Often in literature, there is a certain motivation to control through a female’s sexuality. These desires are used to drive a woman’s sense of power over a man to dominate, manipulate, and destroy. Others are eaten alive by the control it takes over them. Some become dependant on sex and do not know how to interact with men without giving themselves up. The novels East of Eden and The Color Purple, play A Streetcar Named Desire and the short story “Where are You Going, Where Have You Been?” all demonstrate characters that are affected by the incentive. Cathy from Eden and Shug Avery from The Color Purple both display commanding roles through their sexuality. They have the power that they crave, and can manipulate others with what they do. Blanche DuBois from Streetcar and Connie from “Where are You Going...” are two characters that succumb to their feelings of needing to be accepted. They find it easy to give themselves up for sex in order the gain the respect they think they will receive. The truth, however, is that no one can respect someone that does not respect themselves enough to not be promiscuous. Sexual promiscuity by women has been looked down upon throughout history, in and out of literature, but in Cathy Ames’s case, it made her superior. In the Steinbeck novel of the battle of good v. evil, as a young girl, her mother finds Cathy in her barn being fondled by a couple boys older than her. She also seduces her teacher and leads him to committing suicide, due to the emptiness he feels when she refuses to marry him. At a very early age she realizes she can control men, easily, and continues with this for the rest of the novel (Steinbeck). She is a self-centered character who is determined to do what sh... ... middle of paper ... ... the better of them. Works Cited BookRags Editors, The Color Purple Book Notes Summary. 2009 3 June 2010. "Blanch DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire." Shmoop Beta. 2010. 3 June 2010 . Dylan, Bob. “(It’s All Over Now) Baby Blue.” Bringing it all back home. Columbia, 1965. Kurkowski, Clifford J.. A Psychological Analysis of Connie. 3 June 2010 . SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on The Color Purple.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2003. Web. 2 Jun. 2010. . SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on East of Eden.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2003. Web. 2 Jun. 2010. . Wakeling, Solomon. Web Diary. 2008. 3 June 2010 .
Many powers that women possessed in the past, and that they posses today, are located in the most secure vault in the body, the brain. These powers are not consciously locked up, and at times many women do not even now that they exist, and this is mainly due to the “male world” (53) in which women live in. Audre Lorde presents this ideal that one of these powers that are being oppressed by society is that of the erotic. Lorde presents the argument that allowing the desires and feelings of the erotic to play a conscious role in the lives of women will allow women to live a different life, one filled with empowerment from both past and present endeavors.
Baldwin, James. “Sonny’s Blues.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia.12th ed. New York: Pearson, 2013.58-78.Print.
Schuster-Craig, J. (2011). The Blue Moment: Miles Davis's Kind of Blue and the Remaking of
Rubin, Gayle. “Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality.” in Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality. ed. Vance, Carole. Pandora: London, 1992.
Human conflict is ever-present in sex and desire. But, not until the streetcar named Desire was first shown in 1947 had the corporeal act of sex been so openly depicted on stage as a basis of dominance and power. The streetcar in the New Orleans Street, Elysian Fields, is an urban harsh world, where the laws of nature are the enduring rules of engagement. As the wild sex and violence are intimately connected, Intercourse is a product of aggressive dominance, competition and submission to a certain extent than romance. Although Williams repeatedly claimed that his piece cautioned against the world where brutes were permitted to reign, the play 's end, shows the sexually imposing dominance placed upon Blanche by Stanley, whom demolished her illusions
Catherine Ames lives as a cruel, scheming, sadistic creature who knows how to manipulate others into doing any act she desires. Cathy destroys lives without penance. She acts as the embodiment of pure wickedness, driven by low self-esteem, desperation, and a love of power. Since she possesses no conscience, Cathy does not allow herself an honest choice at which path to go down throughout her life. Steinbeck uses her character to describe how society becomes blinded by the need for control, while some may just be born blind.
