Bread Givers: A Tale Of Female Oppression Essay

Both Beneatha in A Raisin in the Sun and Sara Smolinsky in Bread Giversare up against not only ethnic and economic obstacles, but also gender restrictions. What are the traditional gender roles that are pushed upon them and how (and to what extent) do these characters transcend them? Does one character progress further than the other in this respect?     Beneatha:
  Part of Younger Generation and also female, so many things   are available to her that weren’t for the older women in her   family
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      Pressures to look a certain way
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      Being part of the younger generation her family doesn’t understand   her political and social views- and is not taken seriously.
      “ People have to express themselves one way or another” (Beneatha   pg 48)
      “Listen, I’m going to be a doctor. I’m not worried about who   I’m going to marry yet—if I ever get married” (Beneatha pg 50)
      “Mama you don’t understand. It’s all a matter of ideas, and   God is just one idea I don’t accept. . . “ (Beneatha pg 51)
        Her confrontation with George Murchison
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    Sara:
  Having to work to feed her family
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      Pressures for her and her sisters to marry someone rich
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      Her father, her religion, and her culture- gender restrictions
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      She moved out and lived on her own
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      Educated herself and became a teacher
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      Other examples:
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