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Female gender roles in literature
Female gender roles in literature
Female gender roles in literature
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Women are known for soft and kind traits that give them either a caring or motherly character. These traits may present themselves in harsh actions but are usually out of good nature that causes change in some form. In Isabel Allende’s novel The House of the Spirits, women are better at causing long lasting changes in family and relationships through soft actions. These changes are demonstrated through three generations of the Trueba family; Clara the clairvoyant, Blanca, and little Alba. Clara Trueba, known as Clara the clairvoyant changes her known family history, the intelligence of the tenants of Très Marïas and her husband through simple acts. She first records events from her entire life to allow others to aid themselves through her …show more content…
As a child, Blanca helped Pedro Tercero Garcia to properly read with books she brought him that sparked his curiosity and desire. With Blanca’s aid his literacy improved in ways that “his schoolmistress had been unable to do with all her canings” (Allende, 139). This later helps him as he gets a job under the socialist party through his musical influence on the radio. Both jobs require a high literacy level which was able to be unlocked through Blanca’s tenderness and caring nature. This caring nature is also a large factor when she cuts her new husband Jean de Satigny out her life forever. This dramatic change in Blanca’s life was done for the protection of her unborn daughter from Blanca’s husband. “She had decided to forget the man she had married and act as if he had never existed. She never spoke of him again, nor did she offer any explanation for her flight from the conjugal abode” (Allende, 265). Blanca’s decision changes her life as she is now living without a husband, a frowned upon decision in society. Along with her little education, she can never get a decent job and support herself and her daughter. Although Blanca cannot get a well paying job, she opens up a pottery class for mongoloid children in the big house on the corner. During these classes “Blanca and Alba had quickly understood that the children worked much better when they felt loved, and that the only way to communicate with them was through affection. They learned to hug them, kiss them, and fondle them until they wound up genuinely loving them” (Allende, 280). The classes not only help the children express and enjoy themselves but it also helps everyone else learn softer and loving ways to communicate with them. Her actions cause parents and guardians to be able to understand and love their children who have not been able
Raul Ramirez is a very confident, creative student that is in Mr.Ward’s high school english class in The Bronx,New York, who loves to paint. Raul used to paint his sister by bribing her with whatever he could scunge up,but know his girlfriend just sits for him. He knows that painting will not give him much money and tells the readers by saying “People just don’t get it.Even if I never make a dime --which,by the way,ain’t gonna happen--I’d still have to paint.” Raul is also a very shy teenager that wants to be an artist and will be the first person in his family to be a painter if he becomes one. The thing is even though his “brothers” don’t support him--by laughing at him and saying he's loco-- he still wants to paint and says it by saying
Finally, by reading Angela Morales essays “Chief Little Feather, Where Are you”? And “Skin and Toes, Ears and Hair”, she seemed affected by her father which he did not give her love and the time to spend with her. Also by her mom who was controlled by her father. She didn’t have a nice childhood which she
The Carrillo Adobe is in a dire situation. It has not only fallen into disrepair from the many years of weather and use by so many individuals, but by visitors and citizens have been less that kind and considerate of its age and the prominence that it deserves. After Carrillo’s death her house was given to three of her daughters, Marta, Juana, and Felicidad. Then her belongings were distributed between all of her children. In the first decade after her death her different children each occupied the house at different times. One of her daughters, Juana and her husband ran the home as a tavern. They then converted the adobe into the first post office in the town of Santa Rosa. After her daughters no longer had a need for the adobe it was turned into a trading post where numerous individuals...
Julia Alvarez wrote the novel “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents”. Alvarez, (a Dominican-American novelist) was born in New York City. Her story is about four sisters (The Garcia family) who were living an established, upper class life in the Dominican Republic. They were forced to flee from the Dominican Republic to the United States due to their father’s opposition to Rafael Leonidas Trujillo’s dictatorship. The Garcia family were forced to face the challenges that came along with being an immigrant family in a foreign land. In her novel “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents,” Alvarez highlights the challenges of immigration, cultural readjustments and family conflicts.
