Roles of Women in A Raisin In the Sun, The House On Mango Street, and A Yellow Raft In Blue Water
A Raisin In the Sun, The House On Mango Street, and A Yellow Raft In Blue Water all contain strong, defined images of women. These women control and are controlled. They are oppressed and liberated. Standing tall, they are confident and independent. Hunched low, they are vulnerable and insecure. They are grandmothers, aunts, mothers, wives, lovers, friends, sisters and children. Although they span a wide range of years and roles, a common thread is woven through all of their lives, a thread which confronts them day in and day out. This thread is the challenge they face as minority women in America to find liberation and freedom from
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In this role, because of her sex, the woman is seen as an object. Traditionally women have been viewed as the weaker sex and because of this stereotype we see women imaging an inferior person, bowing under oppression from men. Perhaps this role is most vivid in the life of Sally in The House On Mango Street. "Sally doesn't tell about that time he hit her with his hands just like a dog, she said, like if I was an animal" (Cisneros 92). We are left to believe that Sally is being abused physically as well as emotionally and sexually. Esperanza portrays many other lives: Nenny, Izaura, Minerva, and Rafaela. These women, like Sally, deal with oppression and bondage, particularly to men. Christine, in A Yellow Raft In Blue Water, chose a life of floating from one man to another. "I had a reputation with men, you could see it in their eyes. I was the first one they called when the neon lights took over, and that was fine with me" (Dorris 158). Christine made herself into an object, only used for her body. This role is played by many women, particularly those who must struggle against both sexism and racism. They fight to rise above the low perception and expectations others have for them. Some, however, simply find it easier to live in a world of limitations just as their mothers did before them. As described by Esperanza, Minerva is one of these women. Her husband keeps …show more content…
This role is that of the liberated and independent woman who has struggled and fought to be more than a body or bearer of children. The woman who embodies this role in A Raisin in the Sun is Beneatha. Beneatha has ambitious future plans: "I'm going to be a doctor" (Hansberry 50). She wants to go to college and reach out beyond herself to heal other people. Believing that she can achieve what she desires, her determination allows her to reach above her limitations. The narrator of The House on Mango Street plays a similar role to Beneatha's. Esperanza observes all the people on her street and sees herself as rising above the cords that would keep her on Mango Street. She says, "One day I will pack my bags of books and paper. One day I will say good-bye to Mango. I am too strong for her to keep me here forever. One day I will go away" (Cisneros 110). Esperanza will not give in to her low economic status, her race or her sex. She sees herself as more. She believes that she can become someone who will, through her stories, be able to help those she left behind. "They will not know I have gone away to come back. For the ones I left behind. For the ones who cannot out" (110). Esperanza is seeking independence and freedom which will allow her to help others also see themselves as a free individual. She believes that she can do and
However, each work is special and focuses on a different aspect of life as compared to the other. In addition, the thematic ideas between the two works are often correlated and often overlap between the two. Moreover, the multiple thematic ideas in the novel and the movie can still apply to the people of today as they also go through many hard times much like Celie and Esperanza. The House on Mango Street is able to focus on abuse of women, and discrimination of the female gender much like The Color Purple. However, The House on Mango Street is able to elaborate on the topic of maturity especially through the various experiences of Esperanza. Nevertheless, many important lessons can be learned from both the novel and the movie, among these include treatment of women, discrimination, and maturity. The novel and the movie do a wonderful job at emphasizing and focusing on these relatable topics that are vital to the growth of
Meyer, Michael, ed. The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1999.
Lorraine Hansberry’s Raisin in the sun displays the struggles faced by an African American family living in Southside Chicago during the onset of the Civil Rights Movement. In the opening scene, Walter Lee Younger reads from the front page of the newspaper “Set off another bomb yesterday” (6). This news bulletin presents the major issues of the time period surrounding the war on Civil Rights and gives insight into the Younger family’s future intentions to move into a white neighborhood. The conflict-taking place in Southside Chicago over housing causes tension for the surrounding community, especially when they read news articles publicizing the brutal murders of those who try to improve their situations by moving into a white neighborhood. The family’s own efforts have failed to provide the income necessary to move into a bigger home in a better neighborhood. It is not until Walter Younger Sr. passes away and augments the family’s financial situation, through a life insurance policy for $10,000, that the Younger’s are able to pursue better living conditions. Unfortunately, this newfound fortune causes friction between the family members, especially between Walter Lee and Mama Younger. In pursuit of her own happiness, Mama Younger puts a down payment on a house in Clybourne Park, a white neighborhood. It is her right to pursue happiness in the manner she chooses. The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is the American way. Her happiness is in a home for her and her family. The conflict over whose happiness will be
Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 2189.
