The theme of femininity is shown in great respects, in Adrienne Rich's poem "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers". Rich's poem holds a similar theme to Tillie Olson's "I stand here Ironing". These two writings both represent how society was critical on woman's roles. Although they are both based on the same societal theme, Rich's poem has a much stronger impact on its readers. Rich's poem is easier to relate to because it explains the struggle of women and the want for success and freedom. Rich explains the "weight" of Aunt Jennifer's wedding ring, which represents her bad marriage. This is easier for readers to relate to because it is a common problem in society. Women are often thought of as lower and weaker than men and Rich represents this in many forms. Aunt Jennifer's wedding band is "heavy" on her hand, which holds her back from being able to do her craft. This was represented by showing how men often held women back from showing their talents. Olson's poem also represents a lack of feminism, but it is based in the older days and takes a different path. Olson's poem represents a man's ability to leave the women and children to fend for herself. This is harder for readers to understand because there could be a lot of criticism about why the man left and how the wife could have better taken care of her family. Olson's poem not only shows the weakness of the mother but also shows the effect on her daughter.
Rich's poem is stronger because it better criticized how society viewed women, though Olson and Rich both used a similar approach to representing the expected role of women. In Rich's poem, Aunt Jennifer is sewing, and in Olson's poem the mother is ironing. Both authors took this approach because they wanted to show what society expect...
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...cted to be stay-at-home moms. Rich portrays her female character as the traditional stay-at-home mom character that is expected to do household chores and raise her family. Although both authors were taking a feminist approach they took two different paths at representing it. Because of these two approaches, the authors showed different problems in society. The approach of having a traditional woman was more successful for Rich because it was more common for someone to suffer from this at this time. Olson's story was strong but was viewed as uncommon because it was very rare that women were left alone with their children. Rich took a better approach by showing how the women that followed "tradition" were still suffering from the cruelness of society. Rich's poem better criticized society by showing that no women was treated properly no matter what role they followed.
Some critics have argued that Richard Wright’s women are “flat, one dimensional stereotypes, portrayed primarily in terms of their relationship to the male character”. (Quote, p540) However, in Uncle Tom’s Children, Wright resents three very distinct types of female characters who did not fit this description. Wright portrays women as an Avenger, a Sufferer and a Mother figure whose actions propel the stories to their final conclusion. In the story “Bright and Morning Star” Wright places the protagonist, Aunt Sue, in a domestic environment. “Her hands followed a lifelong ritual of toil” (pg222) as she cleans and cooks. Interestingly, Aunt Sue is the only heroine in the stories, who shows a different type of bravery than perhaps shown by the male figures in other stories. She is brave in the face of the loss of her two sons; she is brave as she does not show weakness to the white men who attempt to control her and make her do their bidding. She does not allow herself to be bound by the conventions of society. She speaks her mind to the white men who invade her home and states “Ah don’t care who Ahm talking t!” (pg238). Aunt Sue is portrayed as a cunning woman, who hides behind men’s perception of her as weak and uses it to her advantage. Her final act of bravery in the story is to giver herself up to death, before the white men can take her life from her. Wright also portrays women as sufferers in his work. Sarah, in “Long Black Song” suffers from isolation and is stuck in a loveless marriage. The gap between men and women is very much evident in this story. Sarah is very much dependent on Silas for company, security and items of comfort. Silas is allowed to exceed from the isolation imposed on his wife. Even when Sarah flees from ...
After a long struggle to have some rights, women were not given the right to vote until 1920. For many centuries women have been controlled by men by being told what they can and cannot do. The story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is considered a feminist piece through the narrators husband’s words and actions, the environment she stayed in, and the narrator’s own words.
The Mother Daughter Relationship in "I Stand Here Ironing" by Tillie Olsen. I stand here ironing, a unique phrase uttered by a woman in her conquest of life. It may seem like an unwanted phrase to many, but it has a deep meaning behind it. This phrase is almost whispered by the narrator of?I Stand Here Ironing,?
The setting of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story “The Yellow Wallpaper” is crucial to the reader’s understanding of the narrator 's experiences. Even though the narrator is aware of some illness affecting her, she instinctively insists is caused from lack of artistic expression, but other outstanding factors are portrayed through Gilman’s writing which contribute to the psychosis of our narrator. To consider these aspects Susan , author of “The Feminist Criticism, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper,’ and the Politics of Color in America,” criticizes the degree where Gilman’s story transforms contemporary feminism and social practices.
Women In the Progressive Era In today’s times, women are more equal to men than they ever have been, even though differences like the wage gap exist. However, the rights of women have come a long way since, even as little as a hundred years ago. How is this possible? Women have fought – and won – against the inequalities that they have faced.