Trueba also desires control over his wife, daughter, and granddaughter. He wants “control over that undefined and luminous material that lay with her [Clara] and that escaped him”. In addition, when Clara stated, “You can’t keep the world from changing, Esteban. If it’s not Pedro Tercero García, someone else will bring new ideas to Tres Marías,” Trueba ...
As a young child, Rodriguez finds comfort and safety in his noisy home full of Spanish sounds. Spanish, is his family's' intimate language that comforts Rodriguez by surrounding him in a web built by the family love and security which is conveyed using the Spanish language. "I recognize you as someone close, like no one outside. You belong with us, in the family, Ricardo.? When the nuns came to the Rodriquez?s house one Saturday morning, the nuns informed the parents that it would be best if they spoke English. Torn with a new since of confusion, his home is turned upside down. His sacred family language, now banished from the home, transforms his web into isolation from his parents. "There was a new silence in the home.? Rodriguez is resentful that it is quiet at the dinner table, or that he can't communicate with his parents about his day as clearly as before. He is heartbroken when he overhears his mother and father speaking Spanish together but suddenly stop when they see Rodriguez. Thi...
Over and over Esperanza battled with how people perceived her and how she wished to be perceived. In the beginning of the book Esperanza speaks of all the times her family has moved from one place to another. “Before that we lived on Loomis on th...
A warped and twisted childhood: Tayo, the half-breed neither the people of his unknown father or the Laguna people of his mother wanted him—he represented the evil destruction brought upon the people of the desert by the greed of the white man; who took without any regard of the ‘mother’ raping and pillaging the earth destroying her off-spring to feed the armies of Mexican and white laborers taking from the land trees, minerals, and killing her animals. Tayo’s first years were horrible living in cardboard and tin shacks—when his mother was not selling her body and soul for a bottle of booze. “They found their own places to sleep because the men stayed until dawn. Before they knew how to walk, the children learned how to avoid fists and feet” (Silko, 100). ...
Esperanza, the most liberated of the sisters, devoted her life to make other people’s lives better. She became a reporter and later on died while covering the Gulf Crisis. She returned home, to her family as a spirit. At first, she spoke through La Llorona, a messenger who informed La Loca that her sister has died. All her family members saw her. She appeared to her mother as a little girl who had a nightmare and went near to her mother for comfort. Caridad had conversations with her about politics and La Loca talked to her by the river behind their home.
? . . . it made no difference if they studied medicine or had the right to vote, because they would not have the strength to do it, but she herself [Nivea] was not brave enough to be among the first to give up the fashion.? (6, Ch 1) The women in this society are dependant on the dominant male figure to handle political and economical duties. This point of view is intended to mimic the older generation of women ad present a foundation for the growth of an enlightened generation. Allende uses this excerpt to present a foundation of structure to the novel by beginning with the extremes of opinion, which are followed in the novel through different generations. Alba for example, become a very outspoken activist by trying to attend the student protests and follow Miguel on his demonstrations, a sharp contrast to the indifference or shallowness found in her great grandmother.
From there on she continues to talk about her adolescence where she quickly learned about the threat of physical abuse and molestation towards young girls. She did not continue with school pat the age of 9 and in her small job of working in the local market she was confronted with true and absolute poverty on a daily basis. She got pregnant at age 15. At 16 she had her first fist fight with her abusive physically brother. And at 17 met the father of her other future children. While with this man, Rafael Canales, she learned first hand the hardships of poor domestic life. She also learned to assert herself even towards her own husband.
