters set of essays. The first essay is The Startling Plight of China’s Leftover Women by Christina Larsen. This essay is about the unmarried, educated women in China and why they are still unmarried. The second essay is The Invisible Migrant Man: Questioning Gender Privileges by Chloe Lewis. This piece is about the struggles and issues that married male migrants face and have faced. The last is Body-Building In Afghanistan by Oliver Broudy. It is about the men who are unemployed in Afghanistan who spend their time working out. My literature review is written in the following order: Larsen’s essay, Broudy’s
The united States Declaration of independence states that all men are equal, but aren’t all women as well? Nowadays, the numbers for the population are at an increase for the support in gender equality, with the capture of feminist labels. The seek for equality between men and women, and criticize the privileges that arouse by gender differences. However in Old China, males control almost everything due to a patriarchal society. At that time, not only men, but also women are influenced by male chauvinism. In the Jade Peony, written by Wayson Choy, female characters are affected by an unequal perspective despite their age group.
From 1813 to 1879, lived a woman of great dignity, strong will, and one desire. A woman who was considered nothing more than just a slave girl would give anything for the freedom for herself and her two children. Harriet Jacobs, who used the pen name Linda Brent, compiled her life into a little book called Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Mrs. Jacobs' story, once read, will leave nothing but pity and heart ache for her readers as they discover the life she had to endure. She however boldly states, "[I] earnestly desire to arouse the women of the North to a realizing sense of the condition of two millions of women at the South still in bondage, suffering what I suffered, and most of them far worse. I want to add my testimony to that of abler pens to convince the people of the Free States what Slavery really is."(preface 1) Harriet Jacobs wanted to show the people who were not experiencing slavery exactly was going on in hopes that it would influence them to bring a stop to it. Though you cannot help but pity Harriet Jacobs, you can also take her story and the hard ships she endured and realize how strong a woman she truly was.
The U.S. slave system has placed African American women at a disadvantage for hundreds of years. It's atrocious to think this kind of thing could ever be allowed to happen. Even worse is to the reality that it wouldn't be that way if people truly believed in equality. Women were owned in every aspect, not merely free labor. Their minds, bodies, and souls were pushed to the limits and Harriet Jacobs is an example of this being true.
These “hand-picked” classics were the guidelines of society. Women did not have the same privileges as men. When the Classics are interpreted as “hand-picked” selections exemplifying Confucian beliefs, the poem “The Han So Wide” depicts that promiscuous “girls roaming free” need to be civilized by a Confucian lifestyle (The Han So Wide). Meanwhile, it was common for men to have multiple wives, such as Magnate Ma in Rescriptor-in-Waiting Bao’s Clever Trick: The Record of the Chalk Circle (Xingdao). Magnate Ma had two wives, the First Wife, and former prostitute Zhang Haitang, yet he was never shamed (Xingdao). Zhang Haitang, however, was judged heavily by everyone in the town for her social background, causing her to lose her first court case against the first wife for the murder of Magnate Ma (Xingdao). It was unacceptable for women to be seen with more than one man, but men could have as many wives and concubines as he
Harriet Jacobs was a slave - her story, that of her own life. Jacobs shares her life with the hopes of ultimately bettering the lives of many others. She does not believe that change happens over night, but she does believe that it happens. One might believe her feminist approach was one sided and would have been more successful if written for a larger audience. One can also argue that Jacobs approach made her efforts outstandingly successful because rather than touching the outskirts of the hearts of many, she deeply penetrated the hearts of a smaller mass and it is those hearts that will join her in her push for change. Harriet Jacobs set out to alter conventions and give slave women a better life and a better outlook. Looking at how far we have come today, how can we not consider her efforts a success?
The Good Earth focuses around the life of a Chinese peasant, Wang Lung, who struggles to overcome a poverty-stricken life. The accounts of Wang Lung's life portray traditional China. One prominent aspect of this story is how women were depicted in society. The role of women in China is woven throughout the novel. Depending on their social status, each female character within the novel gives readers a different perspective of a woman's role during this period. In addition to their roles, the author includes the trials and tribulations these women must face as well. As a whole, the importance of these female characters are based upon their contribution to the ego's of the male protagonists and as being providers of support to both family and order in society. In Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth, women are depicted to be consistent with the authentic Chinese culture of that period.
The suffrage movement first emerged at the turn of the century and Civil War when African American slaves were denied the right to vote, a benefit that a majority agreed was associated with citizenship, and therefore should be applicable to all freed slaves. This set the grounds for a suffrage movement that later evolved into a larger issue centered on antislavery reform. Joining together to fight for benefits that were being withheld from American citizens, the role of women came into play during this time as the most active abolitionists who came together to organize petitions, conventions, and raise funds to help further the movement. Women played a vital role in being heard through protests and local publications of their thoughts. Novels such as Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Clotel, along with articles in popular news publications, shed much light and attention on anti-slavery reform, while also sparking the inspiration for women’s rights (Britton, 2006).
