In the passage from The Awakening, Chopin uses formal, abstract words such as “sensuous” (133), “traversed” (133), and “despondency” (132). She does this in order to convey the feeling of the rigid society in which Edna was trapped, and the feeling of despair and confusion Edna experiences as she enters the sea. By doing this, she is able convey a negative tone, suggesting her feminist criticism of society's treatment of women. In the passage from Song of Solomon, Morrison uses African-American colloquial phrases such as “brother man” (362), and informal words and phrases such as “blow his brain's off” (362), and “wheeled” (362). She does this in order to show the Black culture that the novel centers on and to provide a realistic aspect to the plot.
Each character in the novel seems to struggle to find a sense of their individual identity and belonging in society. Tensions are developed explicating both the colonial struggles to define their culture as well as individuals searching for who they are. Clare Savage, the main character, is a perfect example of someone going from not knowing her identity to establishing it. She tries to identify her alliances and her enemies. This is shown when she fights to find whether her identity lies in her nationality, her social standing, her race, her gender, the language she speaks, her individual, or her family history.
Steinbeck is addressing the struggle for female existence during this period by leaving Curly's wife as the solitary female of the book, unneeded, and unwanted by the other characters. During this essay I will explore the significance of how Steinbeck presents Curly's wife through the connotations of her name, how she is first shown, her parallels with other characters and finally how she is presented when she has died . 'Curly's wife', just a name yet a symbol of how women were then regarded by their husbands, as a possession, a belonging owned only by men. When Curley's wife married him she became 'his', everything she owned became his, Steinbeck could be emphasising this authority and power by having Curly even take her name, so she no longer has her own name but now everyone associates Curley with her, she is no longer her own person. The use of a possessive apostrophe emphasises the point even further that she belongs to him and he controls her, although she can try to push the boundaries of society's rules and expectations, he will always be there to stop her as she is dominated by him.
Analyze the way in which the writer of one text you have studied presents the individual’s dislocation or insecurity in modern society. In the universe of A Streetcar Named Desire (ASCND), Blanche Dubois, our complicated protagonist, is presented as the individual who is displaced in the modern society. Blanche is seen to portray herself as a Southern Belle. This shows her desperate attempt and need to construct an identity for her own self which in the end brings out her insecurities. She would rather conceal her insecurities and put on a facade so as to live up to her desire to be a Southern Belle.
While Hester’s isolation is largely societal, Blanche experiences two different kinds of isolation. Blanche’s isolation is societal with regards to her expulsion from Laurel, whereas her isolation experienced in New Orleans is more self-inflicted. We see that the given quote applies to the two characters at different points of their respective texts, with the quote becoming increasingly relevant for Blanche but less relevant for Hester as the texts progress. In the texts The Scarlet Letter and A Streetcar Named Desire, both Blanche and Hester experience isolation in Boston and Laurel respectively due to their sexual transgressions. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester’s alienation is presented through the harsh treatment she receives before she is even introduced in the novel.
The Discrimination against Women Identities Throughout history, female were considered lesser beings and nothing more than the property of their husband. In the short story, Blank Spaces by Joanna Cockerline, the acknowledgment of female being inferior creatures in comparison to men is highlighted. Struggle against misfortunes, Elizabeth is oppressed by the social inequality due to the fact that she is a girl. In Blank Spaces, the social inequality implied by the narrative severely impacts Elizabeth’s career hierarchy, character traits, and life experiences. Like many feminist writer, Cockerline focuses her emphasis on how social norm discriminate women by inhibit their job opportunities.
This essay will argue that In both texts motherhood and marriage is shown to be a hindrance to both women’s careers and their female identity. The theme of marriage in The Bell Jar and Top Girls Is shown to demolish the female identity of the women. In The Bell Jar Plath uses Buddy as a symbolic figure to show how even the “clean” men of that time were only out for one
Outsiders are creations of societal and individual beliefs and perception. They arise from our feelings and attitudes about ourselves and those around us. The construction and subsequent treatment of outsiders are explored in Markus Zusak’s novel ‘The Book Thief’ and John Lee Hancock’s ‘The Blind Side’. Both these texts emphasise the fact that ultimately it is our perception of self and others that lead to the creation of outsiders. Both Zusak and Hancock depict characters that are forced to the fringes of society and those who feel ostracized and withdrawn from the larger group.
They are the ones who find it necessary to relocate and who ultimately lose a sense of community because of their decision to isolate themselves in order to maintain this economic power. Like Heathcliff, Esperanza will only be able to subvert her subordinate position when she moves away from Mango Street and uses her writing as a means to earn a living. Subsequently, Esperanza will one day return to Mango Street and give back to her community, whether it will be monetarily or just allowing bums to sleep in her attic. In Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Linda Brent is constantly resisting and challenging the dominant hegemony of slavery as represented in slave owner, Dr. Flint. Regardless of her position as a female slave, Linda is able to destabilize the dominance of the slave masters by empowering herself with the ability to read and write.
Tsitsi Dangarembga's portrayal of women in her novel Nervous Conditions is a striking reminder that African women are under a double yoke when it comes to making their voices heard as they must not only liberate themselves from the influences of colonial rule they are also fighting the effects of patriarchal traditions in the history of their culture (Uwakweh,76).Through the use of female characters in her novel, Lucia, Tambu, Maiguru, Nyasha and Tambu’s mother and their relations with males in their lives, Dangarembga successfully explores gender relations within the patriarchal society. Dangarembga portrays three types of women in Nervous Conditions, the entrapped, the rebellious and the escaped that represents the future female generation.Tambudzai is the main female protagonist in the novel and through her Dangarembga represents the future generation who are able to escape the bounds of male dominancy in a patriarchal society.Tambudzai as a girl is not given the privilege of education unlike Nhamo her brother, when determined to go to school after she had been forced to drop out because of lack of money for school fees at home her father says, “Can you cook books and feed them to your husband?” (15). Females are not deemed fit to receive education as they will later be married and instead benefit their husband’s family. Even the males within the society young as they are are aware of this; Nhamo declares that Tambu cannot go to school because she is a girl (p 21).Nhamo the only male heir was selected by the elders of his family to receive an education .Chosen by default to receive an education after the death of Nhamo there is controversy on the usefulness of her being educated since she would eventually be helping out her husband’s family and not hers. Tambu holds Babamkuru in awe, and even goes to the