Women’s Escape into Misery Women’s need for male support and their husband’s constant degradation of them was a recurring theme in the book House on Mango Street. Many of Esperanza’s stories were about women’s dreams of marrying, the perfect husband and having the perfect family and home. Sally, Rafaela, and Minerva are women who gave me the impression of [damsel’s in distress].CLICHÉ, it’s ok though. It’s relevant They wished for a man to sweep them of their feet and rescue them from their present misery. These characters are inspiring and strong but they are unable to escape the repression of the surrounding environment. *Cisneros presents a rigid world in which they lived in, and left them no other hope but to get married. Esperanza, however, is a very tough girl who knows what she wants. She will keep dreaming and striving until she gets it. She says, "I am too strong for her [Mango Street] to keep me here" (110). Esperanza learned from all of these women that she was not going to be tied down. She said, "I have decided not to grow up tame like the others who lay their necks on the threshold waiting for the ball and chain" (88). **Especially after seeing that Sally was suffering so much. Sally’s father is making her want to leave home by beating her. Sally "said her mother rubs lard on the places were it hurts" (93). There is not enough lard in the world to be able to cure the pain within Sally’s heart. Sally, "met a marshmallow salesman at a school bazaar" (101). Pretty soon " sally got married, she has her house now, her pillowcases and her plates" (101). Her marriage seems to free her from her father, but in reality she has now stepped into a world of misery. This was supposed to help her heal; " she says she is in love, but I think she did it to escape." (101). Unlike the other women Sally has no escape, no poetry, not even papaya coconut juice, not to mention, " he does not let her look out the window" (102). That is why "she sits at home because she is afraid to go outside without his permission."(102). Rafaela’s situation also involves imprisonment in her own home. Cisneros introduced us to Rafaela, a young beautiful girl whose expectations from marriage were to obtain a sweet home to live in. Instead...
In this novel, the society is centered around dichotomies; “youth and dotage” (Balzac 67), “the young man who has possessions and the young man that has nothing” and “the young man who thinks and the young man who spends” (87). Any person who falls outside of either box is called a “[child] who learn[s]… too late” or can “never appear in polite society” (87), essentially meaning they are undesirable in a formal society because they cannot follow expectations. The titular character, Paquita, is an “oriental” foreigner, from Havana, domesticated in Paris when she was sold to a wealthy woman who desired her. She fits into no culture entirely, as she is “part Asian houri on her mother’s side, part European through education, and part tropical by birth” (122). She is bisexual, choosing neither men nor women over the other. She is controlling, dressing Henri in women’s clothing (119), but controlled as she is reduced to a possession. However, there are ways in which a person can still be desired even if they are not easily pigeonholed. With her golden eyes and sensuality, Paquita fulfills both of the main pursuits of this society, “gold and pleasure” (68). Consequently, unlike the Marquis and his irrelevance in society, Paquita is highly sought after, thus making her a valuable commodity. Her desirability is not because of who she is as a human, but instead what
In the course of Garcia Marquez’s work, the importance of respect was revealed to be taken almost sacredly in the characters’ Columbian culture. Honor was viewed as a crucial piece of one’s morality. Without honor, one was considered an outcast in society. For example, Angela Vicario was sent home on her wedding night because she was not a virgin. As a result, her mother beat Angela for invoking dishonor upon the family. Angela explains to the narrator, “‘I wasn’t crying because of the blows or anything that had happened… I was crying because of him,’“(P. 91, Garcia). Angela acknowledged that her impurity was reprehensible, therefore she accepted her mother’s thrashing. Her immoral actions led to a failed marriage and scorn upon her family, as well as her husband, Bayardo San Roman.
She felt that breaking the standards placed on her by her cultural norms it would displease her tradition loving father. He felt that Cisneros should find a husband and not focus on her education so much. Cisneros writes “I am the only daughter in the Mexican family of six sons” (Cisneros 366). This not only exemplifies the internal family issues of being the only female, but also the external problems of the norms placed on women in a Hispanic culture to be an ideal wife. Tan’s essay emphasized the fact that her race, gender, education and up-bringing played a role in people knowing her writing, even though she does not want it to.