Some people think that they should not have to read texts written in the past or in a different culture, because it isn’t relevant to them. As logical as this may sound, it is not altogether accurate: readers will recognise within the text ideas familiar to their own context. This is particularly true in the short stories “Swaddling Clothes” by Yukio Mishima and “The Game that wasn’t Cricket” by Evelyn Sharp. Written in Japan in the 1960s, “Swaddling Clothes” deals with the great western modernisation of the nation and the effects this had on its society. The loss of respect for morality that shows up in the story is one thing that readers from today’s western cultures recognise, together with the idea that although a culture may be altered, there are still many deeply imbedded societal expectations which are very difficult to destroy. One set of expectations, those of gender, has been challenged in Sharp’s “The Game that wasn’t Cricket”, which in its own context (England in the early 1900s) challenged the readers’ own beliefs. For contemporary Australian readers the story raises awareness of the true state of gender expectations within their society. Each reader’s cultural and social context influences their reading of these texts and they recognise elements of their own societies within them, enabling every reader to gain meaning from the texts. As societies progress and change supposedly for the better, they often face difficulties in sustaining their morals and values under the pressure to conform. In the 1950s and earlier, before the rapid technological advances of the past few decades, morals and standards were very high and there was pressure to conform to these. However, in recent times as our society has been modernis... ... middle of paper ... ...ext’s influence on their reading they perceive elements of their own societies within it. Although “The Game that wasn’t Cricket” was written in England in the 1900s, contemporary Australian readers can recognise the gender expectations still existent in their culture, which are leftovers from those of England one hundred years earlier. The loss of respect for morality evident in “Swaddling Clothes”, written in Japan in the 1960s, is still relevant to readers in present-day western cultures, along with the idea that although a culture may be altered, there are still many deeply imbedded societal expectations which are very difficult to destroy, like gender expectations. Despite the fact that a text may be read in a context different to that in which it was written, the way that readers’ contexts influence their reading of the texts, means that they are still relevant.
Moral regulation has been – and still is – a very heated topic for discussion. In chapters two and three of his book, Governing Morals: A Social History of Moral Regulation, author Alan Hunt speaks of various social organizations and their different attempts at moral regulation projects from the late 18th to early 20th century. Although the two chapters flow into each other, and time turns from one century to the next, various and complex societal changes, and in turn, approaches to moral regulation are noted. Said changes to society and regulatory approaches include evolving civil associations, the incorporation of character and females into the social sphere, and shifts away from the church. As society changes, so does the approach to, and implication of, moral regulation projects.
All members of society are subject to sociological rules and regulations that are often hypocritical. These hypocrisies, both concrete and unspoken, are the subject of criticism by authors the world over, utilizing various methods and styles to ridicule society's many fables.
In a society where one must often compromise their thoughts and beliefs to fit into the social norms of society, one must be careful not to alter their views and morals too much. The consequences can be devastating. Experiments from Stanley Milgram, Solomon Asch, and Philip Zimbardo all show the effects and consequences the modification of ones morals and beliefs can have. We must learn from the past and attempt to keep these experiments in mind when our morals or beliefs are on the line.
As in the case of Mary Shelley and Oscar Wilde, it is the social attitudes of the time at which the works are written, rather than the author’s personal viewpoints on gender and representation, that shape the female forms of the works. Both Mary Shelley and Oscar Wilde had experiences that shaped how they viewed the gender, sexuality, and the popular social response to these subjects; however, neither Frankenstein’s or The Importance of Being Earnest’s female characters reflect the personal beliefs of the authors in terms of gender and sexuality. The relationship between perceived gender stereotypes and the age in which a work is written is something that can never be severed as literature is inherently the product of the cultural attitudes of the time that it was produced. As different the author’s personal viewpoints are, there is always the pushback of the ‘traditional social attitudes’ against personal beliefs. Mary Shelley and Oscar Wilde were not exempt from the prejudices of their time periods, the Romanticism Era and the Victorian Age respectively, and had to alter their viewpoints in order to be accepted as
the laws of man and kept in check by society's own norms. The human struggle to
One of the most pressing problems facing America today is our moral crisis. This problem is one that is related to many other social dilemmas. It has a correlation to our rising crime rate, drug usage, and a trend towards sexual irresponsibility. It is imminent for Americans to find a cure for this moral disease lest we are bound for chaos. In order to solve this problem we must first, as with any problem, determine the causes. One of the causes is the overall tolerance of things that are immoral. Immorality can be defined as anything that deteriorates the decency, honorable or artistic merit, and overall purity of things. Today our society is one that accepts this trait. Tolerance of music and television that is morally questionable and an overall acceptance of a growing trend of sexual irresponsibility. That cause is the one that is possibly the most challenging one to remedy. The antidote includes a change of the current American attitude towards immorality. Another cause is the decline of the American family. The way to rid ourselves of this causing factor is to promote a more traditional family and encourage sexual responsibility. A third source of the destruction of America’s moral base is the media, It is becoming a crude exhibit of America’s worst ethics. The remedy for this component of the problem is to more strictly regulate and censor the media.
