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How are women portrayed in literature
Gender as a social issue of literature
Role of gender in self identity
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Imagine a society where the woman were boring and acted just alike, it would be boring, right? The world would be awkward because everyone's identity would be exactly the same, nothing would set them apart from each other, Nothing makes them unique. There would be no conflict no nothing because they are just like one person. Which makes it hard for people to interact because there's so different characteristic that makes them attracted to one another. In literature an author creates a woman by using the stereotypical gender roles. The authors typically have different identities for the woman in the literature. They all experience something different so it makes them a different character. When a author makes the woman in the pieces different it creates a better setting for the readers. Women are able connect with what would happen in the real world. The events in the literature makes the woman. That's why a woman’s challenges and experiences in life shapes her identity. There are so many rules that a woman has to follow. Those rules are supposed to teach them how to be a “perfect” woman. The rules include how a woman should act ,what they must like. And how they must behave with stress. A woman is supposed to like the typical girly things like makeup, jewelry, pink everything,etc. A woman is supposed to dress very feminine and be polite. With that she must also nurture everyone. Must act like a motherly figure to people. They have to act like the proper woman by doing things like listening to the man, caring for other, and putting people before themselves. The author Jamaica Kincaid of the story Girl, illustrates the things the girls should do …show more content…
The challenges that females face can be bad. Those challenges help the woman grow as an individual, they use those experiences to make them a better person. They learn from those experiences and use that to shape their identity. Stress comes in many different
Like in Gilgamesh and the Iliad, women help encourage and influence the protagonists to be the heroes and protectors they are meant to be. Adventures and wars
Throughout most of literature and history, the notion of ‘the woman’ has been little more than a caricature of the actual female identity. Most works of literature rely on only a handful of tropes for their female characters and often use women to prop up the male characters: female characters are sacrificed for plot development. It may be that the author actually sacrifices a female character by killing her off, like Mary Shelly did in Frankenstein in order to get Victor Frankenstein to confront the monster he had created, or by reducing a character to just a childish girl who only fulfills a trope, as Oscar Wilde did with Cecily and Gwendolen in The Importance of Being Earnest. Using female characters in order to further the male characters’
Due to traditional stereotypes of women, literature around the world is heavily male-dominant, with few female characters outside of cliché tropes. Whenever a female character is introduced, however, the assumption is that she will be a strong lead that challenges the patriarchal values. The authors of The Thousand and One Nights and Medea use their female centered stories to prove their contrasting beliefs on the role of women not only in literature, but also in society. A story with a female main character can be seen as empowering, but this is not always the case, as seen when comparing and contrasting Medea and The Thousand and One Nights.
conceptualizations of gender in literature are situated in a culture and historical context ; the
The story “Girl” takes the form of a series of lessons; the point of the lessons, according to the mother, is to teach her daughter to behave and act properly. Kincaid’s complicated relationship with her mother comes out in the mother-daughter dynamic in the story. The mother mentions practical and helpful advice that will help her daughter keep a house of her own someday and also how to have a life of her own. It can be argued that in Jamaica Kincaid’s short story “Girl” that the mother is loving towards her daughter because the mother is taking time to teaching her daughter how to be a woman, and because she wants to protect her in the future from society’s judgment.
For readers who observe literature through a feminist lens, they will notice the depiction of female characters, and this makes a large statement on the author’s perception of feminism. Through portraying these women as specific female archetypes, the author creates sense of what roles women play in both their families and in society. In books such as The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the roles that the main female characters play are, in different instances, both comparable and dissimilar.
Can you imagine Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's Frankenstein, the great work of literature, without, for example, such female characters as Mrs. Margaret Saville, Elizabeth Lavenza, and Justine Moritz? In this case the novel will have no meaning. All the women help to develop the plot, and without them Frankenstein will lose its spirit. Although these heroines have a lot in common in their characters: they are all strong-willed, kind, careful, and selfless, at the same time, each of them is unique, and each plays her own role in the novel. Mrs. Margaret Saville is the woman to whom the narrator tells the story. Elizabeth Lavenza is the beloved of Victor Frankenstein. Justine Moritz is the heroine who is accused by mistake of murdering William and executed instead of the fiend. There is close connection between the female and male characters, and if we break it, Frankenstein will have no sense. The author of the novel, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly, characterizes the women in the same way as the men, and shows that they are independent players. So, the female characters in Frankenstein are as important as the male ones.
