The first common theme in Saadat Manto’s short story is rape and the effect it has on women during the Partition. A young girl, Sakina, is raped by a few men of in her community while her father is desperately looking for her amongst the dangers and chaos of the Partition. He asks social workers to help him find Sakina. When they do, they approach her and assure her to go along with them. Sakina confides in them but then ends up being repeatedly raped. At first, Sakina is a terrified and hesitant young girl trying to avoid the men. However, the ending is dramatically contrasted with her polar behavior. In the last scene, Sakina, is half conscious and barely alive yet she responds to the doctor’s command “open it” (his reference was to the window) by lifting her clothes up. Sakina “ …stirred a little. She moved her hand painfully towards the cord holding up her salwar” (Manto 362). After this scene, readers can powerfully feel the change that has come upon her after she has been raped. A once young and innocent girl had become …show more content…
Moving to a new country is like diving into an unexplored swimming pool with unknown depths. Mistry uses the swimming pool as a metaphor to represent a foreign country. There is a feeling of loneliness, homesickness and being more vulnerable. In the short story, the protagonist does not know how to swim. So, by diving into a swimming pool he has a fear of drowning. In other words, this represents his fear of losing his original South Asian identity after ‘diving’ into a country with a completely different culture and way of living. The protagonist struggles to preserve his identity by sending letters back home as they are the only thing that connects him to India. His life in this new country is a constant battle of trying to fit in but also preserve his
Both el Saadawi and Al-Shaykh both show how perception and expression are both affected within the confines of politics, social opportunities, and male privilege depicted in their stories. Whether the reader is a follower of the feminist movement or not, it is very clear and easy to see that these women are not being treated with the respect that any human being deserves. The misogynistic stranglehold on society, especially in this part of the world, is excessive and avoidable in today’s world but it is very likely that the traditional, conservative ways of the past will continue to control and inhibit women from being able to be fully treated as equals for many years to come, perhaps even after this generation has
Young women were expected to work. From a young age, women needed to contribute to the family income for the family to survive. His chapter is helpful in understanding what happened to young women who were struggling. Terpstra notes that homes like that of the Pieta were set up to help these women. Terpstra’s argument really informs the reader on the struggle present for so many lower class women. He writes that the lives of these young women were unstable, due to the fact that these women were always on the move. In Terpstra's research, he found that when women left the house to pursue a job, more than a third returned shortly after leaving. In Terpstra’s work again we see the theme of women in lower positions being abused by men in higher
The theme in "The Lesson" by Toni Cade Bambara appears to be a lesson on
In the story “In Camera, Saadawi illustrated how women were treated by the legal system in Arabic country when they did something against the system. The protagonist, Leila Al-Fargani, who was a young woman on trial for calling the “mighty one”, which is a respective title for the President of their country, a stupid man. Moreover, during the time she was waiting for the court date, she was brutally beaten and raped by ten men who seem to be the guards. At the time she was in the court, she was still suffering from the pain both in physical and mental way, but she did not collapse. When the time the judge and those with him declared that ten men raped Leila and also her father’s honor got trampled. (This is the way we torture you women- by depriving you of the most valuable thing you possess”). For the response she said: “You fool! The most valuable thing I possess is not between my legs. You are all stupid. And the most stupid among you is the one who leads you.” In one hand, this quote completely showed that the man thought this sexual violence was totally right when the woman had committed a crime. In anther hand, it also showed that in the very deep of Leila, the...
If Hosseini aims to convey a message that women are tantalizing and provide warmth to society but are hidden and masked, evidently there must be an issue causing this suppression of women in society; thus the political and cultural backdrop plays in to the impression the reader takes away from the novel. Hosseini conveys his message of enduring and optimism profoundly through these two characters. If not for the political and cultural backdrop of the novel, the story could not have been developed with the significance and comprehensiveness that it currently has, which essentially are the backbone of the impact this novel has on the reader through a striking presentation of reality that has never been seen in this light, sending a motivational message to fight for the right cause and endure when necessary to achieve the ultimate target.
Desire as Power, and Stripping it through sexual means in The Swimming Lady and The Disappointment.
