Surrounded by sweeping forests and tranquil lakes, an isolated town in Sweden clings to hockey as its only means of survival amid economic hardships. Fredrik Backman’s Beartown examines the great lengths a community can go to protect their local hockey team, even in the face of rape. In the aftermath of the rape of Maya Andersson by the star captain of the team, Kevin Erdahl, the small town is left divided. In their inability to prioritize morality over hockey, Backman illustrates the obstacles women must confront to assert themselves in male-dominated fields, such as sports, and how female solidarity becomes a crucial tool for amplifying their voices. Female characters like Maya Andersson, Kira Andersson, and Fatima, among others, represent agents of …show more content…
She loves playing her guitar and doesn’t like sports. Her indifference to hockey already marks her as an outsider, especially within a household and community that glorifies it. This is evident when Peter attempts to knock on the door to her room, hears her guitar playing in response, and thinks that this indifference “makes him sad some days (pg 12).” Only after she’s left Kevin’s party later in the novel does Maya realize the once small expanse between her and the people of Beartown has become a deep fracture with little hope for repair. This fracture, a result of the gruesome rape by Kevin Erdahl, is Backman’s examination of the culture of silence and victim blaming that occurs after cases of gender-based violence. Not only do women fear the reactions of coming forward as victims of sexual abuse, but they must also endure skepticism and hostility in their efforts to be believed. This is best seen in the following excerpt, describing the types of questions Maya must answer after the assault: “The only thing they’ll ask about that night is how much she’d had to drink. If she was drunk, she would. She held his hand in his
The book that i chose to do this speech on is Cowboy Ghost. Cowboy Ghost is about a boy named Titus who goes on a cattle drive through Florida in the early 1900s. The main character in this story is Titus. Titus Timothy MacRobertson is a small and weak 16 year old boy that wants to impress his father that kind of ignores him. His mother died giving birth to him and his father “blames” Titus for her death. His father (Rob Roy MacRobertson) is a strong, massive and hardworking man. His brother Micah is a 29 year old man that is described as being a second Rob Roy MacRobertson because of his strength and size, at the end of the book you find out that he was more like their mother. The cattle drive was going really good until seminoles (indians)
There can be no question that sport and athletes seem to be considered less than worthy subjects for writers of serious fiction, an odd fact considering how deeply ingrained in North American culture sport is, and how obviously and passionately North Americans care about it as participants and spectators. In this society of diverse peoples of greatly varying interests, tastes, and beliefs, no experience is as universal as playing or watching sports, and so it is simply perplexing how little adult fiction is written on the subject, not to mention how lightly regarded that little which is written seems to be. It should all be quite to the contrary; that our fascination and familiarity with sport makes it a most advantageous subject for the skilled writer of fiction is amply demonstrated by Mark Harris.
In today’s world there are millions of people who grow up in situations that make them powerless. Poverty, violence, and drugs surround children from birth and force them to join the cycle. In L.B. Tillit’s Unchained a young boy named TJ grows up in this environment. With both his mother and father struggling with addiction, he is often left alone on the streets to fend for himself. He turns to a local gang for protection and a sense of place in Jr. High, but is quickly taken out of the life he knows when his father overdoses and dies. TJ is sent to live in a foster home where he learns to care for others and meets a girl and falls in love with her. However, when his mother regains custody of him, TJ is forced back into the gang where he uses violence and drug dealing to stay alive. With help from his foster care manager he soon realizes that he can make it out of his life and return to his foster home and the girl he loves. A central theme of Unchained is that people have the power to make decisions to determine their future.
In the short story, “Prospector’s Trail”, the author Cathy Jewison makes the characters seem like real people. This can be illustrated by some conflicts that are evident in the story; similarly in everyday life with everyday people. The characters also look authentic because the characters behave the same way the “average” human would and the reader is able to relate to them in some way.
In her autobiography, Maya Angelou tells the story of her coming into womanhood in the American South during the 1930s. She begins with the story of an incident she had on Easter Sunday in which she’s in church reciting a poem in front of everyone; however, she messes up leaving her unable to finish the poem, so she runs out of the church crying and wets herself. Growing up her parents had a rough marriage, and eventually they got a divorce when Maya was only 3 years old. Their parents send her and her older brother Bailey to live with their grandmother Mrs. Annie Henderson in Staples, Arkansas. Staples is a very rural area and their grandmother owns the only store in the black section of the town, so she is very respected amongst the people
Rape is a hidden epidemic that affects many lives world wide. It is a problem that is so terrifying and uncomfortable that people do not talk about it. John Krakauer, author of Missoula, focuses on this issue of rape in the college town of Missoula, Montana. His focus is specifically on the case of Allison Huguet and Beau Donaldson. As the progression of Allison 's case continues we learn of more and more rape cases that happened to women on this same campus. A majority of women do not report these cases, we later learn as Krakauer continues through Allison 's case, because reporting and pursuing the case would be giving their life away. [4] Of course Allison decides to go through the trails of Beau Donaldson, however it is obvious that it is extremely difficult to convict someone with little evidence. As hard of a read as Missoula
A feminist lens analyzes how the female characters and their experiences are presented and explained in comparison to male characters (Lincoln School Providence). Merna Summers’ “The Skating Party” develops and demonstrates feminist themes in the ways in which the characters’ experiences, expectations, and lives are represented. Applying feminist critique unravels and deconstructs perceptions that shape and normalize the experiences of women in Willow Bunch while demonstrating the objectification and submission, standards of beauty, and ownership and empowerment that occur within the story.