The Shrew described a lot of problems in the woman's issues, love, marriage, and family. Ancient Chinese Women’s opinion on their love and marriage has the conflict with the social system, moral norms, traditional ideas, customary forces by that time. Sometime the conflicts could also lead to tragedy and casual life. In the real-life, such events are common, thus causing widespread concern and attention in the society. In the feudal society, women are subject to restrictions, repression, abuse, persecution of the most profound, so their resistance is the strongest.
Out of times of societal conflict, art arises like a phoenix from the ashes left in the wake of injustice. A piece of literary art entitled Red Scarf Girl, is a memoir of author Ji-Li Jiang’s life during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. The novel details her youth during the rise of communist China and is directly inspired by events that transpired in Jiang’s life. As evidenced by Jiang’s, Meeropol’s, and my art, one can see that art is often motivated by the creator’s desire to shed light on wrongdoings gone unnoticed by the masses.
The early part of the novel shows women’s place in Chinese culture. Women had no say or position in society. They were viewed as objects, and were used as concubines and treated with disparagement in society. The status of women’s social rank in the 20th century in China is a definite positive change. As the development of Communism continued, women were allowed to be involved in not only protests, but attended universities and more opportunities outside “house” work. Communism established gender equality and legimated free marriage, instead of concunbinage. Mao’s slogan, “Women hold half of the sky”, became extremely popular. Women did almost any job a man performed. Women were victims by being compared to objects and treated as sex slaves. This was compared to the human acts right, because it was an issue of inhumane treatment.
A gender role in the time when British literature was being written was very important to the women history. Women were subservient to men in most of the British literature. Some literature women had a little more power than in others. When women were asked to do something by a man there was no way they could say no. the way women were treated then is the equivalent to a housewife now in the Twenty-First century. When a man told them to do something they had to do it. Throughout the literature women started desiring more respect and power. A very good example of a woman that overcame gender roles is Susan B. Anthony. She was born on February 15, in 1820 in Adams, Massachusetts. Susan B. Anthony taught for fifteen years then she decided to be in the women’s rights movement. After that’s she was committed and devoted to be to omen suffrage. Susan B Anthony remained very active with anything that had anything to do with women until her death on March 13, 1906. Another example is Elizabeth Cady Stanton she was born on November 12, 1815 in Johnstown, New York. Throughout her life she stood behind women’s right with the Women’s rights movement as well as Susan B Anthony. She was the president of the National Women’s Suffrage Association (NWSA) for 20 years. She died a very respected and honorable woman on October 26, 1902. These women really changed the game for women back in the day. These women were very important representatives in the Women’s Rights Movement. They helped out a lot and put a lot of time throughout their life to make sure women got to where we are today. They were huge role models for women today. Although women had to fight for us to get rights, British literature consisted of women being subservient to men. I am go...
The historical context of humanity in this film is the recurrence of forbidden love throughout storytelling. Since love is an emotion with the potential to be universally understood by all people, it is a human story. Forbidden love goes one step further to describe love which outside forces try to end, a trope in tragic love stories like Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, and Pyramus and Thisbe. The human story of forbidden love between Chen and Xiao Hong makes up part of the layered human experience, but the Chinese story comes in the form of the forces which prevent this love. During this time period the buying of young girls like Xiao Hong to raise as courtesans was still practiced in Shanghai. As discussed in class, part of the goal of this film was to raise issues about the tragic position Chinese women still found themselves in during the early 20th century. The audience is able to use the human story of forbidden love as a lens to examine the historical context of China surrounding this practice, and thus an understanding of women’s position in Chinese culture in the 1930s. Since forbidden love implies tragedy, and indeed the film does end with the tragedy of the death of Xiao Hong’s sister, this film argues through both the Chinese and human story that a
What I have discussed are two women authors that have faced trials in their lifetimes pertaining to feminism that society had forced upon them. We are given insight into the ways and values of their time and how these experiences influenced their writings. In conclusion, we can see how societal issues concerning the roles of women have differed in principles, but remain the same in the way that there is an unbroken tradition regarding how men and women differ in their roles as well as their perceived rights. Female writers and advocates of women’s rights show these influences with Mary Wollstonecraft using her strong personality and direct writings and Virginia Woolf using her narratives, and both giving us insight to the struggles of an ongoing debate.
The Good woman of Setzuan is a play written by Bertolt Brecht which brings in sympathetic feeling to the audience and the readers of play by using low economic warm hearted woman Shan Te, who is treated differently because of her status in the society. In Shen Te’s society, a woman is a considered second class because of her gender and economic status and men are considered best option for her survival. For instance, a policeman admits that the only way Shen Te could get out of poverty is to get man. In a like manner, Shen Te’s boyfriend believes that a woman does everything a man asks because she devoid to common sense. Even though Shen Te is a very good person, when things gets out of hand, she develops bad double self by disguising herself