She makes the argument that all women in the south, including slaves experienced many forms of oppression because of the patriarchal society of the south during the time, because without the oppression of all women then farmers would lose full authority. “Patriarchy was the bedrock upon which the slave society was founded, and slavery exaggerated the pattern of subjugation that patriarchy had established.”(p. 6) She makes the notion that the plantation wives and female slaves shared similar experiences with unequal treatment. The book even theorizes that the plantation mistress were in more bondage than female slaves were because she had no other person to share her experiences with. Whereas, the slaves all had commonality among them and experienced there hardships together as a family rather than
Rich begins her poem by describing the tigers of Aunt Jennifer's tapestry. They are vibrant and powerful with no fear of men. One begins to feel that Aunt Jennifer, as the artist, must be a free spirit because she can dream of those tigers. They are above the men who want to hunt them and therefore out of reach. This confirms the feminist idea that women's minds are just as complex as men's and so their works of art should be appreciated beside that produced by men, not as inferior products: "both sexes are to be valued as creative, rational people who can all contribute to their societies and their world." (Bressler 153)
Another example were Rich uses symbolism occurs in the second stanza: “The massive weight of Uncle’s wedding band / Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer’s hand” (7-8). The symbol that is expressed in these two lines is the wedding band. The images that these lines portray are of a very heavy wedding band on the hand of a woman. Initially, you would think that the wedding band is very large and thick because the author explains that it is heavy on her hand. A heavy wedding band would be a problem for someone who enjoys weaving wool into tapestry, making it more difficult to maneuver your hand to do such intricate work. Yet, the underlying message of this symbol is that she has many restrictions in her marriage that are weighing her down, like a
The portrayal of gender in this text shows the husband as the prime breadwinner of the household while the wife stays home to clean the house and tend for the children. This is clearly our traditional family lifestyle of a household. Now although this can be considered traditional, we clearly see this lifestyle outdated in our twenty-first century society today. The text is demonstrated to show the young daughter her place in society, and teach the young girl the everyday tasks she will need to know in order to run a household smoothly and successfully. It is also clear that the mother’s life reflects all of these ideals that a husband should be the one working and the wife is to be happy and content by taking great pride and satisfaction in the caring for her home. The mother also has strong view on the behavior for a women in society and throughout the story gives many warning on her daughters behavior such as “on Sundays try and walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming”. (Kincaid 56) This is a clear statement from the mother tha...
Motherhood in never guaranteed to by easy. Children definitely do not come with instruction manuals and even if they did there are so many variables, such as the national economy and unexpected single motherhood, that are beyond our control. The choices a mother has to make can cause numerous moments of second guessing and immense guilt. “I Stand Here Ironing” explores the perceived failures and gnawing guilt of a post- Depression era mother as she contemplates the childhood circumstances of her oldest, overlooked, and seemingly troubled child. Throughout the story Tillie Olsen takes us through the depths of a mother’s guilt due to pressures of the economy and society on parenting during her time and how much blame she puts on herself for her
Now that we have a little background on the author, we can take a closer look at the actual work and its characters. The two main characters of the story a narrator and her husband, John, and the story takes place in the 19th century. Life for the two is like most other marriages in this time frame, only the narrator is not like most other wives. She has this inner desire to be free from the societal roles that confine her and to focus on her writing, while John in content with his life and thinks that his wife overreacts to everything. Traditionally, in this era, the man was responsible for taking care of the woman both financially and emotionally, while the woman was solely responsible for remaining at home. This w...
Throughout the 19th century, feminism played a huge role in society and women’s everyday lifestyle. Women had been living in a very restrictive society, and soon became tired of being told how they could and couldn’t live their lives. Soon, they all realized that they didn’t have to take it anymore, and as a whole they had enough power to make a change. That is when feminism started to change women’s roles in society. Before, women had little to no rights, while men, on the other hand, had all the rights. The feminist movement helped earn women the right to vote, but even then it wasn’t enough to get accepted into the workforce. They were given the strength to fight by the journey for equality and social justice. There has been known to be
Several people regard women as inferior figures in this global world. Women have challenged the traditional female roles and have gradually climbed up the ladder of equality. They portray a distinct perspective that proves that womanhood can accomplish anything they set their mind to and search for equal gender status. The poems celebrate femininity and highlights the traits necessary for a women to be successful. The ladies in the poems are female-figures that carry themselves with high self-esteem and fearlessness. This essay identifies various literary techniques that describe feminine strength in Angelou and Clifton.
For thousands of centuries literature has been used as a clever device to show the negative outlook in which society has on women at that time. The common theme of men exploiting women for personal gain and using their heavy-handed power to make women feel inferior can be seen in writings from the ancient Greeks all the through authors of the 20th century. Writers and intellectual thinkers such as Plato, Peter Abelard, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Henrik Ibsen, and even women such as Virgina Wolfe, and Fatima Mernissi have all written about the struggles caused by domineering men which women have fought against for so long. It is not until the late twentieth century that we see a positive almost spiritual view of women from the stories told by Gao Xingjan in his book One Man’s Bible. The 1994 publication of Fatima Mernissi’s memoirs of her girlhood in a harem spoke powerfully in favor of women shedding prescribed gender roles in favor of embracing their own identities. It is books such as Fatima’s and Gao’s which will help carry out feminist movements into the 21st century.
David Lodge is one of the representative writers of the postmodernism period. Apart from the theme of the meaning of work, both from the industrial and academic point of view, the “Nice Work” novel also develops the idea of feminism. The earnest feminist in the novel is Robyn Penrose, the main character of the novel, who works as university teacher. Throughout the novel, she reveals her feminist beliefs from the manner in which she behaves and talks.