The short stories, “The Girl with the Hungry Eyes” by Fritz Lieber, “Bits and Pieces,” by Lisa Tuttle, “While She Was Out” by Edward Bryant, “Cold Turkey” by Carole Nelson Douglas, and “Lightning Rod” by Melanie Tem Historically, in literature, women are stereotypically placed in one of two roles, the doting wife and beloved mother, or the more outwardly psychotic, witch-like, temptress. As the feminist approach to the criticism of literature has blossomed over time, the need for empowered female characters has surfaced. To rectify the absence of this character, “wild women literature” has made many advances in the defiance of gender role stereotypes and gender norms. The women in the collection of wild women short stories are difficult to define because of society’s pre-conceived notions of how women should and do behave. The term “wild women” conveys a slightly negative and sometimes misinterpreted connotation of a woman’s behavior; however, in this collection of stories, the female characters are generally vindicated because of the motivation behind their actions. The motivation can be linked to the popular cultural phenomenon of women taking charge of their lives, making decisions for themselves, being independent, rising above their oppressors (most commonly the close men in their lives), and becoming empowered. Vigilante actions by the wild women in these stories are not entirely representative of madness, but also re...
This quote from the book, Lone Survivor, shows the incredible resolve that the Author and protagonist of the story, Marcus Luttrell has. The book is all about the horrors that he endured in the Hindu Kush mountain region in Afghanistan when he went on a mission with 3 other Navy SEALs (Sea, Air, and Land), Danny Dietz, Matthew “Axe” Axelson, and Michael Murphy. The book, Lone Survivor was set in the mountains of the Hindu Kush, details the fight for survival against the Taliban, and has a theme of hospitality.
As long as there have been sports, there has been violence in them. Ice hockey, particularly due to its increasing popularity as a professional sport, has brought up several ethical issues regarding the act of fighting in hockey. There are strong arguments for both sides of this present problem in the world of hockey. Numerous male athletes, including children as young as nine years of age, have suffered injuries as an outcome of fighting and it should be considered if it should be part of a sport that very young people grow up with (Brust, Leonard, Pheley & Roberts, 1992).On the other hand, fights create excitement and the sport of hockey might grow in terms of popularity, making the problem of fighting in hockey complex and difficult to resolve (“Towards An Explanation Of Hockey Violence: A Reference Other Approach”). Even though hockey is known to be a very aggressive and fast-paced sport, the unsportsman-like action of fighting in hockey cannot longer be tolerated.
Therefore, the women participating in such arduous sports breaks the normative ideas of what it means to be a women and what activities she can participate in. In contrast, for those women who do carry on tasks that are typically seen as masculine, are valued less, have less recognition, and their prestige and income tend to decline compared to their male counterparts (Johnson, 1997). Interestingly, when one types “soccer team” on google, the first thing to show up is the Unites States Men’s National Soccer Team. One has to explicitly type “women” in front of soccer. This shows the lack of acknowledgement of the women’s soccer team compared to their male counterparts. If the men’s soccer team is credited significantly more than the women’s soccer team, then the male representation is made more palpable in media with a greater screen time, thus bolstering their reputation and popularity and resulting in increase in pay from the soccer
At first glance, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving seems to be an innocent tale about a superstitious New England town threatened by a strange new comer, Icabod Crane. However, this descriptive narrative is more than just a simple tale because it addresses several gender issues that deserve attention. The pervasiveness of female influence in Sleepy Hollow and the conflict between male and female storytelling in this Dutch community are two pertinent gender issues that complicate Irving's work and ultimately enable the women of Sleepy Hollow to control the men and maintain order.
In Alice Munro’s “Boys and Girls” she tells a story about a young girl’s resistance to womanhood in a society infested with gender roles and stereotypes. The story takes place in the 1940s on a fox farm outside of Jubilee, Ontario, Canada. During this time, women were viewed as second class citizens, but the narrator was not going to accept this position without a fight.
Colin Turnbull, author of the classic 1962 book, The Forest People, instantly dives into the direct relationship of cultural practices of the Mbuti, and as the reader, I as able to draw similar connections to our western civilization and the traits that are shared. Turnbull describes the closed world of the Mbuti (pg. 13) and how outsiders could view it as hostile, dangerous and unforgiving.
Philosophers have discuss and debate about friendship and the true meaning to be a friend to others Aristotle have given requirements as well as qualities a friend possession within different types of friendships. He debates that a good man does not need friends but the points he brings up proves that a good man can not live a pleasant life in solitary.