Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Gender in literature
Gender issue in literature
Gender issue in literature
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Gender in literature
Born in Los Angeles to immigrant Chinese-American parents, David Hwang has the perfect viewpoint of East versus West gender roles. M. Butterfly, largely a story of love and deception with an emphasis on how intertwining relationships can change the course of countries and lives. The focus, though is the different gender roles and the significance of those roles in how the story evolved and ended. In his play M. Butterfly, David Henry Hwang masterfully casts non-traditional gender roles while also pitting the East versus West point of views towards traditional gender roles from an unbiased perspective. The most significant character in the play is Song Liling. This character is portrayed as a submissive Asian woman actress coinciding with Asian …show more content…
Butterfly character in its many forms is definitely nontraditional in every way. M. Butterfly starts out as an Asian man playing a woman in a “unknown” homosexual relationship with a western male diplomat. Very out of the ordinary circumstances for genders and cultures, although not the last transformation of M. Butterfly. M. Butterfly in court proceedings is revealed to the world as a man and Rene is ridiculed in front of the whole world for not realizing this during a 20-year relationship. Near the end of the play M. Butterfly again transforms and is revealed to be Rene’s imagination and fantasy therefore stating that he is truly M. Butterfly. He cannot deal with the truth and commits suicide, which is frowned upon in the west, but is acceptable in the east in situations of honor and shame. The fact that the M. in M. Butterfly stands for both madame and monsieur at different points in the play shows how flexible David Hwang’s views of gender equality …show more content…
Rene and the pin up girl shows a common theme of westerners as it pertains to males and western female fantasies. Rene fantasizes about his perfect girl which had stereotypical features of a western woman, yet throughout the whole play he chased an Asian woman. Rene also has a fight with his conscious named Marc who tries to build Rene’s confidence. Rene aspires to be just like Marc who is a typical western ladies’ man and spilling with confidence. Rene showed signs with his power play on Song but he ends up falling short of Marc’s expectations. Marc leaves Rene to his terrible fate and did not seem bothered with giving yet another chance to Rene. Hwang shows the disconnection of fantasy and reality with these characters. In reality a person is limited versus in a fantasy setting possibilities are
In the Western world, Butterfly represents a stereotype of the Oriental woman. The stereotype of an obedient, submissive, and domestic Asian woman appeals to Westerners through other media beside the opera; for example, the “mail-order bride trade” catalogues and TV spots. The story of the white devil Pinkerton and a sub-missive Asian girl Cio-Cio-San has become a cultural myth in Western world. In M. Butterfly, David Henry Hwang parodies and deconstructs this myth. In his play, a French diplomat Rene Gallimard fantasizes that he is Pinkerton and his Chinese lover Song is his Butterfly. However, as Hwang says in the “Afterword” of the play, Gallimard “realizes that it is he who has been But...
Through the actions of the male hegemony and the mother figure, both plays show the different perspectives both sexes have towards homosexuality. The patriarchal figures, show an intolerant and abusive perspective whereas the mother figures show a more understanding way of coping with the identities of their sons. By seeing the reactions of both males and females, it is to say that the maternal figures of the play show a more comprehensive attitude towards the struggles that the male protagonist undergo. Both plays are related to today´s society, because there are still families in which homosexuality is not accepted. People are still
Each play represents the issues faced by each gender during the time period in which it was written. However, many of the issues are similar in each time period, as well as throughout most of history. These issues will likely continue to affect both women and men for a long time in the future.
Chinese-American authors Frank Chin and Maxine Hong Kingston pioneered Asian-American literature. They condemn each other’s work for differences in cultural interpretation and dispute their own and each other’s prescribed gender roles given by both Chinese and American society. Chin and Kingston have differing views on their Chinese culture; in addition to their conflict on culture they criticize the others work declaring it to be a misrepresentation of each other’s heritage.
In what ways and to what effect do female characters simultaneously enact and subvert Vietnamese gender roles.
The characters and the symbols in the play have an important role in showing the different views of African Americans in America, and the issues that were taking place during all of it. The main characters are Walter, mama, and Beneatha. Walter is the hero and enemy of the play, he wants to be rich and starts a plan with his friends to try to become rich. He is a very rebellious husband, son, and brother, because in scene II mama gave the rest of the money to Walter to split between him and his sister and he gave all of it to BoBo to start ...
