The Folktales of Social Inequality
Orature, or otherwise known as artistic value of oral expression, inspired many writers across the globe to transcribe the spoken word into print. The spoken word had a major impact on world literature as we know it today. Many characteristics of orature are influenced by gender, race, class, culture, and the like. Signs of social inequality are obvious in many orature stories. The folktales, The Three Spinners, Tom Tit Tot, and almost all US Slave stories and songs, foster belief in escape of oppressive life chances.
The German folktale The Three Spinners, written by brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, relates to the oppressive burden of physical work, often endured by the poor peasants, whereas, the English folktale Tim Tit Tot, written by Joseph Jacob, relates to an old superstition that knowing someone’s name gives you an advantage over the other person
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slave story, All God’s Chillen Had Wings, the original author of this story is not clear; as it was an old U.S. slave story passed on by a gentleman named Caesar Grant. Throughout the story there are gestures that demonstrated love and peacefulness among the underclass despite the enslavement of inhuman conditions. Women were force to work on the cotton fields even though they were pregnant, or had just given birth. One female slave mentioned in the story, was forced back to the field without being given any time for recovery. The woman in this story harnessed her newborn to her body, offered it her breast and quieting words, all while she herself was very weak. At times she was so weak she fell, only to be lashed with a whip by the higher class, and forced to carry on with her work in the fields. This woman and women of the like, cared for and nurtured their children despite the harsh work conditions they themselves were subjected to, demonstrating the nature of the underclass as peaceful and loving
As unfortunate as it sounds, no matter where a person lives, inequality will exist. There may be some people who acknowledge it and try to prevent recurrences, but more often than not they go along with the majority, making judgments. When someone lives a different life than another, they are not capable of comparing themselves to the other person or their situations. Differences in society allow judgement of others and inequality to continue to exist. In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, the World State divides citizens into different class systems known as “castes” depending on the level of mental development in each individual. It is clear to see that because of the direct divisions, inequality would be created among them. In many situations
In the well-written narrative The Life of Fredrick Douglass, the author, and former slave known as Fredrick Douglass, uses multiple examples of brutal whippings and severe punishments to describe the terrible conditions that African American slaves faced in the south. Douglass’s purpose for writing this narrative was to show the physical and emotional pain that slaves had to endure from their owners. According to Fredrick Douglass, “adopted slaveholders are the worst” and he proves his point with his anecdotes from when he was a slave; moreover, slave owners through marriage weren’t used to the rules of slaveholding so they acted tougher. He also proves that Christian slave owners weren’t always holier, they too showed no mercy towards their slaves and Douglass considered them religious hypocrites.
Women involved in slavery had several struggles dealing with physical and mental abuse. In one of Douglass's narratives it states "an old aunt of mine, whom he used to tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back til she was literally covered with blood". The women would be beaten brutally, and treated as if they were not human beings. They also had no chance of fighting back against the abuse, which is shown from this quote. While in the quote from Jacob's narrative states "She sits on the cold cabin floor, watching the children who may all be torn
He relates how Irish storytellers would turn their backs to the audience, or speak from another room in order that the listeners would rely on their imaginations. These types of storytellers would not rely on gestures, or voice inflections, but instead chose to paint a mental picture for their audiences who created vivid imagery in their own minds. The story was paramount to the teller. Lindahl laments that current storytellers have become enamored with their own performances and become as important to the tale as the tale itself. The “quiet, shyer world of the lone, quiet voice figures too rarely in folkloric performance studies.” Lindahl compares the true märchen tellers to the quilters who are more intrigued in the stitches of their work, and not the beautiful patterns or to the skilled basket weavers who focus on the intended use of the basket and not the aesthetic beauty of the weaving patterns (McCarthy xix-xx). In today’s society, the figure of a great storyteller evokes an image of gestures, voice inflections, voice impersonations provided by a colorful character. Perhaps our sensory overload from high definition televisions, streaming video, IMAX theaters have dulled our appreciation for the story itself, which is created in our own imaginations by a teller with skilled
Many plantation owners were men that wanted their plantation ran in a particular manner. They strove to have control over all aspects of their slaves’ lives. Stephanie Camp said, “Slave holders strove to create controlled and controlling landscapes that would determine the uses to which enslaved people put their bodies.” Mary Reynolds was not a house slave, but her master’s daughter had a sisterly love towards her, which made the master uncomfortable. After he sold Mary he had to buy her back for the health of his daughter. The two girls grew apart after the daughter had white siblings of her own. Mary wa...
