The process of finding out who one is can be very turbulent and confusing. Through growing up one goes through so many different changes in terms of one's personality and deciding who they are and what they want to be. The little girl in David Kaplan's "Doe Season" goes through one of these changes, as do many other adolescents confused about who they are, and finds out that there are some aspects of a person's identity that cannot be changed no matter how hard he/she tries. Andy is a nine-year-old girl who doesn't want to grow up to be a woman. When she talks of the sea and how she remembers her mother loving it and how much she hated it is a clue that she prefers to be a "boy". The sea is symbolic of womanhood and the forest is symbolic of manhood.
Andy expresses extreme distaste for the sea and a curiosity of the woods. She never really admits to liking the woods but the way she refers to it is always as if she's fascinated by it, but she doesn't know much about it. Therefore, she must go hunting as a test to see if she belongs. To contrast how she feels about the sea and the forest, she refers to the forest as deep and immense, while she refers to the sea as huge and empty.
Andy sees the man's world as a wonderful, fascinating world while she sees the woman's world as meaningless and empty.Andy sees the changes into a woman on the horizon and she is scared by these changes because they are very confusing to her. This is why she try's to do man-typ...
Recently, I saw a movie about female tennis champion – Billie Jean King, and although I have never been into the feminism (neither can I say that I quite understand it), her character woke up some other kind of sensitivity in me. After this – to me significant change – I could not help myself not to notice different approaches of John Steinbeck and Kay Boyle to the similar thematic. They both deal with marital relationships and it was quite interesting to view lives of ordinary married couples through both “male” and “female eyes”. While Steinbeck opens his story describing the Salinas Valley in December metaphorically referring to the Elisa’s character, Boyle jumps directly to Mrs. Ames’s inner world. Although both writers give us pretty clear picture of their characters, Boyle does it with more emotions aiming our feelings immediately, unlike Steinbeck who leaves us more space to think about Elisa Allen.
In the beginning we find the family and its surrogate son, Homer, enjoying the fruits of the summer. Homer wakes to find Mrs. Thyme sitting alone, “looking out across the flat blue stillness of the lake”(48). This gives us a sense of the calm, eternal feeling the lake presents and of Mrs. Thyme’s appreciation of it. Later, Fred and Homer wildly drive the motor boat around the lake, exerting their boyish enthusiasm. The lake is unaffected by the raucous fun and Homer is pleased to return to shore and his thoughts of Sandra. Our protagonist observes the object of his affection, as she interacts with the lake, lazily resting in the sun. The lake provides the constant, that which has always been and will always be. As in summers past, the preacher gives his annual sermon about the end of summer and a prayer that they shall all meet again. Afterward, Homer and Fred take a final turn around the lake only to see a girl who reminds Homer of Sandra. “And there was something in the way that she raised her arm which, when added to the distant impression of her fullness, beauty, youth, filled him with longing as their boat moved inexorably past…and she disappeared behind a crop of trees.
The setting of these two stories emphasize, on visually showing us how the main characters are based around trying to find freedom despite the physical, mental and emotional effects of living in confinement. While on the other hand, dealing with Psychology’s ugly present day behavior showing dystopia of societies views of women during the time period they lived.
She ties the downfall of men to the changing patterns in modern relationships and marriage to a
The novel is described as a feminist novel. Yet, this is not exactly acurate. The absence of men in the utopian society may seem extreme to some, and it is. This is how Gilman makes her point. She does not create a world without men because men are terrible creatures who have corrupted the world. The utopia which lacks men is a clean peaceful place, which surpasses in almost every way the competitive societies that we live in. But, it is neither the absence of men nor the presence of women that makes this to be the case. Gender, in this novel, is symbolic for the most part. Gilman does separate the two genders to destroy stereo types, but also to establish a concrete difference between the two worlds. The male world is not bad, and the female good is not good. The world in which people are defined by others and limited is bad, while the world in which people are free to grow without being defined or compared to others, and are able to see the unity of all people is good. Comparing Herland to the real world, Gilman begins destroying gender based stereotypes. Because there are no distinctions of gender in Herland, nor any superficial characteristics which accompany gender, Herland women take on the roles of all people without considering any limitations. These women are strong, agile, nurturing, intelligent, cooperative, and able to rely on themselves. They are not "typical" females. As Gilman explains through the male character Van, "Those 'feminine charms' we are so fond of are not feminine at all, but mere reflected masculinity developed to please us because they had to please us, and in no way essential to the real fulfillment of their great process" (p59). In the same way, stereotypes about men can be thrown up as well. Gilman shows the reader that if people stop basing their identities on what others want, they will no longer be slaves to limitations. They will be free to discover their true selves and will allow others to do the same. Gilman shows readers that men and women are distinct people, but reminds us that they are people first. This can be seen when one of women of Herland named Somel, questions the men by saying, "But surely there are characteristics enough which belong to People, aren't there?
