Knausgaard, a Norwegian author, and journalist writes, "The most powerful human forces are found in the meeting of the face and the gaze. Only there do we exist for one another. In the gaze of the other, we become, and in our own gaze others become. It is there, too, that we can be destroyed." The concept of ‘the gaze' originates with Lacan. The gaze refers to the struggle between power dynamics. Throughout The Hour of the Star, a lopsided duality of power transpires. In which, Lispector crafts a world where the main protagonist, Macabéa, desperately desires to be seen. However, that lack leads her to be with Olimpico, a primitive youth from Paraíba determined to move up in the world, consequently solidifying her status as an object in that …show more content…
Perhaps this was her protection from the enormous temptation to be unhappy and feel sorry for herself," (38). Macabéa's inability to see herself as part of humanity has nothing to do with her, and everything to do with the subconscious shunning that humanity does to poor women of color. Her entire life unfolds via Rodrigo S. M's perspective. She as no autonomy over her life, her life is constructed for her, and for other people to read about. Her life functions like a window display at Christmas time, immaculately drawn up but empty inside. Finally, learns from Madam Carlotta that she will be free from the shackles of poverty, it is because she will marry a wealthy foreigner. The only way she will gain her freedom is from through a mysterious white foreigner where she would transition from Rodrigo S. M's construction to being under the purview of the male tourist gaze. However, that scenario never has the chance to play out, because the opportunity to escape consumes her. Breaking the power dynamic, which allows her to escape; not only giving her an existence but a life. However, the possibility that there could be something else out there for her, would break the power dynamic. That transition from object to subject ruptures the power dynamic and kills her. "They just stood there doing nothing just as people had always done nothing to help …show more content…
Olimpico's Scopic drive or the pleasure that he derives in seeing Macabéa, and subsequently his construction of her as an object. Prior to Olimpico, Macabéa exemplifies the id. For example, Macabéa's roommates skirt around her not bothering to tell her about her unkempt physique or the stale body odor that clings to her because the Marias are embarrassed by her and too self-conscious to make Macabéa aware of her own primitive existence. All along, she did not know "she was starving but not for food, it was a sort of numb pain that rose from her lower abdomen, making her nipples of her breast quiver and her empty arms starved of any embrace came out in goose pimples" (44). Before Olimpico, she had no actualization of herself, no concept of an ego, she only knew that she was lacking something. No one had ever wanted her. Thus, "she would never forget their first meeting when he addressed her as missy and made her feel that she was somebody" (54). Consequently, directly after meeting Olimpico, "she was already so infatuated…that she could no longer do without him in her hunger for love" (44). Now that she knows what she is desirable, it does not matter that Olimpico's eyes follow her around as a prize to be won. Nor does it matter, that he sees her as a stepping stone to balance on while he searches for a better foothold in his conquest to reach the life he thinks he deserves. Macabéa was an object while in
In the play “Oedipus Rex by Sophocles” the themes of sight and blindness are produced to develop in the readers mind that it is not the eyesight, but insight that holds the key to truth and without It no amount of knowledge can help uncover the truth. Insight can be described as the ability to see what is going to happen. Characters like Oedipus and Teiresias hold a significant role in the play and other characters like Iocaste are also important in the play.
Her realization that she is not alone in her oppression brings her a sense of freedom. It validates her emerging thoughts of wanting to rise up and shine a light on injustice. Her worries about not wanting to grow up because of the harsh life that awaits her is a common thought among others besides the people in her community. As she makes friends with other Indians in other communities she realizes the common bonds they share, even down to the most basic such as what they eat, which comforts her and allows her to empathize with them.