Poetry is a form of literature that some view as obsolete in the modern world, but in the poem “To the Man Who Shouted ‘I Like Pork Fried Rice’ at Me on the Street”, Franny Choi dispels that belief. She uses poetry as a medium to convey her own personal experience with the stereotyping and fetishization of Asian American women, which is an issue that millions of Asian American women still face today. When considering Choi’s background as a Korean American woman and how that has shaped her identity and philosophy, we see how being an Asian American woman is intrinsically a core part of her work, which is why much of her work is about breaking the stereotypes that come with this identity.
...ly progressed from a way to tell stories about kings and gods to a way to tell stories about ordinary human beings. By moving our focus off of nobility, the language of plays became the language of every individual, and eventually, due to America’s “melting pot” culture, the language itself became individual. The unique language of American dramatic characters represents not only the diversity of the American people, but also the diversity of all human beings. These dramatically dissimilar differences were not typical of older plays when they were written, but now, they are what make American drama so valuable. Our acceptance and love for characters with different values than ours is representative of the love we can develop for those who are different from us. It represents the worldview that our current culture idealizes and strives to achieve: acceptance for all.
Who is stronger? The East or the West? Do the Oriental people truly succumb to the threats of the western white man? Based on the views of the non-oriental people, the Oriental people secretly want to get dominated by a stronger force, comparing them to a woman, or just simply calling their race feminine. The show M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang is able to express different issues regarding the theory of Orientalism by hiding it amongst several conversations between characters. The play can be seen as highly political because of topics it chooses to discuss despite the fact that the lead character is a diplomat. Though somewhat unrelated; M. Butterfly can even have a certain Brecht-esque quality to it. Because it contains several moments that can make the audience member question what is going on and the story itself, Brecht would be happy. The show can confuse the audience and make them think. Gallimard and Song also talk to the audience directly at certain points which in a way can distance them from the story because it can make it known that they are, indeed watching a play. M. Butterfly holds many political and Brechtian qualities that prove many issues that go on today. Seeing these representations of foreign races views on one another can hopefully help to get the countries to realize their harsh judgments.
Out from the kitchen and into the world, women are making a better name for themselves. Although humankind tends to be male dominated, men are not the only species that inhabit the world that they live on. In Julia Alvarez's novel In the Time of the Butterflies, the women of the Dominican Republic are expected to grow up to be housewives and lacking a formal education. Women may be cherished like national treasures, but they are not expected to fulfill their truest potentials as human beings.
The influence of the people around you has a great impact on your life. In In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez and in Journey to Jihad by Ben Taub, radicalization is due to the influences of others. Minerva’s rebellion was caused by both Sinita and Trujillo. Patria’s rebellion was caused by the influences of Minerva and the Church. Jeojen’s radical actions were due to his girlfriend, as well as his neighbor. Minerva, Patria, and Jeojen all epitomize the significance of influential people within one’s life.
...e relationship with men, as nothing but tools she can sharpen and destroy, lives through lust and an uncanny ability to blend into any social class makes her unique. Her character is proven as an unreliable narrator as she exaggerates parts of the story and tries to explain that she is in fact not guilty of being a mistress, but a person caught in a crossfire between two others.
Even in today’s society, sexism is still prevalent and inhibits the people who are affected by it. For the purpose of this essay, sexism will be defined as any action that consciously contributes to a gender stereotyping society. In her essay, Marilyn Frye notes this definition of sexism stating that “making decisions on the basis of sex reinforces the patterns that make it relevant” (846). Therefore, any decision that contributes to the gender binary and its framework is considered sexist. The musical Gypsy has instances in which the main character, Rose, can be considered both going against and contributing to the “patterns that make sex relevant.” In one scene, Rose can be seen subjecting her children to gender roles which feeds in to sexism,
Hwang’s father has been victims of racism since 1996, we can’t tell by the last name or by the way the look like where they come from. We aren’t allowed to ask at auditions legally, a person’s race. Therefore, the fact that DHH a character in this play mistakes a white man for being part Asian shows us that we can’t necessarily tell where a you really from by looking
The Disney movie, Mulan, is a fantastic movie that depicts gender-stereotyped roles, socialization of gender roles, and consequences of over stepping one’s gender role. Both males and females have a specific role in the Chinese society that one must follow. Mulan made a brave choice pretending to be a man and going to war against the Huns in place of her father, risking serious consequences if she were to get caught. She broke the socialization of gender roles and could have been faced with very serious consequences of her actions. The Chinese society in Mulan exemplifies the typical gender roles of males and females, the consequences of displaying the opposite gender role, and showed what the society expected in males and females in characteristics and attitudes.