In her introduction she starts with the issue of women identification. The way I see women identification is very much different then she sees it. What I understood from the introduction is she made clear sense about the complication of social and real identity. Trinh T. Minh-Ha is saying women often find out a separate identity, but it always get stuck with the social construction and social “secondhand” memory. If women try to explain herself it becomes very complex with unclear ideas because of cultural codes, representations and then the sense of real identity lose its words.
1. Introduction Zora Neale Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God” depicts a sense of ambivalence about black women’s limited opportunities to assert them in a male dominated and commodity-obsessed world. True to this conflicted outlook, placing blame is not within the purview of this work. Instead, it depicts one of the central tensions that define the diasporic experience as lived by women of color in America, thereby critiquing the distinctly American privilege of individualism that forces these women to negotiate the rift between individual and communal aspirations. This research paper discusses the female elements in “Their Eyes were Watching God” by Zora Neale.
Whether woman are perceived as weak and feeble victims, or sinister seductresses (or not included at all), writers of this genre present this gender to the audience as either of these options which makes us question how innocent are women? Or are women significantly absent and therefore not an influence at all? Popular texts which introduce these aspects in this genre include; Mary Shelley’s classic, Frankenstein; Christopher Marlowe’s Dr Faustus and The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter. It’s been argued these writers portray woman in different ways which outset onto society they’re role as a whole: Gothic literature can have an inclination towards female writers but also accumulate a patriarchal nightmare in which violence is constantly sanctioned on the female body. Mary Shelley is significant herself; being the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft, one of the first feminists; who lived in an era of women’s writing that openly condemned patriarchy.
The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald’s portrayal of the female characters in The Great Gatsby reveals an underlying hatred for women. With reference to appropriately selected parts of the novel, and relevant external contextual information on Fitzgerald’s own experience of, and attitude to women, give your response to the above view. It was in the 1920’s when women become more independent, delegated, and responsible for more things in the world than just keeping the house tidy, as was the mentality back in those days. The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a true literary masterpiece based on the tragic life of Jay Gatsby through the eyes of his acquaintance, Nick Carraway. Fitzgerald openly shows his opinion that women generally have low moral qualities, and demonstrates this by the actions and speech illustrated by the three main female characters in the novel; Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and Myrtle Wilson.
A time when the banner of patriarchy flew over the bonnets of subjugated females. A time when you could choose either to conform, or face social rejection. Some women preferred to rebel in their own graceful ways, but most exacerbated their oppression with frivolous attitudes and behaviors. Beginning with the witty opening phrase, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” (Austen, 3), the author perpetuates a note on the status of the one track mind held by the female gender of this time. As exemplified in Pride and Prejudice with characters like Mrs. Bennet and her child, Lydia, many ladies put money above love when it came to the subject of marriage.
In fact, women’s power can be unstoppable. It might be the result of centuries of ignorance and indifference towards women’s capacities, as it might be an inborn nature. However, the woman revolution is starting to break the wall of racism and discrimination, proving that a woman can be equal to a man in all domains: politics, society affairs, business, medicine, legal affairs and others. Few years ago, in the occidental
In the play Antigone, Sophocles provides us with diverse views on women’s role in society to provide insight on his own ideas. He accomplishes this by using different characters to express distinctive feelings about women. Sophocles gives us a perception of an opinion held by some in this play as Ismene states “we are only women, not meant in nature to fight against men”(61,62). Ismene is displaying her ideas that Sophocles wants to provide the reader. Whilst Ismene grasps these notions, her sister, Antigone, does not.
The Awakening “The Awakening” is a novel that depicts the life of a woman in a time where women were considered inferior to men and were expected to conform to the ways they were expected to act. Throughout “The Awakening”, Edna Pontellier encounters numerous situations where she is facing problems that goes against the prevailing attitude of society in America at this time in history. The allusions to the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Self Reliance”, which discusses individualism of the human being and the importance of independence and non-conformity, contribute to the tone of the story and help the reader relate to what Edna is feeling. The main ideas of this story are the expression of one’s self through individualism, self thought,
The outrage triggered the Second Wave Feminist Movement, a more modern movement, and the fight for women’s sexual freedom and equal opportunities in the workplace. The Feminine Mystique and the Women’s Rights Movement of the 1960s as well as the incident in the Miss America pageant of 1968, influenced the lives of women in the U.S. in a positive way. Betty Friedan’s book The Feminine Mystique speaks of “the problem that has no name” which signifies the unhappiness women had during the 1960s and 1970s. The book specifies on the negativity women encounter in comparison to men and what middle class women had to withstand. Due to the publication of the book there came many outbursts mainly in forms of angry letters written by women around the world wanting to be treated equally to men (Suri).
compare and contrast the Female experience in The Handmaid’s tale, Brave New World and 1984. The female role in The Handmaid’s Tale, Brave New World and 1984 can in some ways be seen as very similar since the societies, which the three narratives create, are patriarchal and oppressive of women. The Handmaid’s Tale focuses on the oppression of women in a society which forces them into traditional domestic female roles whilst at the same time viewing them as mere sexual objects. Women in Brave New World are subjugated through their treatment as ‘Pneumatic’ possessions for men to enjoy. In 1984, women are repressed in an alternate way, where their sexual desires are forbidden to the extent that committing any sexual act is a punishable rebellion.