Hartry 1
Alterations: Comparing the Changes Caused by Marriage of the two Bessie Head Short Stories, “Life” and “Snapshots of a Wedding”
Marriage is the union of two people, traditionally husband and wife. Traditional also are the roles that women play when confined in a marriage. When a woman has had the opportunity to educate herself pass tradition and has been use to a fast-paced modern lifestyle, this role of the wife might prove to be quite onerous to mold to. Usually a time of joy, celebration, and adulation, marriage may also bring along emotional and physical pain as well as awkward situations, as the woman must alter herself to conform the traditional role of what a wife should be. Bessie Head depicts two modernized, educated women in her short stories of “Life” and “Snapshots of a Wedding”. These women are forced to change from the only lives they knew as single women to the new roles they must live up to as wives.
Life Morapedi and Neo are both women, who compared to the people of their perspective villages, are highly educated and have transcended the traditional customs of their African villages. Even though they have acquired knowledge beyond others and are able to attain high paying jobs, in certain aspects they are seen as interruption of the normal tradition of the villages. The
inhabitants of the villages see these two women as an impediment to the usual occurrences of the villages. Life Morapedi is a vivacious, cordial, fancy woman with an enchanting voice and a tall, well-built body. She brings the intelligence of a big city back to a rural city. Villagers expect her to “bring a little light” (Head 349) to the slow-moving rural life. She loves to live life, hence her name, and throws parties and spends her never-ending bank account to show this love that she has for life. Before she is married she also engages in the endeavors of sleeping with as many men as she can for business and pleasure, a habit brought back from the city. Neo is a woman who has also excelled in her studies, excelling pass many in her village as well, including her closest family members. Due to the fact that she is smarter than most, she wants everyone to know that she is smarter. Letting everyone know causes her to be labeled a snob. Unlike Life, whose amicable nature enthralls outsiders towards her, Neo has egocentric qualities that cause the people of her...
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...ng it is not something she wants to be. This stereotypic role will probably continue to occur unless the stereotype of what a wife should be takes on yet another change. Hopefully one day an educated, vivacious, well-spoken, working, woman will become the tradition of what a wife epitomizes.
+Berg, Christine G. “Bemused by education: Bessie Head’s ‘Snapshots of a Wedding’.” Exploring Short Stories (1998): Web Luis Literature Resource Center Coleman library, 14 April 2004.
Goldstein, Amy. “Many Wives Have Become Family Breadwinners.” Washington Post (2002) 29 February 2000
Head, Bessie. “Life.” Literature and the Writing Process. Ed. Elizabeth McMahn, et al. 6th ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2002. 349-355.
Head, Bessie. “Snapshots of a Wedding.” Unwinding Threads: Writing by Women in Africa. Ed. Charlotte H. Bruner, et al. London: Heinmann Books, 1983. 157-161.
Kerschen, Lois. “Critical Essay on ‘Life’.” Exploring Short Stories for Students 13 (2001): Web Luis Literature Resource Center Coleman library, 14 April 2004.
March, Thomas, M. “Snapshots of a Wedding.” Short Stories for Students (1999) Web Luis Literature Resource Center Coleman library, 12 April 2004.
These three girls described in this song relate to sociological characteristics of poverty, education, healthcare, marriage, and family. The biggest sociological aspect seen throughout all three girl’s stories, is poverty. Poverty is a big part of the song and shows some cases in which it is like to live in poverty. At the end of the song Ludacris is talking about how he has no idea what these girls have been through. He tells the girls to close their eyes and pretend that they are running away from their lives, when they open their eyes their problems will be gone and everything will be ok.
A History of Marriage by Stephanie Coontz speaks of the recent idealization of marriage based solely on love. Coontz doesn’t defame love, but touches on the many profound aspects that have created and bonded marriages through time. While love is still a large aspect Coontz wants us to see that a marriage needs more solid and less fickle aspects than just love.
... mold of a traditional woman throughout her entire life. She set new standards for women regarding relationships. She dared to get divorces, to leave an abusive man, to leave a cheating man, to have a lover, even to marry a much younger man, but more importantly she dared to write about these controversial topics. Readers may get a sense of Granny's bitterness toward men, but they cannot ignore her strength and independence. Porter was a part of the "era of exuberance" because she played her role in the evolution of women. The answer to the question posed at the beginning of this paper is the same question women of the early twentieth century began asking themselves. This question became a choice for them. Porter chose to be strong because of her ability to move on, and by the time she became Granny Weatherall she knew she had achieved what she had set out to do.