There has been a stigma that only slaves were brutally punished for misbehaving or attempting to escape, but behind closed doors women suffered the same amount of pain or if not worse than slaves from their masters. Douglass witnessed a number of incidents and describes the abuse as, “Master would keep this lacerated young woman tied up for four hours at a time… he would tie her up and hit her for breakfast, leave her, return for dinner and whip her again” (44). Another time he witnessed his Aunt Hester abused from what he believes to be his father, “… he took her into the kitchen and stripped her down, leaving her neck, shoulders, and back entirely naked… he commences to lay on the heavy cow swing” (16). Douglass included this event in is narrative because to paint the picture for readers that men had complete control of their slaves and women at home. Whatever the man thought was best to handle certain situations from slaves disobeying orders or thinking women had no rights of their own, the men during the 1800’s would use abuse to assert their dominance and authority. Douglas described these events in great detail, from the slave masters’ tying their hands together and being hanged, stripping them naked, leaving half their body exposed, but most disturbingly Douglass witnessed and describe the cries and blood dripping to the floor. Revealing the gruesome details from women abused is
Literature has played a large role in the way we perceive the world and it can affect the way in which we think about things. Edgar Allan Poe along with Mark Twain are two of the most influential authors that our world has ever seen. Their descriptiveness and diction has had a huge impact on their readers for centuries. Poe’s gothic style of writing was very enthralling and suspenseful; it left you wanting to know what was going to happen next. Whereas, Mark Twain was a very humorous author that intended to amuse all that read. The descriptiveness that was incorporated by these world-renown authors is tremendous.
In “Ill Fares the Land,” Tony Judt argues that “the pursuit of material self-interest” has become the main ingredient in “our sense of collective purpose.” He argues that this materialism is responsible for the “growing disparities of rich and poor,” but Judt’s demonization of individualism continues as he attributes the woes of contemporary life to “materialistic and selfish quality.” Judt is correct in his argument that materialism and by proxy, individualism have undermined the fabric of the community. Although the community’s diminishing bonds are to blame; government inaction is also a contributory factor. Together, the downfall of the community, through the growing disparity of economic classes and runaway individualism, and government dysfunction and gridlock are the main contributing factors that prevent the reconciliation of economic inequality.
Slave narratives were one of the first forms of African- American literature. The narratives were written with the intent to inform those who weren’t aware of the hardships of slavery about how badly slaves were being treated. The people who wrote these narratives experienced slavery first hand, and wanted to elicit the help of abolitionists to bring an end to it. Most slave narratives were not widely publicized and often got overlooked as the years went by; however, some were highly regarded and paved the way for many writers of African descent today.
In Rousseau’s book “A Discourse On Inequality”, he looks into the question of where the general inequality amongst men came from. Inequality exists economically, structurally, amongst different generations, genders, races, and in almost all other areas of society. However, Rousseau considers that there are really two categories of inequality. The first is called Natural/Physical, it occurs as an affect of nature. It includes inequalities of age,, health, bodily strength, and the qualities of the mind and soul. The second may be called Moral/Political inequality, this basically occurs through the consent of men. This consists of the privileges one group may have over another, such as the rich over the poor.
Where would you consider yourself with your ranking in America 's social classes, are you upper class, middle class or even lower class? This is actually very important when it come to you receiving opportunities and in a sense special treatment. I’m referring to of course social inequality which is still very much alive in America and still affects a lot of families mostly in a negative way. This problem in America has grabbed the attention of two authors, Paul Krugman who wrote “Confronting Inequality” and Gary S. Becker and Kevin M. Murphy who wrote “The Upside of Income Inequality”. However, they both have different views on inequality Krugman believes that social inequality is only negative while on the other hand, Becker and Murphy believe
In fact, women had to carry with the pain of having their children wrenched from them. Women were forced to be “breeders” they were meant to bear children to add to their master’s “stock”, but they were denied the right to care for them. It was not something unusual to happen to these women it was considered normal. The master didn’t believe the female slaves had feelings, or the right to ruin their merchandise. It was also not unusual for the plantation master to satisfy his sexual lust with his female slaves and force them to have his children. Children that were born from these unions were often sold to protect the honor and dignity of the slave owner’s wife, who would be forced to face the undeniable proof of her husband’s lust for “black women.”
In his article, “The Myth of Equality” written in August 2010 in his official blog, Patrick Buchanan, an American conservative political commentator, suggests that equality will never be achievable here in America when it comes to personal skills and abilities (par. 8). He points out the inequality that is evident in the American professional sports where only those who are considered “good” are thriving (par. 6-7). Buchanan reveals that the standardize test that is given to students proves that there is a disparity in education among racial groups (par. 16). He infers that here in America, because we vary in our capabilities to perform at something, inequalities among racial groups are almost the standard and it is demonstrated in several institutions.
Income inequality continues to increase in today’s world, especially in the United States. Income inequality means the unequal distribution between individuals’ assets, wealth, or income. In the Twilight of the Elites, Christopher Hayes, a liberal journalist, states the inequality gap between the rich and the poor are increasing widening, and there need to have things done - tax the rich, provide better education - in order to shortening the inequality gap. America is a meritocratic country, which means that everybody has equal opportunity to be successful regardless of their class privileges or wealth. However, equality of opportunity does not equal equality of outcomes. People are having more opportunities to find a better job, but their incomes are a lot less compared to the top ten percent rich people. In this way, the poor people will never climb up the ladder to high status and become millionaires. Therefore, the government needs to increase all the tax rates on rich people in order to reduce income inequality.
If people aren’t earning a lot of money, all they need to do is work harder they’ll get ahead.