Although “It’s a Night Job” by Joanita Male and “Mother’s Inheritance” by Fawziyya Abu-Khalid occur in different cultural contexts- Male’s writing in Africa and Abu-Khalid’s in the Middle East- both literary works regard the formative nature of mother-daughter relationships. In addition to this, they explore the dignity and attitudes of young women in societies where they are forced to relinquish personal autonomy in order to succeed or be safe from potential physical or mental harm. The speakers of the two texts inherit a multitude of things from their mothers. In “It’s a Night Job”, the speaker inherits her mother’s job and her attitude regarding the job. She states with a resigned and rather defensive tone, “You have to understand, I did not choose this life - it chose me. My childhood had …show more content…
Although she is not influenced by her mother to go into a certain line of work, she too inherits her mother’s attitude. More than this, she inherits her strength and resiliency in a world that aims to tear her down and states with an impassioned tone, “You did not leave me an inheritance of necklaces for a wedding but a neck that towers above the guillotine. Not an embroidered veil for my face, but the eyes of a falcon that glitter like the daggers in the belts of our men” (Abu-Khalid 142). Both speakers are in similar situations of limited opportunity in oppressive societies and both inherit the traits that allow them to persevere from their mothers, however, they have vastly different attitudes about their situations. The speaker in “It’s a Night Job” is more resigned and meek, more worn down, while the speaker in “Mother’s Inheritance” is passionate and forceful- almost sounding as if she is calling for a revolution. In either text, the speakers are who they are because of their mothers, consequently it could be said that they share a common theme- family makes someone who they
Intergenerational conflicts are an undeniable facet of life. With every generation of society comes new experiences, new ideas, and many times new morals. It is the parent’s job go work around these differences to reach their children and ensure they receive the necessary lessons for life. Flannery O’Connor makes generous use of this idea in several of her works. Within each of the three short stories, we see a very strained relationship between a mother figure and their child. We quickly find that O’Conner sets up the first to be receive the brunt of our attention and to some extent loathing, but as we grow nearer to the work’s characteristic sudden and violent ending, we grow to see the finer details and what really makes these relations
Throughout a person’s lifetime, an individual will have encountered an array of people with different qualities that make up their personalities. In general, people who are characterized as strong-willed are the one who have the initiative and they are risk takers. Also, they deviate from normalcy by looking for something new, different, or other ways of doing things because of the tedious situations they wound up in. As once Philosopher David Hume stated two hundred and fifty years ago that unlike those who deviate from the world of normalcy and clichés, most of the people go on with their lives in a “dogmatic slumber… so ensnared in conventional notions of just about everything that we don’t see anything; we just rehearse what we’ve been told is there” (Rosenwasser 4). In the anecdotal piece “Terwilliger Bunts One”, Annie Dillard has expressed her feelings and emotions towards her mother. Writing from the first person point of view, Annie Dillard also explains to her audience the attitude her mother took through many different circumstances and anecdotes that Dillard revealed thus admiring the personality of her mother as a child. By mentioning the qualities that her mother possesses, she is putting the spotlight on the impact her mother has made on her life using her parenting philosophy. The first parenting philosophy Dillard’s mother has taught her is to be very expressive in everything using surprising and strange-sounding words as part of the observation to other people. As Dillard recalls in her story, it happened when her mother heard the announcer on the radio cried out “Terwilliger Bunts one” and she started using this phrase as part of her “surprising string of syllables… for the next seven or eight years” (Dillard). ...
Writing Women's Worlds is some stories on the Bedouin Egyptian people. In this book, thwe writer Lia Adu-Lughod's stories differ from the conventional ones. While reading, we discover the customs and values of the Bedouin people.
He mentions how far women have come since his grandmother's day, but realizes the country as a whole has more room to grow. He mentions how tough it can be for women to juggle a demanding career while raising a family. Both text reference what honor motherhood is but they also admit the demanding workforce can determine how successful a mother they can be. Women today may not face slavery, but they face double standards that limit them to be successful professionals and parents.
Brooks was the first child of David and Keziah Brooks. She was born on June 7, 1917 in Topeka, Kansas. Brooks wrote her first poem when she was 13 years old and was published in the children’s. Moreover she was the first black author to win the Pulitzer prize. magazine. In 1938 she was married to Henry Blakely and had two children. After a long battle of cancer Brooks died in December 3, 2000.
One of the most famous contemporary ethnographic studies of women and gender within Islam is Erika Friedl’s Women of Deh Koh, in which her main concern seems to be providing he...
