Gender Roles in Society

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Gender Roles in Literature Gender roles play an important part in literature. Males are generally portrayed to be the stronger and more dominate sex, where females are portrayed to the fairer weaker sex. The short stories “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” by James Thurber and “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant are two stories where the gender roles are somewhat reversed. Women are the dominate ones in these stories and both have a main character that fantasizes about having a more extraordinary life. These two works of literature are written in third person both share the theme of marriage and the gender roles within them. They have some similarities, but a lot of differences as well. These stories show what can happen when one spouse spends too much time daydreaming about what they wish there life was. In both of these stories the women are the characters that control everything that goes on in their household. In “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” Mrs. Mitty can come across as being controlling and overbearing. Many people believe that he does so much daydreaming to escape his wife’s abuse. “Walter Mitty's withdrawal is symptomatic of anger and misanthropy” (Kaufman, 1994). There is also the point of view that she does it because she cares. She is constantly having to wake him from his daydreams and watching out for him. When he is driving in the car and starts speeding she exclaims "Not so fast! You're driving too fast! What are you driving so fast for?” (Thurber, 1939). Throughout the story she has to constantly remind him of things. She has to remind him to put his gloves on because it is cold outside. Which in front of her he does and when he she goes in the building he takes them off only to put them back on when he realizes that he does need them. She reminds him to buy new overshoes which he does not believe that he
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