This pool is my soul, and the slight, gentle waves are the beating of my heart. I stand on the deck looking down at the clear, calm water, and raise my hands above my head. I dive into the water, smooth and straight like an arrow. I enter the water without a splash, and glide underwater, feeling the cool water on my skin, and the scent of chlorine in the air. I feel powerful, immortal, and completely at peace.
“The fish in the sink is dying slowly.” (Paragraph 19 line 1). After immigrating in Canada Malaysia’s culture in author’s family is fading away like fish dying slowly in the sink “‘I don’t like the eyeball there. It looks sick.’” (Paragraph 34) Why do we have to eat fish?” (Paragraph 31 line1). Which represents son’s resistance of Malaysian culture “My father reaches in with his bare hands. He lifts the fish out by the tail and lays it gently on the counter. While holding it steady with one hand, he hits the head with the flat of the cleaver.” (Paragraph 22 line 1-3). Since son’s rejection in dinner and reluctance of remembrance of Malaysian, father choose traditional way to teach son like treat fish. TV show serves as soil for their cultural tree to derive nutrient, make sure the tree has struck roots. “He loved cooking shows. We watched Wok with Yan, my father passing judgments on Yan’s methods. You don’t have to be genius to do that.” Narrator’s father keens on watching Asian television show, television is a bridge for father talked about the Asian country culture with narrator and is also a vehicle to transmit relevant Asian culture message. Nametag symbolizes new identity in new country, “her nametag is still clipped to her blouse” (paragraph 35 line 1) mother immigrates in Canada, all life is new for her, she is a new immigrant who needs time to eliminate cultural
The effects from this corrupt enterprise are undeniably painful and scaring. In common societies women are belittled and objectified excessively, it is hardly considered a conflict when unimaginable pain is inflicted upon them. The physical, emotional, and mental distortion and destruction, caused by violence last an eternity. The inane fear, agony of sha...
...de effects of ‘nontraditional’ immigration, the government officially turned against its immigrant communities…” In this line, Mukherjee is showing that she had also been a victim of the new immigration laws, and that was the reason she had conformed to the country, in order to feel a sense of belonging. In this instance, exemplification is used to develop her argument in an effective manner that causes the audience to feel a sense of guilt and even listen to her argument.
Like the soldiers in the Chinese folktale, the women figures in The House on Mango Street are in a plight. Their condition is horrifying, filled with “restrictive gender roles, and domestic
As time moves on the world has plenty of opportunities to improve and make changes. The world has an abundance of dilemmas, but equality should no longer be one of those dilemmas. Equality is seen as a part of humanity and if there are limits to equality, then there are limits on humanity. In the story, The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara, the topic of equality and socioeconomic status are often discussed. According to the American Psychological Association the definition of socioeconomic status is, “the social standing or class of an individual or group. It is often measured as a combination of education, income and occupation” (socioeconomic status). The story is about an educated African American teacher who takes her barely
In the age of industrialization when rural life gradually was destroyed, the author as a girl who spent most of her life in countryside could not help writing about it and what she focuses on in her story - femininity and masculinity, which themselves contain the symbolic meanings - come as no surprise.
In this chapter Mahasweta Devi’s anthology of short stories entitled Breast Stories to analyze representations of violence and oppression against women in name of gender. In her Breast Stories, Devi twice evokes female characters from ancient Hindu mythology, envisions them as subalterns in the imagined historical context and, creates a link with the female protagonists of her short stories. As the title suggests, Breast Stories is a trilogy of short stories; it has been translated and analyzed by Gayatri Chakraborty Spivak and, in Spivak’s view, the ‘breast’ of a woman in these stories becomes the instrument of a brutal condemnation of patriarchy. Indeed, breast can be construed as the motif for violence in the three short stories “Draupadi,” “Breast-Giver,” and “Behind the Bodice,”
However, partly due to their biological sexual difference and the socio-cultural surroundings to which they belong, the consequences of these above mentioned social evils are much more on women, especially subaltern women. Giving voice to such oppressed subalterns, the gendered subaltern (women of the deprived sections) and Indian women in general, Gayatri Chakvarty Spivak says: “For if, in the context of colonial production, the subaltern has no history and cannot speak, the subaltern as female is even more deeply in shadow.” During her analysis of Sati she concludes her essay “can the subaltern” with her declaration that “the subaltern cannot speak” (Ashcroft, Griffths, and Tiffins 218-219).