Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Gender and roles of women in literature
Gender and roles of women in literature
Gender and roles of women in literature
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Gender and roles of women in literature
From Fox to Female
An Analysis of Male Behavior Towards the Women of T. Coraghessan Boyle’s “Greasy Lake”
Written as part of a short story collection, author T. Coraghessan Boyle’s “Greasy Lake” presents itself as a climactic account of one night in a less than savory young man’s life. Upon closer inspection “Greasy Lake” reveals a complex series of foreboding events that incorporate the innocence and ignorance males have when presented with different social scenarios and the female gender. Through his masterful use of the protagonists internal dialogue, Boyle’s artistry shows an evolving dynamic of indifference, aggression, and intimidation towards and by the women of “Greasy Lake”.
Boyle introduces females and their relative insignificance during the narrator’s exposition on what he, Jeff, and Digby are looking for when they travel to the lake. “We went up to the lake because everyone went there, because we wanted to snuff the rich scent of possibility on the breeze, watch a girl take off her clothes and plunge into the festering murk, drink beer, smoke pot, howl at the stars, savor the incongruous full-throated roar of rock and roll against the primeval susurrus of frogs and crickets” (Boyle 294). By grouping his objectification of females with other relatively mundane aspects of why the boys travel to the lake, Boyle makes the prospect of the female as irrelevant and routine as crickets chirping. Through the use of a recurring theme, another haphazard mention of females is made by the narrator when he explains they “debated going to a party of a girl Jeff’s sister knew” (Boyle 295). The young men opted to throw eggs at mailboxes and hitchhikers rather than meet up with the females, once again undermining the importance of ...
... middle of paper ...
...ure. The boys are essentially pinned the same way the young woman they intended to rape was, by little more than the outstretched hand of an older more authoritative female in the light of day.
The rising feminine tide in this masculine short story reveals Boyle’s ability to convey insignificance, mounting interest turned aggression, and the emergence of female power through his protagonist narrator. Unravelling the male teenage mind as it pertains to females may never be an easy task, but Boyle’s intricate placement of narrative dialogue, or the lack thereof, aids the reader in a better understanding of the role the unlucky women in “Greasy Lake” play.
Works Cited
Boyle, T. Coraghessan. "Greasy Lake." X. J. Kennedy, Dana Gioia. Backpack Literature An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. Joe Terry. Pearson, 2012. Text. 28 January 2014.
Sudden and Ironic events that happen to the narrator in T.C. Boyle’s short story “Greasy Lake” are the same type of events that in an instant will change a person forever. The ironic circumstances that the narrator in “Greasy Lake” finds himself in are the same circumstances that young people find themselves in when fighting war.
In 'Greasy Lake,' the dualism of the characters' nature is ever-present. They are self-proclaimed bad guys who 'cultivated decadence like a taste' (79). As the story progresses, however, it is revealed that just the opposite is true. While they are essentially caricatures of themselves, it is this dynamic that drives the story. Their tough exterior is just that, an exterior veneer that permeates their actions as 'dangerous characters.' The narrator is somewhat detached from the younger self of his story. It is an ironic detachment'a parody of his moral ignorance. He recalls the 'bad? antics of his youth: driving their 'parents' whining station wagons,' but doing so as bad as humanly possible, of course. He mocks both himself and his friends in his retrospection of their experience in Greasy Lake, the consummate locale of 'bad.' To the boys, the lake serves as a kind of haven for bad characters such as themselves. Truly, however, the lake is an extension of the dynamic between who the boys are and who they parade around as. It is here where the previous and false understanding about their world is shattered, and they are thrust into a moralistic reformation. Ultimately, the dichotomous nature of the protagonist is resolved by his visit to the lake, and perhaps, the lake itself.
Grace, Dominick. “Literary contexts in Short Stories: T.C. Boyle’s “Greasy Lake.” 2006:1-1 Literary Reference Center. EBSCOhost. Web.28 June 2007.
Throughout history, men are taught that they are the head of the household. This idea is implicated in everyday society. At some point in history women were expected to submit to a men commands. One poem in particular that gives us an inside idea of what it was like growing up during the 1950s is called Sixth Grade written by Marie Howe. This poem speaks about sexual harassment that can be interpreted as six grade version of rape, innocence, and gender role. Howe uses limited use symbolism but crucial to connect her to her audience and to make a statement about where the origin of male violence originated.
“The Bass, The River, and Sheila Mant,” written by W.D. Wetherell, tells the story of a fourteen-year-old boy and the summer in which he met Sheila Mant. After weeks of failed attempts and longing for the older woman who seemed just out of his reach, the boy worked
Sandra Cisneros short story “Woman Hollering Creek”, has many allegories about culture, morality, and gender roles.