For, in relinquishing, a mother feels strong and liberal; and in guild she finds the motivation to right wrong. Women throughout time have been compelled to cope with the remonstrances of motherhood along with society’s anticipations Morrison’s authorship elucidates the conditions of motherhood showing how black women’s existence is warped by severing conditions of slavery. In this novel, it becomes apparent how in a patriarchal society a woman can feel guilty when choosing interests, career and self-development before motherhood. The sacrifice that has to be made by a mother is evident and natural, but equality in a relationship means shared responsibility and with that, the sacrifices are less on both part. Although motherhood can be a wonderful experience many women fear it in view of the tamming of the other and the obligation that eventually lies on the mother.
The Sand Child is a novel written about a man born a girl discovering through their sex and gender the differences held within the social norms of men and women. Ahmed, the main character and conflict, in the novel guide the reader through a story of self-discovery on the social status spectrum. In Tahar Jelloun’s novel women play an active role in accepting and portraying themselves as lower in social standards, through this the idea that gender is an individual’s compliance with typical social norms takes form.
What does an ideal mother do? In the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini, the ideal of mother is described. In the story two mothers, Nana and Mariam, are showed as the model of a perfect mother. Through Nana and Mariam, Hosseini shows that an ideal mother must be willing to sacrifice, must do her best to ensure their children’s survival, and be able to utilize tough love. Throughout the book both moms are constantly sacrificing to make their children’s life better.
...present powerful characters, while females represent unimportant characters. Unaware of the influence of society’s perception of the importance of sexes, literature and culture go unchanged. Although fairytales such as Sleeping Beauty produce charming entertainment for children, their remains a didactic message that lays hidden beneath the surface; teaching future generations to be submissive to the inequalities of their gender. Feminist critic the works of former literature, highlighting sexual discriminations, and broadcasting their own versions of former works, that paints a composite image of women’s oppression (Feminist Theory and Criticism). Women of the twenty-first century serge forward investigating, and highlighting the inequalities of their race in effort to organize a better social life for women of the future (Feminist Theory and Criticism).
The young girl in the story is struggling with finding her own gender identity. She would much rather work alongside her father, who was “tirelessly inventive” (Munro 328), than stay and work with her mother in the kitchen, depicted through, “As soon as I was done I ran out of the house, trying to get out of earshot before my mother thought of what to do next” (329). The girl is torn between what her duties are suppose to be as a woman, and what she would rather be doing, which is work with her father. She sees her father’s work as important and worthwhile, while she sees her mother’s work as tedious and not meaningful. Although she knows her duties as a woman and what her mother expects of her, she would like to break the mould and become more like her father. It is evident that she likes to please her father in the work she does for him when her father says to the feed salesman, “Like to have you meet my new hired man.” I turned away and raked furiously, red in the face with pleasure (328-329). Even though the young girl is fixed on what she wants, she has influences from both genders i...
However, the film criticizes the mother-figure’s social-economic status. In her essay, The Institutionalization of Motherhood in Japan: The Evolution of “Mother” Since the Meiji Restoration of 1868, Ninomiya Reiko writes: “Middle class is a matter of status as well as income and is signaled by subtler cues: how we live, what we spend our money on, and what expectations we have for the future .” Ninomiya’s comment states social class affects a mother’s ability to raise her children. Furthermore, Ninomiya’s comment implies that belonging to the middle (or upper) classes brings a status and respect the working class cannot attain. In this film, the mother has no option but to work to provide for her family. The Poet’s Life introduces the mother-figure spooling yarn during the evening while her son lies on the floor. From this short introduction, it appears the mother expects little in return from her son, as he just lies on the floor while she works. Nevertheless, tired as she may be, she keeps on working because of her devotion to her
Analysis of The Mother by Gwendolyn Brooks. For this assignment, I chose the poem "The Mother" by Gwendolyn Brooks. This poem is generally about abortion and the feelings a mother has. It's about the remembrance of the children aborted and the little things children do that the mother will miss.
According to “Boys and Girls”, there are certain things women should not be doing as defined by their genders. The narrator, a young girl, feels more inclined to spend her time outside alongside her father, “I worked willingly under his eyes, and with a feeling of pride.” She finds her place in a man’s world, outdoors in her father’s domain. While she is a female, she does not relate herself to the things of feminine nature. When her mother goes to speak with her father in the barn the narrator “felt my mother had no business down here,” admitting that it was a man’s world, and also her place, but not her mother’s. Her mother could not stand the idea of her daughter doing a man’s work, reminding her husband, “Wait till Laird gets a little bigger, then you’ll have real help and then I can use her more in the house. It’s not like I had a girl in the family at all.” According to her mother’s definition of girls, a daughter, who spends all her time outside doing a son’s work, is not a daughter at all.
...areas of emphasis. In contrast, Leila Ahmed analyzes representations and mores of Muslim women in different social and religious contexts in order to draw conclusions about their effect on women’s--and men’s in relation to women’s--status, in earlier periods of Islam, as well as the further-reaching implications they have had for modern Muslim societies.