Reading literature, at first, might seem like simple stories. However, in works like William Faulkner's “A Rose for Emily,” Katherine Mansfield's “Miss Brill,” and Kate Chopin's “The Storm,” the female protagonists are examples of how society has oppressive expectations of women simply because of their gender.
The kinds books children and young adults read today are read because they offer either important lessons or qualities that the children and young adults should portray. Books that children read reflect on the social structure on our world. A significant social issue today is one of gender inequality where men and women are still not seen as equals at home or in the workplace. This inequality reflects the sexism that occurs against women. Sexism is discrimination and stereotyping based on sex, most commonly against women.The sexism between men and women that exists today reflect the female stereotypes often seen in literature new and old. Literature published in the Nineteenth and Twentieth century, like Little Women and Peter Pen, and even
conceptualizations of gender in literature are situated in a culture and historical context ; the
It holds that, as a matter of fact, moral beliefs and practices vary between cultures (and sometimes between groups within a single society). For instance, some societies condemn homosexuality; others accept it; in some cultures a student who corrects a teacher would be thought to be disrespectful; elsewhere such behavior might be encouraged. The rules, principles and standards that constitute a morality differ in different religions, and cultures, just as they differ historically. The morality of ancient Greece was not the morality of feudal Europe or contemporary American; the morality of the Trobriand Islanders is not the same as the morality of the Kwakiutl Indians (Barnet, 2008). In this paper I intend to argue that moral reasoning
Present day social comparison is amongst different moral cultural backgrounds and even amongst different genders. When comparing moral norms and social conventions as a cross cultural comparison Mordecai Nisan, 1987 theorized that when comparing secular urban Jews, secular kibbutz Jews, and traditio...
As we all have observed, throughout history each culture or society has unique norms that are acceptable to that group of people. Therefore, to establish and come to the acceptance of these basic norms, each society must develop its’ own strategies and techniques to encourage the fundamentals of behavior, which is clear in our modern society. Most do assume that everyone in a society will follow and respect such norms. However, some tend to deviate from the adequate norms and demonstrate deviant behavior. Nevertheless, we are inclined to ask ourselves, why do people decide to violate such important standards of living?
Throughout literature, authors employ a variety of strategies to highlight the central message being conveyed to the audience. Analyzing pieces of literature through the gender critics lens accentuates what the author believes to be masculine or feminine and that society and culture determines the gender responsibility of an individual. In the classic fairytale Little Red Riding Hood, the gender strategies appear through the typical fragile women of the mother and the grandmother, the heartless and clever male wolf, and the naïve and vulnerable girl as little red riding hood.
Morality: again, more subjective, relative, provisional and ambiguous, less authoritative and 'public', more local and shifting
“Girls wear jeans and cut their hair short and wear shirts and boots because it is okay to be a boy; for a girl it is like promotion. But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading, according to you, because secretly you believe that being a girl is degrading” (McEwan 55-56). Throughout the history of literature women have been viewed as inferior to men, but as time has progressed the idealistic views of how women perceive themselves has changed. In earlier literature women took the role of being the “housewife” or the household caretaker for the family while the men provided for the family. Women were hardly mentioned in the workforce and always held a spot under their husband’s wing. Women were viewed as a calm and caring character in many stories, poems, and novels in the early time period of literature. During the early time period of literature, women who opposed the common role were often times put to shame or viewed as rebels. As literature progresses through the decades and centuries, very little, but noticeable change begins to appear in perspective to the common role of women. Women were more often seen as a main character in a story setting as the literary period advanced. Around the nineteenth century women were beginning to break away from the social norms of society. Society had created a subservient role for women, which did not allow women to stand up for what they believe in. As the role of women in literature evolves, so does their views on the workforce environment and their own independence. Throughout the history of the world, British, and American literature, women have evolved to become more independent, self-reliant, and have learned to emphasize their self-worth.