Analysis Of The Good Women Of China

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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

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