Reckless Rebellion Tales characterized by the age-old rule being overthrown by once favorable revolts turned revolting, both First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini bring to life the true effects of reckless rebellions. Unsatisfied with the communist rule that had overtaken their countries, individuals rose up together to take back control and represent the desires of the people, but, after succeeding, these individuals struggled in creating a government that was anywhere near as desirable as the government had been. Through this struggle of defining their new leadership, the people that once supported them were hurt beyond a measurable level through new restrictions and the removal of hope. …show more content…
The removal of education greatly affected characters such as Loung and Laila, who had both received some level of education and could identify what was happening was wrong but could not identify a way to escape or fully comprehend the magnitude of the situation until later. In contrast, Mariam was less affected as most of what she knew was from her personal experience, and through her life she had learned to endure, and in that case of Loung's educated parents, they understood what was happening and realized the necessity of simply trying to survive. Further, the laws on appearance clearly took away their individuality, but in Loung's case it went so far as taking her memories of her life that was now in the past when her red dress was burned to ashes for not fitting the dress code, and her mother's silk blue shirt represented her ability to picture and feel the life she once lead before the revolution which leads to her pent-up rage towards the government (Ung 59, 176-177). Mariam and Laila had already been forced by Rasheed to wear a burqa outside at all times, but for the modern women in Afghanistan, who the laws had been directed at, it took a direct hit. This is clearly seen in the case of Khala Rangmaal, otherwise known as Auntie Painter, when Laila saw her at the orphanage - instead of the strong, independent woman who firmly believed in the equality of men and women and who was against the covering of females, she saw a covered woman attempting to take care of the children, but a shadow of her former confident self (Hosseini 322). This showed the oppression of women in particular - they were completely restricted from doing anything outside of the house, limiting their knowledge of the current happenings despite having the energy to act - and men had to work more in order to provide for the household, so, although they had knowledge of the happenings, they
she couldn’t walk in the long skirts and couldn’t breathe under the facial clothing. Latifa liked to wear nail polish and earrings but this privilege was taken away when the Taliban came into power. Women were treated very badly under the Taliban rule, but Latifa found ways to deal with it.
In addition, Britain’s societal transformation augmented women’s role in society, and according to Braybon in “Women Workers in The First World War,” “A completely different pattern of life was established. for women” and that society had “prevailing attitudes towards women as workers” (Braybon 16). The newfangled life given to women gave most women an enormous surge in recognition throughout society, as people valued women a lot more after they became the backbone of the production of nearly all British goods. Concurrently, King underscores this point in her novel, as throughout the novel, Mary is never discriminated against simply for being a woman. In preceding years and throughout history, society typically perceived women as naturally inferior to men, and women’s occupations were limited to taking care of the family and domestic occupations.
The women in Afghanistan during this time period, were shielded from the outside world, and the outside world was shielded from them. Women became nobody’s and their life was unimportant. Burqas kept the women from being who they were, and being more than just a wife. They were not known or judged for the women they used to be, but for the wives they had become. Whether they could cook well, keep a house clean, or even bear children (particularly boys), it never mattered. What mattered was that they obeyed their husbands and the rules of the Taliban. “You will not, under any circumstance, show your face. You will cover with a burqa when outside, If you do not, you will be severely beaten.” (pg. 278). Before the Taliban forced women to wear burqas, women were already being diminished. Women were raped, beaten and even killed just by walking outside their house. That doesn’t even start to describe what happened behind closed doors. Women were already losing their rights, but burqas took away who they were. Burqas affected Mariam and Laila in a big way. Mariam was barely a teenager when she married Rasheed, and had grown up with a strong, independent, man-hating mother. Mariam was never taught that she
Women had no choice but to follow whatever society told them to because there was no other option for them. Change was very hard for these women due to unexpected demands required from them. They held back every time change came their way, they had to put up with their oppressors because they didn’t have a mind of their own. Both authors described how their society affected them during this historical period.
