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As boys grow into men, many struggle with what makes real men. This struggle often dramatically changes the young person. This struggle is greatly exacerbated by the media’s portrayal of men. Gretel Ehrlich’s “About Men” deals with the stereotypical image of men and what real men are like. Richard Wright’s “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” shows a young man who feels so derided by everyone thinking of him as a boy that he buys a gun to make himself more powerful. Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” is about a group of soldiers who all have different methods of coping with their own emotions at the death of a comrade.
The media, Hollywood being one of the main culprits, often depicts true men as being tall, dark, and physically strong. They don’t feel pain and are able to fight, either with their hands or weapons. They are often emotionally hardened, not showing tenderness. The media presents men as “macho, [and] trigger happy.” (Ehrlich 127).
This presents serious problems for young boys who are starting to mature into men. Young men are often told to be tough and to man up. Many boys are taught that crying is for girls and are called cry-babies if they do cry. This is incredibly hard on young guys who compare themselves to men like Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger and see absolutely no resemblance. These boys are often troubled by a growing insecurity from contrasting themselves to the unrealistic image of men. The insecurity spawned by this idolatry of the machismo can lead young guys to resort to drastic measures in order to be recognized as men. In “The Man Who was Almost a Man,” Dave Sunders, a seventeen-year-old African-American in the years after the Civil War, says that “he was going to get a gun and prac...
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...ood but is open to many more men than just the ones who are physically strong and daring. Since manliness is a presence of character, there is a growing need in society, in families, and in government for real men. There is a call for men to become more, to always grow in qualities like love, gentleness, self-control, and selflessness. These qualities are not like clothes. A man with these character traits can earn the respect of many, regardless of his age or physical aptitude.
Works Cited
Wright, Richard. “The Man Who Was Almost a Man.” The River Reader,2nd ed. Natalie Danner. New York: Pearson, 2010. 144-154. Print
Ehrlich, Gretel. “About Men.” The River Reader, 2nd ed. Natalie Danner. New York: Pearson, 2010. 127-129. Print
O’Brien, Tim. “The Things They Carried.” The River Reader, 2nd ed. Natalie Danner. New York: Pearson, 2010. 320-334. Print
The Things They Carried. N. p. : Houghton, 1990. : ill. Print.
Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 2189.
Mosse, L George. The Image of Man: The Creation of Modern Masculinity. New York: Macmillan publishers, 1996.
Whether engaging in European trench warfare or fighting through the jungles of Vietnam, a soldier must learn to cope with the incredible mental stress brought on by the ever-present threat of a grisly death. The physical stress introduced by poor nutrition, a harsh and hostile environment, and the cumulative physical effect of emotional trauma only serves to make a trying situation even more taxing. It is out of this violently stressful environment that the coping mechanisms that characterize wartime masculinity arise.
and their daily lives. This presentation of masculinity can alter how men respect women in the
Boys think that they must put on a persona that they are tough and no one can hurt them. I agree with the author that the boys are forced to hide their emotions and fears that’s why men become insensitive. Because the most important factor of how boys become tough men is how adults treat and teach them differently from girls. The boys start hearing messages that they need to be strong and tough from adults since they are just babies. I think this is the main problem that causes men to be insensitive and emotionalist. However, it is their parents, society, and everyone around them who affect the boys to become the men that they should be. If people treat boys same as how they treat the girls, I guess men will act the same way as
O’Connor, Flannery. “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. Comp. John Schilb and John Clifford. Making Literature Matter. Print.
In The Things They Carried, an engaging novel of war, author Tim O’Brien shares the unique warfare experience of the Alpha Company, an assembly of American military men that set off to fight for their country in the gruesome Vietnam War. Within the novel, the author O’Brien uses the character Tim O’Brien to narrate and remark on his own experience as well as the experiences of his fellow soldiers in the Alpha Company. Throughout the story, O’Brien gives the reader a raw perspective of the Alpha Company’s military life in Vietnam. He sheds light on both the tangible and intangible things a soldier must bear as he trudges along the battlefield in hope for freedom from war and bloodshed. As the narrator, O’Brien displayed a broad imagination, retentive memory, and detailed descriptions of his past as well as present situations. 5. The author successfully uses rhetoric devices such as imagery, personification, and repetition of O’Brien to provoke deep thought and allow the reader to see and understand the burden of the war through the eyes of Tim O’Brien and his soldiers.
Early feminist studies of gender often depicted the expression of masculinity as solely meant to subordinate women. Upon further research and understanding of gender and its role in society, gender theorists have realized that masculinity is not only a patriarchal regulation against women, but that it also has negative effects against men. Masculinity has different characteristics in different cultures, but masculinity in general presents a hierarchy of traits, with femininity as the lowest, least desirable trait. In American culture, masculinity is defined within multiple structures, such as race, class, and sexuality, where a man’s masculinity can be lessened by his traits as well as these identities. Often, normative expressions of masculinity
The media is a very influential aspect of our daily lives. The media is everywhere we look, everything we listen to, and everything we talk about, we cannot escape it. It only makes sense that the media would have an affect of the construction of how we view masculinity and femininity. The media has the ideals or standards of what it means to masculine or feminine which with our changing times do not represent a majority of people. These standards are set so high that no one can reach them, which makes people feel defeated since they do not meet these expectations. With many people not fitting into these generalized norms we set for a “man” or “woman” it is time we get rid of these norms, or at least update them to the times. People are changing
Passaro, Vince. "The Things They Carried (Review)." Harper's Magazine. 299.1791 (1999): 80. Expanded Academic ASAP.
As a society there are a lot of qualities that men have been socialized to uphold when it comes to how they act or react, what they support, and what they suppress. This movie produces a harsh critique of male socialization early on and continues
Eiseley, Loren “The Flow of the River” from Fifty Great Essays 2nd ed. 2002 Penguin Academics New York.
Greenblatt, Stephen, eds. The Norton Anthology English Literature. 9th ed. Crawfordsville: R.R. Donnelley & Sons, 2012. Print.
behaviors, and social conditions that we call masculinities are “hard-wired” into males through biology (see Thorhill & Palmer, 2000) and/or the heritability of human psyche (see Jung, 1959/1989; Bly, 1990). They view masculinity as static, transhistorical, cross-cultural, and cross-situational. From this perspective, gender change is either impossible, or it involves the use of powerful force to constrain what is seen as “naturally” male. (Masculine Self pg. 19)