In his essay, “Come Back to the Raft Ag’in, Ed Gentry,” Betina Entzminger argues that at the heart of James Dickey’s Deliverance lies the search for a lost masculinity in today’s world, told through the lens of the protagonist’s canoe trip. He asserts that Ed understands the societal pressures upon each gender, forces that compel us towards the stereotypes that pervade our culture. Further, Entzminger believes, “Despite the fact that Ed sees these constructions as constructions, he is unable to rise above them” (Entzminger). Ultimately, Entzminger posits, “Ed dutifully destroys that which challenges his own and his community’s conceptions of gender and sexuality, and he finds comfort in his return to his community at the novel’s close” (Entzminger). However, though Entzminger is correct that Ed never does ascend beyond society’s gender constructions, his error is in his assumption that Ed ever wanted to, or that he even should have.
The opening paragraph of “Greasy Lake” written by T. Coraghessan Boyle, displays the fact that the following passage is nothing but a mere recollection for the narrator. In this recollection, the unnamed narrator speaks about how life was like during the days of his youth. The narrator describes his youth in a very descriptive way displaying what actions surrounded his life and what he acted like. For example, in the opening sentence he said, “There was a time when courtesy and winning ways went out of style, when it was good to be bad, when you cultivated decadence like a taste. We were all dangerous characters then” (Boyle 569). This statement describes the societal norms of his generation and the type of behavior he was striving to model
In the poem “The One Girl at the Boys’ Party,” Sharon Olds uses imagery to convey pride in her daughter’s growing femininity. What would seem to be another childhood pool party for the girl turns into an event that marks a rite of passage to adulthood. Though the narrator is reluctant of her daughter’s search for an identity, she ultimately sees her daughter’s transformation to womanhood as admirable. Olds’ pride is first shown when the girl begins to lose her innocence from the unfamiliar surroundings of masculine men. The narrator says, “They will strip to their suits, her body hard and indivisible as a prime number” (5-6). The girl’s stiff and confident stature that this image conveys suggests that she is anxious yet willing to progress
During the Victorian Era, society had idealized expectations that all members of their culture were supposedly striving to accomplish. These conditions were partially a result of the development of middle class practices during the “industrial revolution… [which moved] men outside the home… [into] the harsh business and industrial world, [while] women were left in the relatively unvarying and sheltered environments of their homes” (Brannon 161). This division of genders created the ‘Doctrine of Two Spheres’ where men were active in the public Sphere of Influence, and women were limited to the domestic private Sphere of Influence. Both genders endured considerable pressure to conform to the idealized status of becoming either a masculine ‘English Gentleman’ or a feminine ‘True Woman’. The characteristics required women to be “passive, dependent, pure, refined, and delicate; [while] men were active, independent, coarse …strong [and intelligent]” (Brannon 162). Many children's novels utilized these gendere...
In Alice Munro’s “Boys and Girls,” there is a time line in a young girl’s life when she leaves childhood and its freedoms behind to become a woman. The story depicts hardships in which the protagonist and her younger brother, Laird, experience in order to find their own rite of passage. The main character, who is nameless, faces difficulties and implications on her way to womanhood because of gender stereotyping. Initially, she tries to prevent her initiation into womanhood by resisting her parent’s efforts to make her more “lady-like”. The story ends with the girl socially positioned and accepted as a girl, which she accepts with some unease.
In a society where the focus on equality amongst different races, religions and sexes continues to grow, it is no surprise that literature has begun to follow suit. Publishers have seen a rise in strong, capable female protagonists who overcome a variety of struggles to save themselves or others and both teens and adults alike rush to get their hands on this material. With such popular literary works to choose from, it seems strange that many schools continue to rely on somewhat archaic material that mistreats and degrades so many women. In John Steinbeck 's Of Mice and Men, for example, the only female character the reader interacts with is treated like a lower-class prostitute who is ultimately killed off due to her seductive behavior. Though Steinbeck 's treatment of women comes mainly from classic gender roles, his portrayal of female characters in Of Mice and Men is
Evelyn Cunningham once said, “Women are the only oppressed group in our society that lives in intimate association with their oppressors.” For thousands of years women have been oppressed, not in the bondage of slavery but in the bondage that comes from a lack of education and a dependence on men for their livelihood. Women have been subjected to scrutiny and ostracization, belittling and disparaging comments, and even at times they have been feared by men. Women themselves have even taken on the beliefs that they require a man in their life to be taken care of and have a satisfying life although some women and even some men have seen that the differences between the sexes is purely physical. This oppression, as well as the enlightenment of some, is well noted in many literary works. Literature has often been an arena for the examination of the “woman question,” as it was termed in the Victorian age. Four works that examine the role or view of women in society are John Stuart Mill’s The Subjection of Women, T.S. Eliot’s “Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, and Carol Ann Duffy’s “Medusa.” Although each work examines a side of the woman question in its own way with a variety of views on the question, all of the works examine the fear that women incite in men, the idea that women are dependent on men, and the idea that women are separate from men in some way and each piece works to show that there is actually an interdependence between men and women that is often not expressed.
Alice Munro’s “Boys and Girls” is a story about a girl that struggles against society’s ideas of how a girl should be, only to find her trapped in the ways of the world.
Through the characters' dialogue, Hemingway explores the emptiness generated by pleasure-seeking actions. Throughout the beginning of the story, Hemingway describes the trivial topics that the two characters discuss. The debate about the life-changing issue of the woman's ...