Biologically, gestation period is considered to be one of the difficult period of a woman’s life; there are lots of changes that take place in her life both physically and psychologically. But, Lou Ann thinks being pregnant will be not be as awful as being groped by strangers on a bus. The sexual molestations or harassment that a woman like her faces shows the extent of the degradation, and lack of respect for women in the society.
Kingsolver shows that while motherhood is a celebrated social expectation, as evident through the pamphlet given to Lou Ann, the woman is seen as the “other.” As Beauvoir succinctly puts it: “The men of today show a certain duplicity of attitude which is painfully lacerating to women; they are willing on the whole
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She is sorely bruised, but cannot talk about it, which typifies the domestic abuse that women, and the girl child suffer. Some women are forced into silence because they want to keep their family together, while others are silence because the society blames them in the end. Turtle’s silence mirrors the author’s experience in her younger years as a rape victim. She could not talk openly on it because she was blamed for the rape which was labelled ‘acquaintance rape’ (Critical Companion 6). Lamenting what Turtle had gone through as a child, Kingsolver wrote, “The Indian girl was a girl. A girl, poor thing. That fact had already burdened her short life with a kind of misery I could not imagine” (The Bean Trees 25). Here, the author shows that being a girl usually herald an uneasy life, and this theme is explicated throughout the rest of the …show more content…
These two works deal with the social oppression that women, especially lower class women face. Cee, as a child experienced the hardship a typical lower class American faces, combined with her race, her hard life is can only better imagined. As a young girl, she is physically abused by her grandmother, who is described in the novel as a woman who owns a car and a home, and by extension does the Moneys favor by housing them (Home 44). Cee had been born on the road when her parents lost their home in Texas, and moved to Lotus, Georgia. Her seemingly middle class grandmother holds that over her head. Being born in the streets – or the gutter, as she usually put it – was prelude to a sinful, worthless life” (44). Lower class or poor women are not only oppressed by the upper class, they suffer more from the hands of middle class people
To the urban lifestyle of growing up in the ghettos and the hardships. She depicts the usages of drugs, gang, crime, poverty, teen pregnancy and mostly how it effects the community. But also shows how the outside violence comes into the home and can devastate the natural order of the household.
To understand the significant changes within the role of women, it’s important to look at the position women held in society prior to World War II. In a famously quoted ruling by the United States Supreme Court in a case denying a woman’s right to practice law, the following excerpt penned by the Honorable Joseph P. Bradley in 1873 sums up how women were perceived during that period of time by their male counterparts. Bradley declared, "The paramount destiny and mission of women are to fulfill the noble and benign offices of wife and mother -- this is the law of the Creator" . While many women may agree that the role of wife and mother is a noble one, most would certainly not agree this position would define their destiny.
Taylor is young girl who leaves her home state Kentucky and ends up living in Arizona with a woman Lou Ann, but alongside her travels, she was given an Indian child she named Turtle. Lou Ann has a child of her own and together the two women learn and adjust their way of living, excluding male figures. She makes the girls fend for themselves and build strength confidence within them throughout the proceedings of the book. For instance, when Taylor first arrives in Tucson with Turtle she is clueless and helpless because she knows no one. However, during her journey she formed a family including various women: Lou Ann, Mattie, Esperanza, Edna, and Virgie. They all aid or support each other with whatever they do. Virgie and Edna take care of the children for Lou Ann and Taylor when they go to work and Mattie gave Taylor a job when she was in dire need. Even though Kingsolver is trying to show how the women are independently strong, she still demonstrates how defenseless they can be and how the women have no control over it. This feeling is shown in this excerpt when Taylor says, “How can I just be upset about Turtle, about a grown man hurting a baby, when the whole way of the world is to pick on people that can’t fight back?” (Kingsolver 229) Through this Kingsolver is trying to convey that women in the world can be helpless when compared to male figures because some men wrongfully hurt women. She goes on to explain how they are not taught how to respectfully treat a woman. The 21st century world has a peculiar way of enforcing standards on the genders, and in today’s society those standards are definitely not the same for each other and Kingsolver shows this through her
... sixteenth and nineteenth centuries the role of mothers changed discreetly though significantly. Although the changes are not noticeably dramatic to most people today, these changes had a significant impact on the activities mothers performed as well as their quality of life. Although it can be argued that the most common role of mothers has always been to bear children, by the mid eighteen hundreds women began to have more choices on when and 0how often to have children. Another big change was that in later centuries women had the time and were encouraged to raise their children themselves rather than leaving their children to their own devices or sending them to be raised by strangers. While these changes in the roles of mothers are not the most obvious changes that occurred during this time period, they were certainly significant to all those that they affected.