Reading literature, at first, might seem like simple stories. However, in works like William Faulkner's “A Rose for Emily,” Katherine Mansfield's “Miss Brill,” and Kate Chopin's “The Storm,” the female protagonists are examples of how society has oppressive expectations of women simply because of their gender.
The short story, Girl, by Jamaica Kincaid, can very easily be related directly to the author’s own life. Kincaid had a close relationship with her mother until her three younger brothers were born. After the birth of her brothers, three major values of her mother became apparent to Kincaid. In turn, Kincaid used the three values of her mother to write the short story, Girl. Specifically, these values led to three themes being formed throughout the story. It appears in the short story that the mother was simply looking out for her daughter; however, in all reality, the mother is worried about so much more. Kincaid uses the themes of negativity towards female sexuality, social norms and stereotypes, and the significant
A woman can have many different traits and still be feminine. It is impossible to put femininity in a box because there are no real qualities for what it means to be a female. Women can be nurturing and caring, however they can also be strong, courageous, and powerful.
"Stress is a natural physical and mental reaction to both good and bad experiences which can be beneficial to your health and safety." (8 Ways Stress Is More Dangerous Than You Think) Everyone 's body responds to stress by releasing hormones, also, you brain receives more oxygen. Stress starts to occur when we become worried about a task or responsibilities we face. Major stress is called chronic stress. It can cause symptoms that can affect your health in a larger way. Some people may say that they succeed more under stress, but sadly, that’s rarely the case. Research has shown that "stress makes a person more likely to make mistakes" (Stress Symptoms, Signs, & Causes). For most people, stress is extremely normal for them that they don 't see it as anything but ordinary. However, stress can motivate someone while under pressure and even get you through a tough or dangerous
Throughout American Literature, women have been depicted in many different ways. The portrayal of women in American Literature is often influenced by an author's personal experience or a frequent societal stereotype of women and their position. Often times, male authors interpret society’s views of women in a completely different nature than a female author would. While F. Scott Fitzgerald may represent his main female character as a victim in the 1920’s, Zora Neale Hurston portrays hers as a strong, free-spirited, and independent woman only a decade later in the 1930’s.
Why are different perspectives crucial in literature? A variety of viewpoints are essential to the understanding of the events being foretold in different works. A perspective that is generally misrepresented and marginalized, not only in literature but also in history, is that of women. The lack of the female perspective is most prevalent in civilizations where very few women were literate. Men in these cultures were inclined to create mostly male protagonists because they were writing to a male audience from a male perspective.
In an Era where women were referred as possessions, we may think that all of them were happy woman taking care of the house, doing clothes and watching the children. Well, it 's not quite like that, at least, not in the stories, I am about to mention. A clear example of this is Nora from “The Doll’s House,” a well-known housewife who seems to do business just as well as her husband. On the other hand, we have Louise from “The Story of an Hour,” she was also a well-known wife, but with a quite different personality. We may think about these women as two completely different persons, but they have interesting similarities, however, as different as their unique and interesting personalities seems to be they shared one same epilogue
Stress is the combination of psychological, physiological, and behavioral reactions that people have in response to events that threaten or challenge them. Stress can be good or bad. Sometimes, stress is helpful, providing people with the extra energy or alertness they need. Stress could give a runner the edge he or she needs to persevere in a marathon, for example. This good kind of stress is called eustress. Unfortunately, stress is often not helpful and can even be harmful when not managed effectively. Stress could make a salesperson buckle under the pressure while trying to make a sales pitch at an important business meeting, for example. Moreover, stress can increase the risk of developing health problems, such as cardiovascular disease and anxiety disorders. This bad kind of stress is called distress, the kind of stress that people usually are referring to when they use the word stress.