“It came into my head that I cannot run away. I am who I am wherever I am”. Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman is about a 14 year old girl who's father, the lord, wants to marry her off to a rich old man with lots of land. Catherine wants to just get away from the lady life and escape, but is always held in place by her pregnant mother, and her always nagging nurse/maid Morwenna. In Catherine, Called Birdy, many women gave Birdy advice but she never really listenened to them, but when she did, she made a decision that changed her life forever.
This causes Jing-mei to do less than her best throughout her life as she grows into a Chinese woman of America. “Two Kinds” represents the difficulties o two distinguished views and how they should or should not coexist with each other. In the story, Jing-mei’s mother has set unrealistic goals for her daughter to reach and achieve. Her mother came to America to start over and create something that is great in her eyes. America was seen as a clean slate and Jing-mei’s expectation level is set lower than her mother’s because she sees herself from a different perspective.
The book is written for modern Americans, and modern Americans would find it in severe distaste to see a girl being blindly obedient to her father even when what he asks of her goes against her own wishes. Modern Americans want to see a strong female character that fights the norms to do what she wants. This is something that is highly valued in modern American culture. For instance, the suffragettes are highly respected historical figures because although it went against all cultural norms, they fought for what they believed in. Similarly, Birdy fights for what she believes in; the right to pick who she marries: I saw Shaggy Beard’s messengers in the yard, talking solemnly to each other.
ANCIENT ROMAN WOMEN Roman aristocratic women influenced politics, but they could not serve as magistrates, senators, or military commanders. During the empire, the wives of emperors began to wield more power than women had ever held before. Livia, the wife of Augustus, advised her husband for 51 years of marriage before living her last 15 years under the rule of her son, Tiberius. She was deeply devoted to her husband and family and only appeared in public to display the virtues of a Roman matron, which included chastity, modesty, frugality, loyalty, and dignity. Behind the scenes, Livia and Augustus were extremely close, and she played a part in his important decisions, although some sources unfairly portray her as the
Annie feels as though her mother is not trust worthy: “ Why, I wonder, didn’t I see the hypocrite in my mother when, over the years, she said that she loved me and could hardly live with out me, while at the same time proposing and arranging separation after separation, including this one. […](Kincaid 89) Annie thinks her mother wants her completely gone from her life. She does not trust that her mother truly loves her and will miss her. She believes that since her mother is the one who set up this separation, she is not as truthful and loving as Annie once believed. Similarly, Lairds sister also felt her mother was not trustworthy: “ My mother I felt was not to be trusted.”(Munro 50) Lairds sister was unwillingly forced by her mother, to stay in the house all day and fill countless jars with various fruits, instead of being outside in the fields with her father doing the work she loved.
She is the second daughter of a country gentleman who risks poverty if she does not find a husband who can provide for her as her father cannot pass on his estate or the house to her. Getting a job and supporting herself is not really an option for a proper young lady at that time. However, as being highly independent and intelligent, Elizabeth opts to make her own marriage decision in looking for love and companionate marriage. Undoubtedly, it is being in opposition to the common reality during the early 19th-century England that women who lack of fortune need to marry ‘well.’ By ‘well,’ it means wealthy. For example, turning down Mr. Collins may demonstrateher as a no-brainer woman among the society at that time.
The book ends during the early stages of Obamaʼs presidential campaign and touches on the shift away from Obama pointing out her husbandʼs domestic failings to someone who helped tell his story and continue to introduce him to the American public. Who is the First Lady? She is an impressive woman - intense, intelligent, confident, attractive, and free-speaking and someone her husband calls the rock of the Obama family. She is both mother and wife, the nurturing, stern and supportive woman who holds it all together. Michelle LaVaughn Robinson grew up in a family that had faced many hardships throughout their life, but nonetheless made sure to motivate her and have her reach for the stars.
In this period of time women were not allowed to work. They could not inherit wealth from their father, and the Bennet sisters were no exception therefore Mr. Collins was their heir to Mr. Bennet’s property. Hence, the ambition of finding ‘good husbands’ to her all five daughters of Mrs. Bennet’s is fair in the sense of security. Some women in 18th century were willing to marry just because marriage was the only allowed route to financial security, or to escape an uncongenial family situation. This is the dilemma is expressed most clearly by the character Charlotte Lucas, whose pragmatic views on marrying are voiced several times in the novel: "Without thinking highly either of men or of matrimony, marriage had always been her object; it was the only honourable provision for well-educated
In “Little Women: Alcott’s Civil War” (1979), Judith Fetterly argues that the four sisters of Alcott’s Little Women (1868) are denied their dreams because “Little women marry, however, not only because they lack economic options, but because they lack emotional options as well. Old maidhood obliterates little womanhood and the fear of being an old maid is a motivating force in becoming a little woman” (377). I conclude that these strong women chose their life outcomes due to their own maturation. Maturation is realizing things we wanted before aren’t always what we will want in the end, a trait Meg exhibits when she comes to realization about loving Mr. Brooke. Meg’s dream was to be rich so that she would not have to work, with “a lovely house, full of all sorts of luxurious things; nice food, pretty clothes, handsome furniture, pleasant people, and heaps on money”(140).
It isn’t just who’s running for president or should we pass a law but most importantly who can vote to pass these laws. In history women have been the underdog. Often treated unfairly because they are seen as inferior In conclusion to that they have been given less rights throughout history such as the right to vote. Along with the chance to provide for their families, by having a job during the end of World War II women also finally got the right to vote. Harvard professor, Emma Lapsansky-Wener, stated that the right for women to vote would give citizens a stronger faith in the government, that only then they will be ensured protection throughout their lives.