Rather, it criticizes this culture through its portrayal of women. The narrative is focused on a male and is told by a male, which reflects the male-centered society it is set in. However, when we compare how the narrator views these women to who they really are, the discrepancies act as a critique on the Dominican culture. Yunior, who represents the typical Dominican male, sees women as objects, conquests, when in fact their actions show their resistance to be categorized as such. Beli, whose childhood was filled with male domination by Trujillo and the family she worked for, attempts to gain power through sexuality, the avenue the culture pushes women toward. This backfires, creating a critique of the limited opportunities available for women. La Inca portrays a different side to this, working quietly but in ways that are not socially acceptable through self-employment. Society attempts to cage these women, but they continue to fight against it. Diaz, in an interview, quoted James Baldwin, stating, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced" (Fassler). He exhibits the misogyny in the system but does not support it, rather critiques it through strong female characters. By drawing attention to the problem, the novel advocates for change. Diaz writes, at the end of part 1, “Nothing more exhilarating… than saving yourself by the simple act of waking”
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...
When the public begins to believe and accept that the poor are less than human, horrible atrocities can be committed against them without anyone taking notice; this allows the government complete control over their livelihoods and enables them to silence anyone who might cause a disruption. In the poverty-stricken areas of Los Angeles and La Joya, the people take on an almost untouchable quality. The homeless of Los Angeles are forced from their encampments and displaced; they are treated like pests that need to be removed. The Mayor takes on the Los Angeles government in various lawsuits, but because he is poor and cannot afford a lawyer to match the city’s high profile defense attorneys, he has no real chance of ever triumphing. As the Mayor also notes, the $297 he receives is only enough to maintain his poverty, not to help bring him out of it. The government, scared of political movements beginning with the poor, seeks to keep them disenfranchised and politically inactive so they cannot pose a threat to the capitalistic system. Meanwhile, the people in La Joya live in squalor and are poisoned by their own government’s dumping of garbage up-river from them. Their babies constantly die and no one, save for their parents, care, however, Elena, within a few hours of reading and poking around discovers the cause of the babies’ deaths. Her attempts to alert the government to the poisoning receives no thanks, but are rather seen as a threat to the government. Elena’s attempts at political activism are silenced before she can really make any difference, meaning that the people of the La Joya slums will continue losing babies and getting ill. They cannot fight for their own rights because they are uneducated and those who try to help them are murdered. This callousness toward the
“Poverty and exploitation of women in Latin America can never be alleviated because they are rooted in machismo,” meaning that because of the way society was run in Latin American, women can’t advance from the ancient state of mind that they belong in the private sphere and should stay there, because only men are good enough to be out in the public sphere. The reason why society was run in this manner, was because of the machismo feeling engraved in the minds of men and, in some cases, women in society. Alicia, Carolina, and Nancy don’t really have any other choice, than try to survive on their own by doing acts that are not “approved” by the society they live in. Even now, because of their actions, we could even disagree with the way they decided to approach their situation, because even now a day, we could think that selling one’s body or being involved in “off the book”
As Clarice Lispector was writing what would become her last literary creation, The Hour of the Star, little did she know that while her body was plagued with the devastations of cancer, her mental struggle for peace and grace in death would inspire her most renowned novel. Perhaps it is because of those circumstances, she created a novel with intuitive reflections on both life and death, as seen through the life of the main character, Macabea. The story is narrated by Rodrigo S.M., and although Rodrigo attempts to maintain a neutral stance, he is often conflicted by his own perceptions and feelings. At the book’s commencement Rodrigo spends quite some time explaining that while the story is mainly about a woman, having the book narrated by a female would weaken the richness of content. He explains that a woman is incapable of clearly emphasizing the harshness of reality; that she is too emotional and attempting to explain the life of a wretched girl would be hard because her emotions would not allow an unbiased depiction of the cruelties of life. Macabea is introduced in the novel as a poor girl who does what she must to survive in the slums of Rio de Janeiro. She is, Rodrigo remarks, nothing out of the ordinary. Physically there is nothing about Macabea which sets her apart from the other countless street rascals who live hand to mouth. He then provides readers with some of her early life history, including how she almost died at birth because of rickets, and how both her parents succumbed to typhoid fever when she was a toddler. Finally after their death Macabea was forced to move in with her aunt, who too eventually passed away, but not before procuring the child a job to support herself. In the course of the novel the popular culture, though vague and metaphorical at times, affects Macabea and the secondary characters personalities and actions.