“The Road Not Taken.” Literature and the Writing Process. Ed. Elizabeth McMahan et al. 8th ed.
Even with the pain of bearing children, raising them, doing household and even farm chores, their efforts have never been truly appreciated. Mrs. Wright was “…real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid—and fluttery…” as Mrs. Hale, her neighbor, describes her (22). This would all soon change after her wedding day. With Mr. Wright’s insipid character and lack of patience of any joyous sound, Mrs. Wright’s spirit dwindled to nothing. It seems she spent hours at a time focusing on her quilts, preserves, and caring for the only life there was in the house, her canary. Even when Mr. Hale offered to get a party telephone, Mr. Wright responded, “…folks talk too much anyway…”(5). This silence he preferred also applied to his spouse. There were no hugs given out much less a smile. He failed to give her even the most minimal sing of appreciation much less the emotional warmth she hungered for.
Charters, Ann. The Story and Its Writer – An Introduction to Short Fiction. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. Print.
Wilson, Kathleen, ed. Short Stories for Students: Presenting Analysis, Context and Criticism on Commonly Studied Short Stories. Vol 2. Michigan: Gale Research, 1997.
Gender roles and marriage the two short stories that I decided to compare and contrast is “Story of An Hour” by: Kate Chopin; and “The chrysanthemums” by John Steinbeck. In “The Story of An Hour” the author talks about a woman who is married and finds out that her husband has been killed in a train accident. Her first reaction is devastation she starts crying historically then she goes into her room and thinks about her new found freedom. She looks out the window seeing all this new life and thinks about how hers is going to be, as this new independent woman she is now free. This feeling of freedom of marriage excites her but then she finds out that he still alive and all of her new found freedom is taken away from here this gives her a heart attack. In the story of “The Chrysanthemums” there is a married couple. Their marriage was a typical marriage for back in the day when women were expected to take care of the home and garden and men were expected to work all day to be the bread winner for the family. Elisa Allen, henry wife loves to work in the garden on her chrysanthemums she is a very strong and beautiful women. She wants to do more on the business side of the relationship but she knows that this is not for a women. Both of these stories are very similar in the ways that women were treated in the past. They were treated like they were not good enough to do a man’s job and they had less rights then men did in the past. The two women in the short stories I read have similar experiences of being oppressed by men but the overall outcome was different for both women. The reason why I thought this was because the authors of the stories differ in gender this plays a huge role on how the two main women characters stories ended.
Astell, Mary. "A Reflections Upon Marriage." The Broadview Anthology of British Literature: The Restoration And The Eighteen Century. Joseph Black [et all]. Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, 2006. Print. Pages 297-301.
In “The Yellow Wall-paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the unnamed female protagonist is going through a rough time in her life. (For now on, this paper will refer to this unnamed character as the “the narrator in ‘Wall-paper,’” short for “The Yellow Wall-paper. The narrator is confined to room to a room with strange wall-paper. This odd wall-paper seems to symbolize the complexity and confusion in her life. In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard must also deal with conflict as she must deal with the death of her spouse. At first there is grief, but then there is the recognition that she will be free. The institute of marriage ties the two heroines of these two short stories together. Like typical young women of the late 19th century, they were married, and during the course of their lives, they were expected to stay married. Unlike today where divorce is commonplace, marriage was a very holy bond and divorce was taboo. This tight bond of marriage caused tension in these two characters.
Abcarian, Richard. Literature: the Human Experience : Reading and Writing. : Bedford/Saint Martin's, 2012. Print.
Charters, A. (2011). The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction (8th ed.). Boston: Bedfor/St. Martin's.
Marriage can be seen as a subtle form of oppression, like many things which are dictated by social expectations. In Kate Chopin’s The Story of An Hour, Louise Mallard finds herself in distress due to the event of her husband’s death that makes her question who she is as a person. The author cleverly uses this event to create the right atmosphere for Mrs. Mallard to fight against her own mind. As the short story progresses, we see that Mrs. Mallard moves forward with her new life and finds peace in her decision to live for herself. This shows that marriage too is another chain that holds oneself back. Not wanting to admit this to herself, Louise
Glaspell, Susan. Trifles. Literature and the Writing Process. Elizabeth Mahan, Susan X Day, and Robert Funk. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice, 2002. 977-986
Literature: Reading and Writing about the Human Experience. 7th ed. of the book. New York: St. Martin's, 1998.