As property, they were powerless to stop their master’s lewd advances, and would be punished brutally for resisting. Furthermore, the jealousy of the “plantation mistress” against her female slave produced by these advances made the daily life of these slaves insufferable (Northup, 12 Years a Slave). Wives of slave master’s could not directly punish their husbands for their infidelity, and for this reason they often punished the slaves themselves with erratic beatings, excessive workloads, and psychological torture (Brinkley 264). Nevertheless, female slaves often had children with their slave masters under these circumstances, which often resulted in the sale of both them and their children (Northup, 12 Years
In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God describes the life of Janie, a black woman at the turn of a century. Janie is raised by her Grandmother and spends her life traveling with different men until she finally returns home. Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel of modern literature that displays a woman’s quest in self-discovery and on her journey through life. Through this novel is that the question of femininity and dependency is raised through the quest Janie is put through. The first two people Janie depended on were her Grandmother, whom she called Nanny, and Logan Killicks.
In 1981, however, Jean Fagan Yellin discovered Jacobs's correspondence with Child, and with another abolitionist friend, Amy Post. The letters, along with the rest of Yellin's research, assured the authenticity of Jacobs's narrative; and since thenIncidents has received its due critical attention. Modern criticism has focused largely on Jacobs's exploitation of the sentimental domestic genre and on the differences between Jacobs's work and slave narratives such as Frederick Douglass's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845). Biographical Information Jacobs was born a slave in North Carolina. Her parents were both slaves, but her grandmother had been emancipated and owned her own home, earning a living as a baker.
Jean-Luc Benoit Literary Analysis 5 The poem Sadie and Maud by the poet Gwendolyn Brooks was written in the forties when ideals and expectations for women were more enforced and precedent to follow. In a very contemporary fashion she compares two sisters by emphasizing their lifestyle choices. Sadie, meaning “Princess” in Old English lives a life unapologetically when she breaks all the ideals and standards that have been put forth for her to follow by society and the hegemonic groups that determine what those standards are. Sadie bore two babies out of wedlock which, back then was a big taboo for any women to do let alone, an African American one such as herself who is already looked down upon due to her skin color. Sadie demolishes the gender roles that have been ingrained in society by going into motherhood without a husband therefore, “Putting Ma, Pa, and Maud to shame.” In the Poem it states that, “Sadie scraped life with a fine toothed comb”.
She leaves a whole country to conquer the feeling of loss of her first child whereas she simply decides to ignore the passage her family used to take together in her building after her second child dies. As a result of facing similar situations, one is able to surmount a feeling of loss through repeated exposures of it.
Douglass ends his main portrayal of slavery as unnatural for all involved. Douglass defines typical behavior patterns of slaveholders to portray the hurtful effects of slavery. He describes how many slave owning men have been tempted to adultery and rape, fathering children with their female slaves. This adultery jeopardized the union of the slave owner’s family, as the father is obligated to either sell or continuously punish his own child, while the slave owner’s wife becomes bitter and cruel. Douglass’s key demonstration of the corruption of slave owners is Sophia Auld, a woman who had never been a slaveholder before her husband attained Douglass.
Atwood presents the female characters as being both oppressed and dehumanised through how their freedom being stripped from them. An example of this is how they are no longer allowed to smoke cigarettes due to the potential harm it can cause their pregnancy. Woman are protected in Gilead however this also means that they must submit to the state-sanctioned rape by their specific commanders. In chapter five Aunt Lydia states that “There is more than one kind of freedom… Freedom to and freedom from.” The freedom to that she is referring to is the ability to make a decision, an example of this is evident through how Offred is given a chance to escape by the doctor, however she immediately questions herself by thinking “why am I frightened?” This implies that she is so accustomed to being oppressed she is almost scared to take the chance of freedom that is being handed to her. This portrays a sense of dehumanisation in terms of female characters as freedom is regarded as a basic human right.
Nanny believed that her decision, which was to have Janie marry Logan Killicks, was out of love. Since Nanny was born, lived in the period of slavery, and was a slave herself, she wanted protection for Janie from being used and abused. Nanny supports her feeling by stating, “‘Tain’t Logan Killicks Ah wants you to have, baby, its protection” (Hurston 15). Nanny was making sure that Janie had a future set in stone without any kind of heartache or discrepancies. Nanny felt by marrying Janie off to Logan, Janie would live to be free and Nanny would not have to worry so much and knew she would be well taken care of.
Able to adjust to new conditions. 2. Able to be modified for a new use or purpose. The novel provides great examples of how some humans cannot adapt well in situations in their lives and move on. Hagar avoided dealing with the death of her loved ones, a divorce, moving across the country, and the disownment of her father, and remained same proud and stubborn lady that she always was, even as a small child.
The story is told within the context of this sentence. Celie, the protagonist in the novel is silenced when she is denied agency in shaping her own life experiences. The silencing in its different forms begins, when Celie is raped and impregnated at the age of fourteen. Her silencing is also due to her dependency on patriarchal support, deprivation of education, has her self- esteem diminished and any form of love that she has or receives wiped out. The rape and other forms of silencing, also encountered by other women in the novel, make them embrace subjectivity and the patriarchal rule.