Tabitha’s death is an example of armlessness and an example of power coming from lack of power. Tabitha gets hit in the head by a baseball that Owen hits, “…and the ball struck her left temple, spinning her so quickly that one of her high heels broke and she fell forward, facing the stands, her knees splayed apart, her face hitting the ground first
There was an encounter with the sister in law of a Lima merchant, a misunderstanding with Catalina’s brother over his mistress and other occasions being betrothed to women in the New World. At one point in her travels she comes very close to dying on the way to Tucman from Concepcion. Two men on horseback save her and they take her back to their mistress’ ranch. As gratitude for saving her life she helps tend to the ranch for about two weeks. The mistress is so overwhelming thankful to Catalina that she offers her daughter for her to marry. “And a couple of days later, she let me know it would be fine by her if I married her daughter—a girl as black and ugly as the devil himself, quite the opposite of my taste, which has always run to pretty faces.” (28) These instances happened a lot, where because of her hard work throughout her life she was offered many women to marry. Those engagements, however, ended after she exploited the situation and rode off with gifts and dowry
Beli’s impulses allow her to ignore the fact that falling atomically in love with the Gangster, a man she meets in a luxurious nightclub, is wrong. In a world where no one gives her such feeling, the Gangster makes Beli feel beautiful. But, the Gangster is a pimp and exploits women, which shows the degradation of women such as Beli. The Trujillo system in the Dominican Republic, under which the Cabaral’s are associated with, exploits women and the Gangster, just like Trujillo did exactly that. This path of life that Beli embarks on is the wrong choice because it is plagued with the fukú. She sees the Gangster as an escape out of her current life because he is extremely rich. The Gangster promises her a house in Miami with as many bedrooms as she wants. Beli is naïve and does not realize that the Gangster cannot help her escape her life that she is unhappy with. Instead all the Gangster can bring to Beli is bad luck. The Gangster ends up being married to Trujillo’s sister, who is extremely cruel and lives up to the name of Trujillo. The Gangster’s wife has Beli beaten until she almost dies. Beli is vulnerable because the Gangster has power over her; she truly believes that he is an escape from her Dominican world. All along La Inca sees otherwise and tells Beli that she is crazy. La Inca also implies that a man cannot save her, but Beli continues to make
Starmans, C., & Bloom, P. (2012). Windows to the soul: Children and adults see the eyes as the location of the self. Cognition, 123(2), 313-318.
"Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove"(5) When lovers who are in love look upon one another, it is usually with a fixed gaze. That old love song, "I only have eyes for you" helps explain the poets anguish when he realizes his lover is no longer mesmerized while in his company.
Blindness and vision are used as motifs in the play "Oedipus Rex," which are also the tragic flaws of the hero. Vision refers to both literal and metaphorical blindness. The frequent references to sight, light, eyes, and perception are used throughout the play. When Oedipus refuses to believe Tiersias, Tiersias responds by saying "have you eyes" and "do you not see your own damnation?" Tiersias also says "those now clear-seeing eyes shall then be darkened." The reference to sight has a double meaning. Oedipus is famed for his clear-sightedness and quick comprehension. He was able to "see" the answer to the Sphinx's riddle, yet ironically, he lacks the ability to see the truth about his own identity. Oedipus has become the very disease he wishes to remove from Thebes.
...dition, so the doctor thought that this weakness was the reason she died.What really killed her was being put back into the role that was forced and expected of her. When her husband walked in, all of her feminine freedom vanished.
In the short story “Eveline “ by James Joyce, Eveline, the protagonist is given the opportunity to escape from her hard unendurable life at home and live a life of true happiness at Buenos Ayres with Frank, her lover. Throughout the story, Eveline is faced with a few good memories of her past from her childhood and her mother, but she also faces the horrible flashbacks of her mother’s illness and her father’s violence. In the end, she does not leave with Frank, Eveline’s indecisiveness and the burden of her family’s duties makes her stay.