Finally, her marriage to Curley provides the reader with an insight into the place of women in 1920s American society and their growing struggle to reconcile the American Dream of equality with the patriarchal values of the American Household. In the reader’s first encounter with Curley’s wife, Steinbeck presents her as a character who is certainly deserving of our condemnation. She is presented as the epitome of ‘femme fatale’ when she is described ‘She had full, rouged lips and wide spaced eyes, heavily made up. Her fingernails were red...she wore a cotton house dress and red mules, on the insteps of which were little bouquets of red ostrich feathers’. Steinbeck’s repeated use of the word red encourages us to condemn Curley’s wife as red is a colour associated with: danger, guilt, sacrifice, sin, passion and anger, often as connected with blood or sex.
She was a proud Jewish girl, and for her to be around all of the Christians who spoke badly about Jews really hurt her. However, Tec knew that if she stood up to them, they would suspect her of being Jewish, and tell the Nazis where she was. If she wanted to stay alive, she had to keep her mouth shut. This story showed how and what Jewish people went through to survive during World War II and the Holocaust. This time affected Nechama Tec’s entire life.
Joanne Nagel in her article, “Constructing Ethnicity: Creating and Recreating Ethnic Identity and Culture” defines the ethnic and cultural changes an individual goes through when introduced to a new culture. Gail Labovitz’s two works about Rabbinic culture entitled, “Marriage and Metaphor” and “The Scholarly Life -The Laboring Wife: Gender, Torah and the Family Economy in Rabbinic Culture” provide explanation and analysis of scared Jewish texts, such as the Torah, to help explain how a woman is viewed in Jewish culture. Alice Kessler Harris provides good insight and background of Yezierska in the introduction of “Bread Givers”. A primary source I used was Anzia Yezierska’s “America and I”, this article tells us how
Emma Baird Dr. Meredith McCarroll English 232 25 September 2010 The Death of Edna Pontellier: A Rebellious Defeat Even from its first publication, Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening has caused controversy. While today The Awakening is praised for its feminist undertones, the piece was first criticized for its lack of representation of American values. Instead of depicting a main character that embodied the Victorian ideal of a woman fulfilling the role as an “Angel in the House” which was the norm for American women during this particular historical period, Edna was a rebellious wife and an adulteress, whose desires and yearning for independence lead her to make many radical decisions throughout the course of the novel¾ from inwardly
Lewin quotes Justice when she says, "'My stomach's always in knots getting ready to go to a party, wondering if I'm wearing the right thing, if I'll know what to do..." (70) This happens because of the different cultures the middle-class, which Justice is now in, presents, compared to the lower class she used to be in. Also because of this, Justice treats her niece and nephew completely different. She even went an extra step to make sure that the kids would fit in. To even further prove how crazy social classes determines the different cultures is when Lewin explains that, "...according to sociologists who have studied how social class affects child-rearing...working-class parents usually teach their children, early on, to do what they are told without argument and to manage their own free time, middle-class parents tend to play an active role in shaping their children's activities, seeking out extracurricular
In Eudora Welty’s “Why I live at P.O.”, Sister, the narrator, tries to alter the viewpoints of the reader to shape their interpretations to match the bias and the animosity towards the family. People often allow their perceptions to be influenced by a self-serving bias that can jade the depth of reality. In her reality, Sister is the victim that gets ridiculed by her family especially her sister Stella-Rondo whom she harbors a jealousy. Sister claims her life was “fine” before Stella-Rondo shows up and interrupts everything. She describes Stella-Rondo be inconsistent and unstable based on her being spoiled when they were children.
Kluger’s religion and ethnicity shaped the entire course of her life as well. As a young impressionable Jewish girl, her ideas of society and acceptable conduct were shaped in Vienna, while the Nazi regime was dominating daily life to the point where, “ A propaganda rag that featured lecherous Jews and their unspeakable sins, didn’t merely enjoy a large circulation, but full pages of it were on exhibit on the street corners” pg.51. Her religion determined her social class. Being Jewish classified her as inferior, and of the lowest social standing. It seems odd that such a complex idea, that could determine the fate of so many lives can be written in less than one line, but it is as simple as that, religion determined social class; and sadly enough, that statement is still accurate,
Struggle for the American Dream Anzia Yezierka’s, Bread Givers talks about the life of an immigrant girl who struggles to leave behind her Jewish American culture and obtain the American culture by interacting with Americans. Throughout the book, Sara Smolinsky is looked down upon because she’s an immigrant. Because of her Jewish heritage she is being forced to do what her father tells her. As Sara starts to become older she starts to change and do things her own way. Not following her sisters footsteps, Sara wants to make a difference for herself and decides she wants to associate with the American life.
She often takes out her frustration on her chattering, sometimes irritating, younger daughter, Anne. She also criticizes Anne for talking too much and being too moody and uncooperative. Under the trying circumstances, it is not surprising that Anne thinks Mrs. Frank is far less than an ideal mother, and Anne does not want to grow up and be like her. However, when Mrs. Otto died, Anne stated that she feels ashamed for her past bitterness to her mom. Also, Anne said that Mrs. Frank landed in so many unpleasant situations because of her, and was irritable because of worries and difficulties.
This theme is found in The Glass Menagerie by the mother, Amanda. She constantly criticized Tom and Laura and treated them like little kids. An example of this was found in the beginning of the play when she consistently critiqued the way Tom was eating. He eventually abandoned his dinner and left the table. In The Life You Save May Be Your Own, the old Lucynell Crater desires so much to rid herself from her daughter that she is desperate enough to throw her on a random man that does not love her.