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering” (Lucas). Truly few human beings know the darkside like Cathy Ames.The character that everybody is supposed to despise, even if one loves to hate Cathy, she is a wicked woman. While some people may argue that she changes during John Steinbeck's East of Eden, her motivation for every evil deed she commits is the same: Cathy longs to be in control of her entire existence.
The female sexuality plays the very important role in both DRACULA and MAXIMUM GAGA. They both talk about the virginity and dissoluteness in female sexuality, but have different views about it. In DRACULA, only virginity is accepted; dissoluteness is completely intolerable. Stoker thinks virginity is very precious, and he want the readers know that women will be punished for being lascivious, so each female character has different ending in terms of their virginity. In MAXIMUM GAGA, Lara didn’t give an exact attitude about the virginity and dissoluteness in female sexuality; she thinks they can exist at the same time.
The woman in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and the woman in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire both struggle with discrimination. Celie, a passive young woman, finds herself in mistreatment and isolation, leading to emotional numbness, in addition to a society in which females are deemed second-rate furthermore subservient to the males surrounding them. Like Celie, Blanche DuBois, a desperate woman, who finds herself dependent on men, is also caught in a battle between survival and sexism during the transformation from the old to the new coming South.
Schultz, Jeffrey, and Luchen Li. "East of Eden." Bloom's Literature. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 8
Sexuality is defined in many ways, for the sake of this papers clarity sexuality will be defined as, sexual feelings and interactions that are defining features of romantic intimacy. (Fering 2009) Child sexual abuse (CSA) is defined in the International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences as "any [sexual] action that is inflicted upon or must be tolerated by a child against their own will or any [sexual] action about which the child cannot make a decision due to their physical, emotional, mental, and verbal inferiority." Statistics for the prevalence of CSA range from anywhere from 15 to 25 percent of women to 5 to 10 percent of men according to Deegener. (2002)
n Prelude, Katherine Mansfield explores issues of sexual frustration and the restrictions on female identity in a patriarchal society, as experienced by three generations of Burnell women. Linda Burnells responses to male sexuality are tainted by their inevitable association to her obligations in fulfilling her role as a wife and a mother, both of which Linda has shown indifference towards. As a result, Linda's own sexuality suffers under feelings of oppression.
From birth, one's sexuality is shaped by society. Cultures institute behaviors that are to be seen as the societal norms, which work to constantly reinforce societal expectations of how genders should act in relation to one another. Although some may argue that one's sexuality is an innate characteristic resulting from genetic makeup, there is a large amount of evidence pointing to its social construction instead. Through the power differences between males and females, established gender roles, and drastic economic shifts, society establishes sexuality and reinforces the behaviors that are expected of its citizens.
Gender and sexuality can be comprehended through social science. Social science is “the study of human society and of individual relationships in and to society” (free dictionary, 2009). The study of social science deals with different aspects of society such as politics, economics, and the social aspects of society. Gender identity is closely interlinked with social science as it is based on an identity of an individual in the society. Sexuality is “the condition of being characterized and distinguished by sex” (free dictionary, 2009). There are different gender identities such as male, female, gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual that exists all around the world. There is inequality in gender identities and dominance of a male regardless of which sexuality they fall under. The males are superior over the females and gays superior over the lesbians, however it different depending on the place and circumstances. This paper will look at the gender roles and stereotypes, social policy, and homosexuality from a modern and a traditional society perspective. The three different areas will be compared by the two different societies to understand how much changes has occurred and whether or not anything has really changed. In general a traditional society is more conservative where as a modern society is fundamentally liberal. This is to say that a traditional society lists certain roles depending on the gender and there are stereotypes that are connected with the genders. One must obey the one that is dominant and make decisions. On the other hand, a modern society is lenient, It accepts the individual’s identity and sexuality. There is no inequality and everyone in the society is to be seen as individuals not a part of a family unit...
On the other hand Brantenberg’s novel exploits the real worlds views of sexuality and applies them in th...