Feminism was at its nadir in the mid-twentieth century; cries of women's liberation, freedom, and independence resonated from all parts of the world. This era is perhaps best perceived as one, which was replete with images of women burning their bras. Armed with gainful education, women from different echelons of womankind were seen fighting adversities to assert and establish their rights. Margaret Laurence in "The Diviners" illustrates this phenomenon and delineates the status and challenges faced by the women of this era, by relating the story of its protagonist Morag Gunn, and the people responsible for mapping the course of her life.
"The Diviners" narrates the story of Morag Gunn, a dispossessed girl from a small Canadian prairie town, whose life reflects the fever of freedom and liberation, which had rapt the womenfolk of this era. Morag's tale incorporates lessons in valor, endurance, and confidence tutored by diverse people. Orphaned at the tender age of five, Morag is reared by the town garbage collector Christie and his wife Princess. Morag's childhood epitomizes the life of every estranged and dispossessed child. Morag being a strong and independent woman does not let this deter her yen to thrive in this world. She overcomes various impediments posed by the world around her to become an established writer. Her endeavors pilot trysts with diverse places and people; each of them teaching her an important lesson in life.
Her lessons in independence, which begin early in life, are fostered by circumstances and the accompanying experiences. Her tenacity not to let people and circumstances preside over her life is fortified in many ways by Eva Winkler, her best friend and neighbor. Eva, a person of subservient dispo...
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...nments have made it even more difficult for contemporary women to bridge the gap between their vocational aspirations and the female expectations. Today, even though the exclamations for freedom, liberation are not perceptible, the dilemmas and conflicts plaguing womankind continue to exist.
Work Cited
Ward, Susan. "Morag Gunn in Fictional Context: The Career Woman Theme in The Diviners." New Perspectives on Margaret Laurence: Poetic Narrative, Multiculturalism, and Feminism. Ed. Greta M. K. McCormick Coger. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1996. 179-184.
Lindberg, Laurie. "Wordsmith and Woman: Morag Gunn's Triumph Through Language." New Perspectives on Margaret Laurence: Poetic Narrative, Multiculturalism, and Feminism. Ed. Greta M. K. McCormick Coger. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1996. 187-201.
Laurence, Margaret. The Diviners. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1988.
Haney-Peritz, Janice. "Monumental feminism and literature's ancestral house: Another look at The Yellow Wallpaper". Women's Studies. 12:2 (1986): 113-128.
Delany, Sheila. Writing Women: Women Writers and Women in Literature: Medieval to Modern. New York: Schocken, 1983.
Haney-Peritz, Janice. "Monumental Feminism and Literature's Ancestral House: Another Look at 'The Yellow Wallpaper'" Women's Studies. 12 (1986): 113-128.
Grande introduces to the audience various characters that cross Juana 's path to either alter or assist her on her journey to find her father. Through those individuals, Grande offers a strong comparison of female characters who follow the norms, versus those that challenge gender roles that
Virginia Woolf, an original, thought-provoking feminist author, influenced women to fight for equality and to question the opportunities for women in literature. With her diaries, novels and poems, she stunned her readers with something they have not seen much before: women rebelling. Woolf was frustrated with women and the untouched and suppressed skills they harbor. She once said, “Women have sat indoors all these millions of years, so that by this time the very walls are permeated by their created force, which has, indeed, so overcharged the capacity of bricks and mortar that it must needs harness itself to pens and brushes and business and politics” (Feminist 595). Woolf sought to eliminate the perceived ideas of women and enlighten readers of the skills that women possess.
Today, nothing remains of the former social role of women. Nearly all professions are open to women. The numbers of women in the government and traditionally male-dominated fields have dramatically increased. More women than men earn bachelor’s degrees. Many women's groups still prevail and are major political forces. Although the two movements hoped to achieve different things and used different tactics, they still came together to gain women’s rights and have achieved more than anyone would have ever anticipated.
The narrow view of the world that we often experience prevents us from even engaging for or against ideals that we would take on, given the chance. We often become deaf to opportunity, however. While it may seem we are complicit in many of the injustices that our society perpetuates, often times we are not even aware of the issue. An uninformed decision will be as bad as no decision. Many problems exude from the state of our social values. The role that women play in society is slowly changing from that of a ‘nurturer’ to any role a woman strives for. Progress has come through much pain and the hope is one day there will be real equality in the results of our societies spoken and unspoken laws.