How a man acts does not dictate how he actually is. How people behave depends on the prevailing situation and circumstances at the given moment. A woman might be passive and submissive as a wife in relation to her husband and be every active and in charge in relation to her children or a man may be domineering as a husband and father in relation to his wife and children but submissive as an employee in relation to his boss or as a son in relation to his parents(Johnson 62) . Johnson argues that people are not born with autonomous traits. Both male and female are not accustomed to any particular set of traits. They both act differently depending on the situation. In the movie Mona Lisa Smile, Mrs. Katherine showed different and diverse characteristics depending on the situation she was in. When she was in class teaching, she was strong, daring, rational and active (all traits assigned to men) and when she was with Bill Dunbar (the Italian teacher), She was emotionally expressive, weak and shy all traits assigned to women). Masculinity and femininity tell us relatively little about who we are because we are complicated beings who reveal ourselves differently from one situation to another. We are not self-contained and autonomous”personalities” but relational beings whose feelings and behavior are shaped in
The growth of one woman interferes with one man’s idea of being able to conquer Woman. The two main characters of the book Ladies’ Paradise named Denise and Mouret have a unique sense of love, if it really even is “love.” She is very shy and unattainable while he is charismatic and lives a greatly successful life. Her unordinary attitude creeps into Mouret’s mind, causing him to desire her at an extreme amount. Mouret is not able to conquer Denise in the same way that he does women in his department store which defeats his conquest of Woman. The idea of feminism is prominent throughout the novel since Denise is such an independent character and does not give into Mouret’s power immediately. She briefly gives Mouret a new set of eyes, allowing
Francis Macomber is a middle age man that is good at court games such as: tennis or squash, competitions where there are set standards and rules for play. Also, there are confined areas of play for his games. He is quite wealthy and some say handsome which add to Francis masculinity. His wife on the other hand does not think that much of him and thinks of him as a coward. Margot on the other hand his “beautiful wife”, whom really does not like Francis but stays with him anyway. She cheats on him and despises, basically because he married her only for her looks. Margot on the other hand is part responsible for the same thing because she only married him for his money. They are both stuck in a situation because they both married for the wrong reasons. Their gender roles are sort of fighting against each other because she doesn’t care about the relationship and cheats; and he tries to prove that he is a man and yet fails because he tries too hard. Masculinity is something that Margot and others at the Safari think it is an aspect of manhood that Francis lacks.
When discussing issues brought about through sex roles, marriages, and families in transitions it is viewed from the female scope. The pressures put on women in these situations are often more overbearing than the one’s put on men, due to statistics about gender inequality that results with women receiving less opportunity than men. Movies tend to focus on the pressures society puts on women, romantic comedies often capitalizing on the stress women go through with marriage and creating a family. “I Love You, Man” reverses the roles, with the lead male character being the one pressured and overwhelmed with him and his fiancé’s upcoming wedding. He is judged for not having any true friends, or at least one deemed appropriate enough to fill his best man
In a nutshell, Connie regrets her risky business with two personalities and the resultant attentions, which were also provoked due to her contact with the false environment (Oates 120). Arnold's penetrating threat finally causes Connie to feel exhausted and not able to be resistant to his aims. Therefore one could regard Connie as a girl in a woman's body because she is not able to act and react reasonably in crucial moments. In addition, one could regard Joyce Carol Oates' short story as an insistent warning of the unpredictability's of life.
