Muhammad Ali says, “Women are not equal with men, that 's for sure. When the woman
is in danger she always looks to the man for help. We are superior by nature. The black or white
woman needn 't worry in life because the world is ruled by the white man.” Throughout history,
men have been thought to be superior to women. Not until 1920 did women get the right to vote.
Not until the late 1960s did women enter into the same labor force as men; prior to that, women
were expected to stay at home and do housework as well as take care of the children because
they were not capable of doing the work that men do. The author of Civilization and its
Discontents, Sigmund Freud, states, “The work of civilization has become increasingly the
business
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The movie Revolutionary Road
takes place around the 1950s, and it is a perfect example of gender discrimination between
husband, Frank Wheeler, and wife, April Wheeler. Throughout the film Revolutionary Road and
the book Civilization and its Discontents, men are inferred as superior to women.
Frank and April Wheeler are the main characters in Revolutionary Road. Throughout the
entire movie Frank thinks of himself as the ruler of the household. At that time period every man
considered himself in charge of his own house. Frank worked while April stayed at home and
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Not having Frank’s child was the only way for April to be happy so
she had the abortion.
In the book Civilization and its Discontents, Freud describes what he calls genital love.
Freud says, “’Beauty’ and ‘attraction’ are originally attributes of the sexual object” (53). Frank
and April’s relationship began at a bar because he thought she was attractive. Frank and April did
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not love each other; Frank took advantage of the attraction and gave April a life that she could
not refuse. Later in the book Freud states, “People give the name ‘love’ to the relation between a
man and woman whose genital needs have led them to found a family; but they also give the
name ‘love’ to the positive feelings between parents and children, and between the brother and
sisters of a family...” (82). Their relationship was based on attraction and sex which lead to a
family. A person will always love their family because you have too. April could not leave her
family. It is uncommon for a person not to truly love his or her family. Frank trapped April in a
relationship and did not let her out of it.
In the end, Frank’s constant superior behavior led to April’s death. April became
Frank’s Parents: Frank’s parents take countless hours each day helping Frank and making sure that he has anything he needs. They must learn to adapt to a selfless life of putting Frank’s needs before their own. Although this is often difficult and frustrating, they eventually come together as a family to make the best of their situation.
Frank has an interesting view on the way man has progressed morally. I think that he says that we don’t really know our morals until we have them truly questioned. In this he implies that the people who have strong morals, not only will stay true to them, but will survive. An example of this is Randy Bragg. Randy, on the day of nuclear fallout, stopped on the side of the road to help a woman. This shows that he has respect for the human race as a whole. The opposite of this was Edgar Quisenbury. Edgar valued nothing but money. In the end, the absence of money caused Edgar to become an example of Darwin’s “Only the strong” theory as he shot himself.
Many parts of history show that the 1950’s was a time of great turbulence and unrest in both politics and social life. All this unrest was caused by major historical events, including the Red Scare/McCarthyism and the Cold War. However, although many aspects of life in the 50’s were in such disarray, gender roles were not one of those aspects. In fact, there was a very narrow, strict idea of what it meant to be a male and a female during this time. The following discusses what was considered proper gender roles in the 1950’s and how these roles vary compared to the gender roles portrayed in the 1955 movie, Rebel Without a Cause.
April loves the suave, bright Frank from New York, not the weak, unconfident man he truly is. Horrible fights dominate their lives, and they only resume their old roles when trying to
Frank reported that he first married at the age of 21 because his girlfriend was pregnant. His daughter passed away in 1999 when only 55 days old, the result of trauma sustained in a vehicle accident. The car was driven by Frank whose blood alcohol level was 1 ½ times the legal limit. Following his daughter’s death, Frank was charged and convicted of child endangerment and spent five and one half years in prison, of which two were spent in a pre-release work release program, before being paroled. Upon his release he attempted to reconcile with his wife but reported that she continued to blame him for their child’s death. She filed for divorce and it is uncontested.
Helping the frank family was really risky, when it comes to the laws. Mr Kraler points out the dangers of helping them,“ it’s illegal, then, the ration books? We’ve never done anything illegal.”(Goodrich, Hackett 705). Miep, would do anything illegal, just to save or even make them happy. Some people, like miep, can be careless of the laws, just to protect those that they love, but sometimes that's a good thing, to have the courage to protect who you would do anything for, even though you know the
How did being both Irish and Catholic influence and shape his life? With Irish people, they are typically known to have religion as their top priority, and with Catholics they have certain standards that you must abide by or they will be outcast by your peers and family. This doesn’t help Frank because his friends, family, and school masters were all trying to force him to do things. Some of his friends made him do things he wasn't supposed to, so he got in trouble with his family and school masters and his church. It shaped/influenced his life because he learned what he needed to do and was forced to do them or he was outcast.