Fetterley, Judith. The Resisting Reader: A Feminist Approach to American Literature. Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press, xi-xxiv. Print.
Despite most members of the gender revolution wanting an egalitarian position when it comes to work and family, both the men and women that Gerson talks to in The Unfinished Revolution have fallback positions. However, these fallbacks differ in accordance to gender.
In “Women in the Twentieth Century and Beyond”, Kimberly M. Radek discusses the struggling events that occurred throughout history in order for gender discrimination to be eliminated.
In order for us to deal with how a consideration of femininity can effect our understanding of a literary text, we must also be able to grasp the notion of `feminism' and `Feminist Literary Theory'. A dictionary definition of `feminism' is: `the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of the equality of the sexes.' Although this leans towards feminism in the historical sense of the word, it still provides the grounds, or foundations, from which feminist literary theories were created. Feminists argue against the stereotyping and social construction of female norms, seeing them as created by men in order to establish their own sense of power. It is thought that while males suggest that gender is sex and not actually a construct, the female role will become much more passive, stereotyped and controlled.
In the novel This Earth Of Mankind by Pramoedya Ananta Toer, discrimination against social structure, race, and gender is apparent. The setting is in the Indies, or now called Indonesia. At that time, there are terms for different races in the book, which are “Native” indicating someone who is pure Indonesian, “Indo” a half European and half Indonesian, and “Pure Blood” or “European” when someone is pure European. An Indo and a Pure Blood receives more respect in society than a Native. Furthermore, European or Pure Blood is at the top of this social hierarchy, people who are European or Pure Blood receives the utmost respect in society. Differences in gender is prevalent in this novel, where most women in this book have power in their own homes, but in society is looked down upon. Female characters experiencing these are Annelies, the main character’s love interest, Nyai Ontosoroh, Annelies’ mother who is a concubine, and Magda Peters, the main character’s European teacher. Women in this novel are portrayed differently according to what race, social structure, and gender they are born in, which can be seen through Nyai Ontosoroh, Annelies, and Magda Peters.
The Changing World of Women As a daughter living in a strict environment and living in a traditional ways, things get a little rough. My father is center of the household, so basically everything he says goes. In the western world it’s usually the other way around, it’s usually both the parents that have a say in things. In my society(Muslim society) my mother has a say in nothing unless my father asks. My mother is an excellent mother but she mustn’t say anything or it would be considered not being a good wife. As I get older I am always dreading the day I am asked to be married. I know times have changed but I have a major dilemma. Am I going to marry or continue my education? The problem is I like working with medicine and I want to further my education by going to college. But that requires a minimum of six years university attendance and if I want more degrees that another five years. Most of my medical friends that are females married and had children while they were studying in college. I don’t want that to be me. I want to actually finish something I start. My father isn’t exactly helping me with the situation. He hates the fact that I want to work. In his case, women are not supposed to work unnecessarily if their husbands can provide for them(or their fathers can provide for them if their not married), but in a place like Saudi Arabia where men and women don’t mix at work, working just enhances the mind and makes one wiser to the ways of the world. In my mothers opinion, women become better companions to their husbands who should be more understanding and supportive. I feel that instead of being selfish, we can work out ways that help us be good mothers, wives and also continue with our needs of life. If education is one such need, then there are ways to acquire it without causing disturbance. I think my father needs to catch up with the rest of the Muslim world instead of staying in the traditional ways. He said when I finish or if I finish my medical school he would refuse permission to let me work in a hospital.
... take a backseat and hide our intellect behind the soft exterior of emotion. As said in Virginia Woolf’s essay, professions of women, we will always have hardship because we have to work harder than the male race.
Women were and still are discriminated against by the majority in the field of professional labor for centuries. Even today, at the beginning of the XXI century, the society is still at the stage of savagery since reproductive function is declared as the main purpose of female. In many countries, women are deprived of the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to implement professional knowledge, experience and skills. This is due to conservative views on the distribution of family roles, blindly copying the traditions of patriarchy. High social status for women in most countries is hardly achievable.