Murphy, B. & Shirley J. The Literary Encyclopedia. [nl], August 31, 2004. Available at: http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2326. Access on: 22 Aug 2010.
such a love can arise out of hatred and then triumph over it in death,
Charters, Ann & Samuel. Literature and its Writers. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2013. 137-147. Print.
A Doll House, by Henrik Ibsen, and A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, both have central themes of search of self-identity within a social system. This is demonstrated by women characters from both plays breaking away from the social standards of their times and acting on their own terms. In most situations women are to be less dominant than men in society. These two plays are surprisingly different from the views of women in society and of the times and settings that they take place in.
... They didn’t seem to be my feet anymore. And the garden that had been such a good place to play didn’t seem mine either” (Cisneros 98). The play place that was once so innocent and is now a junkyard that reciprocates Esperanza’s innocence that slowly turns into reality. She is growing up. Additionally, she gains enough confidence and maturity to make her own life decisions. This is shown when she makes the important decision of where she wants her life to take her. “I have decided not to grow up tame like the others who lay their necks on the threshold waiting for the ball and chain” (Cisneros 88). This shows Esperanza’s maturity to make her own life choices by herself. She is finally confident and independent enough to know where she wants her life to take her. Esperanza finally completes her evolution from young and immature to adult-like and confident.
...will pack my bags of books and paper. One day I will say goodbye to Mango. I am too strong for her to keep me here forever. One day I will go away.” (Cinceros 110) This shows how Esperanza needs to break free of Mango Street and move on because Mango Street has nothing more to offer a young free mind like Esperanza. She will move far away so she can continue on with her American Dream as one person and not have the weight of her family’s American Dream on her shoulders.
Women have traditionally been known as the less dominant sex. Through history women have fought for equal rights and freedom. They have been stereotyped as being housewives, and bearers and nurturers of the children. Only recently with the push of the Equal Rights Amendment have women had a strong hold on the workplace alongside men. Many interesting characters in literature are conceived from the tension women have faced with men. This tension is derived from men; society, in general; and within a woman herself. Two interesting short stories, “The Yellow Wall-paper and “The Story of an Hour, “ focus on a woman’s plight near the turn of the 19th century. This era is especially interesting because it is a time in modern society when women were still treated as second class citizens. The two main characters in these stories show similarities, but they are also remarkably different in the ways they deal with their problems and life in general. These two characters will be examined to note the commonalities and differences. Although the two characters are similar in some ways, it will be shown that the woman in the “The Story of an Hour” is a stronger character based on the two important criteria of rationality and freedom.
Throughout history, women have struggled to become equals with men. Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and John Steinbeck’s “The Chrysanthemums” share a theme to their readers: feminism. The two authors placed their female protagonists in male dominated worlds of the 19th Century Norway and 20th Century America. They used these characters to rebel against the passive role of woman during their time. This theme is promoted through the narration of Nora and Elisa’s marriages, an epiphany that arose from initial disappointment in a male dominated society, and the use of symbolism throughout both works.
In Harriet Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, the author subjects the reader to a dystopian slave narrative based on a true story of a woman’s struggle for self-identity, self-preservation and freedom. This non-fictional personal account chronicles the journey of Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897) life of servitude and degradation in the state of North Carolina to the shackle-free promise land of liberty in the North. The reoccurring theme throughout that I strive to exploit is how the women’s sphere, known as the Cult of True Womanhood (Domesticity), is a corrupt concept that is full of white bias and privilege that has been compromised by the harsh oppression of slavery’s racial barrier. Women and the female race are falling for man’s
In the novel, The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros describes the problems that Latino women face in a society that treats them as second class citizens. A society that is dominated by men, and a society that values women for what they look like, and not for what is on inside. In her Novel Cisneros wants us to envision the obstacles that Latino women must face everyday in order to be treated equally.
Kennedy, X. J., and Dana Gioia. Literature: an Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. New York: Pearson Longman, 2007. Print.