Gender Roles in Community- Light in August and Go Tell It on the Mountain

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Gender Roles in Community A community is an obligation that one can be born into and stay there for the rest of their lives, or one can leave and enter another community as long as they belong or are invited. It can be a replacement or backup for a family. In a community someone can become significant and find their identity; but a community relies on how its people came to be. William Faulkner and James Baldwin interpret the standard roles of men and women in a community to how they shape the functionality and how it maintains its identity and values. The standard women in Light in August are all activists trying to do greater good for the community. Martha, who is Armstids wife, thinks she is an ideal woman because she is a faithful wife and gave birth to five kids in just six years and raised them all to man- and woman hood. She appears to be rude to Lena at first because she is pregnant and it is obvious that it is out of wedlock since she is travelling alone and without a ring. Martha does not approve of Lena’s choices and believes that Lena will be a burden to the whole community by setting an example of, if you get pregnant the community will help you just like her husband, Armstid, did. Most of the townswomen that Lena came in contact with were sour and had begrudging attentions when they saw her condition. Even though Martha seems reserved from Lena, she gives Lena a generous amount of money that Martha had been saving for quite a while now. Martha remains mindful of Lena even though she knows that she should not being helping her because then that would mislead the community. Another active woman in the community was left nameless but she had a big part in this novel. She and her husband happened to pass by Joanna Burden’s house. They were staring at the fire for quite awhile until the wife told the husband to go up to the house and make sure

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