Women have been treated unequally since the beginning of time. Just recently have things began to change for the better for women and the future of our society. The increase in women’s equality rights will take time, but some day women and men will be treated equally. This cannot happen until each of us is able to look at a person and just see another individual, not a male or a female, white or black, rich or poor… a person as just a person.
The mother of Frank McCourt, Angela, is an antagonist. She blamed Malachy Sr. for all of their problems calling him “useless,” “sitting on your arse by the fire is no place for a man”(218). Angela constantly ridiculing Malachy Sr. could be the cause of his alcohol addiction. Angela never made him feel like a man throughout the book she was always putting him down, the assumption of alcohol was the only thing he was really happy about. Angelas constant nagging drove him away leaving his family without much. Also, Angela constantly abandons her children. Her sexual desires caused her to continue having children despite the hunger and poverty they were already facing. Every time one of her children died she abandoned the rest of them, not taking care of them. The children had to survive on their own during her time of grieving. After Frank’s fight with Laman, Angela never once made sure Frank was okay. Instead she goes to Laman,
70 years after the American Revolution, white males enjoyed freedoms they viewed as their god given rights, but woman were somehow left out, they even seemed to be excluded from the constitution (“All men are created equal.”) “After so much had been done to ensure America’s freedom, it was hypocritical that woman were not allowed to vote, married woman had no property rights, and husbands possessed so much legal power they could beat or imprison their wives on a whim. Even most professions were closed to women, it would be unheard of to see a woman practicing medicine or law. The jobs that were available to women only paid a fraction of what the men were making.” [Eisenberg] This made women completely dependant on men.
He starts to really care for Dwayne because they both have depression in common. At one point in the movie, Frank and Dwayne were having a conversation and Dwayne mentioned he wished he could sleep till he was 18 so he could skip all the bad parts of high school. Frank then quotes a French writer, “When it gets down to the end of your life and you look back at all those years that you suffered, you will realize those were the best years of your life because they made you into the strong person you are now”. Frank and Dwayne then continued to talk about the struggles of life. Is seems to me the way Frank can reflection on his own depression can really help others. It shows that he understands what he did and that he will handle it differently next time. There were no blatant biological and psychological stressors that influenced Frank’s depression. There was no indication of past family medical problems that would have made him susceptible but according to Beck’s therapy Frank probably inherited a genetic disposition that made him susceptible to depression. If Frank wasn’t predisposed, he could have handled all of the bad events without getting mad and impulsive. He could have had a positive outlook instead of going into deep depression and trying to kill himself. The social-cultural/environmental stressors were the primary influences that cause his depression. He believed he was a full grown adult and was supposed to have his life together but it was the complete opposite. He had a romantic failure, a career disappointment, he lost his job, his homosexuality stigma, and then he lost his apartment. For most of the movie he was handling his depression really well, but it wasn’t until he ran into is ex-student/lover that his improved mood started to spiral back downward into a depressed mood. This showed he still has
During the first scene of House of Cards, the viewers are given their first impression on Frank Underwood. Frank walks out of his house to the sound of a crying dog that has been hit by a car. He approaches the dog alone and gives a monologue to the audience. Frank mentions how he has no time for useless pain and he is one that likes to take charge by finding a solution. He then begins to snap the dog’s neck. This simple monologue sums up Frank’s ruthless and dominant personality throughout the show. This scene is just one of the many scenes that represent how Frank does not let anything stand in his way, especially women.
has a choice what she does with her life. Frank learns that he is not
...lways be inferior to men. In their everyday immersion, they are constantly reminded by this fact, and so they constantly subject to men and follow the daily routines prepared for them. They beautify themselves the way man would perceive them to be attractive. And so, even if some women are now displacing men in their own game and in their own world, as long as they wear powders and plastics, they will remain as others. As long as we look at ourselves in context of the eyes of men we will always be treated as mere objects.
...ing something wrong. There is always repentance and a chance to change for the better like Frank was doing in the later parts of the novel. He started not to expect anything in return anymore. When Morris died, Frank did everything to act as the breadwinner of Morris’ family. “It’s his store. Let it support you to go to college like he wanted you to” (239). Frank told Helen when he told her he wanted to pay for her college.