The woods and ocean are representative of two paths that Andrea is faced with. The woods being the path of a hunter and being surrounded by a male dominant setting. “That’s what the woods are all about anyway […] it’s where the woman don’t want to go.” Charlie said in paragraph 107. While the ocean is meant to represent a path filled with memories she had with her mother when she was a little girl. Andy saw that her mother’s swimsuit top had come off, so that her breasts swayed free, her nipples like two dark eyes. Embarrassed, Andy looked around (…) Her mother stood up unsteadily, regained her footing taking what seemed the longest time and she calmly refixed her top. (…) The sound of surf made her head ache.” In the this, Andrea shows signs of uncomfortableness when her mother has no top on. Meaning that she is afraid and slightly uncomfortable of having the same womanly parts as her mother. Being that they are two paths, Andrea must choose one. She allows her mind, and soul decide what path she is going to follow and thats when she chooses the path of the ocean. The path in which led her to accepting
Katie’s husband portrays the abusive, drunk husband that thinks he owns his wife. He physically and emotionally abuses Katie to the point of almost killing her. This specific role he plays, although a stereotype, is one that should be played in movies to raise awareness of these types of abusive relationships. But it should not be necessarily a male. Although more common, we have become too accustomed to the idea that only a man could abuse a women, which leads us to shift our attention away from all the women who hurt men in the world. From their youth, men have constantly been reminded that they are men, and that a characteristic of masculinity is hiding feelings and concealing their emotions. But in reality, everyone should have capacity of portraying their emotions without being considered weak or less manly. Alex’s role also illustrates a stereotype. He is the prince. The ever so common savior who sweeps the princess off her feet and serenades her with his love. Although an exaggeration, Alex represents the prince we see in Disney movies. He has been through his own list of difficult circumstances after losing his wife and the mother of his children to cancer, but even through all that he still ends up falling in love with Katie, and saving her from her own dark past. Similar to the stereotype created by Katie’s husband, Alex’s stereotype should not be confined to only men. Movies should depict a princess saving her prince, more often. Women have the capability of saving and men sometimes have the necessity of being saved. We should imagine and embrace how the world would be if gender roles were not such a powerful concept in
The movie Tootsie directed by Sydney Pollack illustrates Simone de Beauvoir's philosophy; women as other. Sydney Pollack illustrates this in her movie by showing how men oppress women by characterizing them, on every level, as the other. The men in the movie occupy the role as the subject whereas the women are portrayed as the object. Man is the essential, absolute, and transcendent. Women are inessential, incomplete, and mutilated. Fundamentally, Pollack was trying to elicit how men extend out into the world to impose their will on it, whereas the woman is doomed to immanence or inwardness. Man creates, acts, and invents; the waits for him to save her.
A good man, and a contemporary male, is writhed with built up emotions he can not express for it doesn’t fit the mold, the standard with which his image pertains to. Restricted by the confines of a good man, Neil’s attempt at emotional expression is to cling to a diaphragm he believes will marry Brenda to him. The emotional outcry wreaks of dominated exhaustion and fatigue. Furthermore, the forceful and bizarre method with which Neil chose to convey his hidden emotions of insecurity can be equated to the lack of emotional awareness and knowledge many men struggle with. According to Andrew Reiner, a professor of writing, literature and cultural studies at Towson University, “boys are taught, sometimes with the best of intentions, to mutate their emotional suffering into anger” (Andrew Reiner). Along with the good man ideology, the emotional handicap many men struggle with is further amplified with this coalescence of their weak emotional foundation. Characteristically of a real man, Brenda’s lack of awareness in her acquired agency unknowingly ignores Neil’s outcry for control when he asks her to get the diaphragm because “he asked her to” (Roth pg. 81). Her constant assertive attitude strips and numbs her of any interest in comprehending her partner’s feelings. In her mind Neil is attacking her personally and is asking for a difficult request. A person under the real man
The novel explores gender roles through the characters of Mrs. Ramsay, Mr. Ramsay, and Lily. Each of these characters embodies different views in regards to gender roles. The readers are taken into their minds and thoughts and are allowed to see what each character views is the role of his/her gender.