The “Man I Killed” takes us into the Vietnam War and tell us about a soldiers first time of killing another individual. The author describes a Viet Cong soldier that he has killed, using vivid, physical detail with clear descriptions of the dead mans’ fatal wounds. O'Brien envisions the biography of this man and envisions the individual history of the dead Vietnamese soldier starting with his birthplace moving through his life, and finished with him enrolling in the Vietnamese Army. O'Brien also describes some of the dead soldiers’ hopes and dreams. The author uses this history in an attempt to make the dead man more realistic to the reader
Thesis Statement: Men and women were in different social classes, women were expected to be in charge of running the household, the hardships of motherhood. The roles that men and women were expected to live up to would be called oppressive and offensive by today’s standards, but it was a very different world than the one we have become accustomed to in our time. Men and women were seen to live in separate social class from the men where women were considered not only physically weaker, but morally superior to men. This meant that women were the best suited for the domestic role of keeping the house. Women were not allowed in the public circle and forbidden to be involved with politics and economic affairs as the men made all the
This story was used to teach the folly of women who thought they could survive without men. They were dependant on the nearby village, and weren't very well organized. They were much better off sticking to their own place in society. But as I said, not all depictions were bad. Some were quite nice, too.
...men do not have it as hard as women do when it comes to their rights and everything. She asks “How is it, then, that some of you having nothing but ridicule and contempt… for women who are fighting for the exact same thing?” Many men in this time period, and some still today, thought that women were “too fine and too delicate” to be involved with such things as the government or politics. Men felt as though they should be the ones to handle all of the power and that the women should do what a woman is thought of to do, such as housework and things in that nature.
She makes the argument that all women in the south, including slaves experienced many forms of oppression because of the patriarchal society of the south during the time, because without the oppression of all women then farmers would lose full authority. “Patriarchy was the bedrock upon which the slave society was founded, and slavery exaggerated the pattern of subjugation that patriarchy had established.”(p. 6) She makes the notion that the plantation wives and female slaves shared similar experiences with unequal treatment. The book even theorizes that the plantation mistress were in more bondage than female slaves were because she had no other person to share her experiences with. Whereas, the slaves all had commonality among them and experienced there hardships together as a family rather than
Women “were expected to bear children, stay home, cook and clean, and take care of the children” (Cobb 29). They were expected to be weak, timid, domestic, emotional, dependent, and pure. Women were taught to be physically and emotionally inferior in addition morally superior to men. During this time, women were ostracized for expressing characteristics and wants that contradicted those ideals. For women, the areas of influence are home and children, whereas men’s sphere includes work and the outside world” (Brannon 161).
Another large symbol is the narrator’s lack of public interaction. It symbolizes women being out of the public eye in the time period. Women were needed to stay inside and tend to the house and children. They didn’t belong in government, in the workplace, or outside at all.
...a visit with Aziza, Laila saw a middle-aged woman, with her burqa pushed back…Laila recognized the sharp face… Laila remembered this woman once forbidding the female students from covering, saying women and men were equal, that there was no reason for women should cover if men didn’t” (322). To see a woman who was as close to a feminist as a woman in Afghanistan could get, to see her fall to level that the government wanted her at was crucial point in the novel that allowed us to really see the affect that the government had on the women in controlling every aspect of their lives.
Within the public sphere women had the option of peaceful protest which allowed for them to sway the political system that had oppressed them for so long. Unfortunately public protest could not change the oppression that took place in the private sphere of domesticity. We can see in the story that Mother has no intere... ... middle of paper ... ... E. Freeman.
This fact plays a crucial role in the mood of the play. If the reader understands history, they also understand that women did not really amount to any importance, they were perceived more as property.
Men were the ones in the family who worked and provided for his family's wellbeing. Because of the family's economic dependence on the husband, he had control over all of his family members. This showed the amount of progress needing to come in the future to allow women to start receiving some of the many rights they deserved which men had and so frequently took for granted.