Within the course of two decades these three novels deal with racism, diversity of people and similar economic status. The writers raise awareness of the oppression of the African American communities and the long lasting struggles that these folks had to endure to survive.
The setting of both stories reinforces the notion of women's dependence on men. The late 1800's were a turbulent time for women's roles. The turn of the century brought about revolution, fueled by the energy and freedom of a new horizon…but it was still just around the bend. In this era, during which both short stories were published, members of the weaker sex were blatantly disregarded as individuals, who had minds that could think, and reason, and form valid opinions.
He mentions how far women have come since his grandmother's day, but realizes the country as a whole has more room to grow. He mentions how tough it can be for women to juggle a demanding career while raising a family. Both text reference what honor motherhood is but they also admit the demanding workforce can determine how successful a mother they can be. Women today may not face slavery, but they face double standards that limit them to be successful professionals and parents.
A debate has been raging for years over the necessity for, mother’s duties, which has been so much so that it is termed “Mommy Wars”. The core of “Mommy Wars” is about mothers should wave rights of studying and working to take care of children at home and be a housewife. Traditionally, mothers must be a full-time mother when they raise a baby. However, by the development of society and the movements for women’s rights, this issue has been increasingly a hot topic for the discussion. For this reason, Louise Story interviewed students and faculties at Yale University.
Women throughout time have been compelled to cope with the remonstrances of motherhood along with society’s anticipations
In today’s society, there are certain types of women who are born with the advantage to prosper, and others who will ultimately face challenges. Certain factors are involved when discussing what types of women are more likely to encounter difficulties throughout their life. Audre Lorde, an African-American theorist, poet, and activist, stated tat the American norm is, “usually defined as white, thin, male, young, heterosexual, Christian, and financially secure” (Lorde 19). If a woman does not identify with all of these characteristics, she is more susceptible to hardship. Bastard out of Carolina, The House on Mango Street, and The Bluest Eye discuss many of the consequences of having certain factors that are considered out of the norm.
Poor people are always the victims. And through these two novels, we see that the leading female characters are both victimized because they came from poor households. I feel that Eileen Chang’s writing style has made her female characters seem too unrealistic. These situations are unfathomable. Her novel does not seem to depict the true struggle of traditional Chinese women.
to the conclusion at one point that the whole thing was hopeless because it is a biological fact women have babies and that is always a career breaker. I end this paper rather disappointed that now, as it was centuries ago,are allowing their lives to be run by male views and stereotypes. The world is moving forward but unless women stop allowing
Both novels demonstrate the characteristics of gender, race, and family relations. Black culture has endured through challenges as represented in these books. Both books present the struggle that individuals go through regarding slavery or society changing. They present diverse stories regarding things actually falling apart in both books.
In her essay “Abortion, Intimacy, and the Duty to Gestate,” Margaret Olivia Little examines whether it should be permissible for the state to force the intimacy of gestation on a woman against her consent. Little concludes that “mandating gestation against a woman’s consent is itself a harm - a liberty harm” (p. 303). She reaches this conclusion after examining the deficiencies in the current methods used to examine and evaluate the issues of abortion. Their focus on the definition of a “person” and the point in time when the fetus becomes a distinct person entitled to the benefits and protections of the law fails to capture “the subtleties and ambivalences that suffuse the issue” (p. 295). Public debate on the right to life and the right to choose has largely ignored the nature of the relationship between the mother and the fetus through the gestational period and a woman’s right to either accept or decline participation in this relationship.
As centuries pass by, generations also pass their traditional values to the next generation. some people still think the way their ancestors thought and believe in what they believed in. During the beginning of 1890 people couldn’t have premarital sex, women had to be the caretaker while men were the breadwinner. During this century, those perspectives have changed, argued Stephanie Coontz, the author of “The American Family”. Coontz believes women should have more freedom and there should be gender equality.