Gender Roles and Ideas The Male Character in Arab Women’s Novels: Often in literature authors, particularly men, are criticized for falsely or inaccurately portraying or "writing" women. This debate has been historically confined to male authors, but is on occasion reversed and female authors are criticized for inaccurately writing men. Although it may sound like a fair trade—or at least the beginnings of one in the world of critics—these situations are limited to primarily European and predominately North American literature. Examining the portrayal of men and the male sex as a whole, by women, is an important if not essential undertaking in this modern world, but where is comes to a point of being absolutely crucial is when it is the women authors of a world where they are second class citizens only because of their gender. If the writing of men in Arab women’s novels can be understood at even the most basic level it may allow some insight into what these women think and assume consciously and subconsciously, about themselves and their position in society and about the inherent oppression that they deal with and resign themselves to—no matter how weak or extreme the degree of the oppression, ranging from Egypt to Saudi Arabia. The purpose of this discourse is to first, examine and delineate the manner in which Arab women novelists portray or ‘write’ men; and second, to discuss the most relevant reasons why the women write them as they do. This will be accomplished by focusing mainly on three novels written by women from Jordan and Palestine with settings form Beirut to London. The first of these three novels is Fadia Faqir’s, Pillars of Salt. This story is set in Jordan before and during the British occupation and Mandate. The book itself is broken into a number of chapters, each shifting between the voices of "The Storyteller", Maha, and Um Saad, and Faqir’s third-person. For purposes of ease in this discourse these short chapters will be grouped into eight natural sections, as each five or six chapters between Maha and Um Saad is set off by an interlude from The Storyteller, who himself appears nine times altogether. In this book there is a large spectrum men that Faqir writes, but in terms of relevance to the topic above we will focus on the following characters to illustrate how Faqir portrays the male sex: The Storyteller, who could be argued as not being a man, but with very little success, as it is undoubtedly Faqir’s intention to have the story’s told by The Storyteller to be from a male perspective.
Khaled Hosseini’s novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, tells the stories of women in Afghanistan in the late twentieth century. Hosseini shows the women’s strengths, weaknesses, tribulations and accomplishments through their own actions, and how they are treated by other characters in the book, particularly the male characters. Hosseini portrays men in A Thousand Splendid Suns to create themes of justice and injustice within the novel. The justice, or lack thereof, served to the male characters is a result of their treatment and attitudes toward the female characters in the book and towards women in general.
1) lack of access to justice, 2) the weakness of the criminal investigation, and 3) the low rate of effective sanction against the masterminds and perpetrators.
“Boys will be boys, and girls will be girls”: few of our cultural mythologies seem as natural as this one. But in this exploration of the gender signals that traditionally tell what a “boy” or “girl” is supposed to look and act like, Aaron Devor shows how these signals are not “natural” at all but instead are cultural constructs. While the classic cues of masculinity—aggressive posture, self-confidence, a tough appearance—and the traditional signs of femininity—gentleness, passivity, strong nurturing instincts—are often considered “normal,” Devor explains that they are by no means biological or psychological necessities. Indeed, he suggests, they can be richly mixed and varied, or to paraphrase the old Kinks song “Lola,” “Boys can be girls and girls can be boys.” Devor is dean of social sciences at the University of Victoria and author of Gender Blending: Confronting the Limits of Duality (1989), from which this selection is excerpted, and FTM: Female-to-Male Transsexuals in Society (1997).
There is no doubt that the literary written by men and women is different. One source of difference is the sex. A woman is born a woman in the same sense as a man is born a man. Certainly one source of difference is biological, by virtue of which we are male and female. “A woman´s writing is always femenine” says Virginia Woolf
Both el Saadawi and Al-Shaykh both show how perception and expression are both affected within the confines of politics, social opportunities, and male privilege depicted in their stories. Whether the reader is a follower of the feminist movement or not, it is very clear and easy to see that these women are not being treated with the respect that any human being deserves. The misogynistic stranglehold on society, especially in this part of the world, is excessive and avoidable in today’s world but it is very likely that the traditional, conservative ways of the past will continue to control and inhibit women from being able to be fully treated as equals for many years to come, perhaps even after this generation has
It is hard to speak of the history of Polish cinema without situating it in relation to World War II, especially when it is one of the very few channels that express Poland’s national conscience. Through Polish cinema, veteran directors like Andrzej Wajda have been able to convey messages of trauma, disillusionment and fatality. Wajda is arguably one of the most important filmmakers of Poland, who etched his country’s history on the silver screen. The emergence of a state owned film industry through communism was perhaps one of the most significant changes to Polish cinema. Despite the possibility of censorship stifling all kinds of creative expression, Wajda was able to produce groundbreaking films like Ashes and Diamonds (1958) that are rich with symbolic and allegorical messages that are oppositional and critical of the state. Even after the fall of the iron curtain, Wajda has continued to express the social and national dilemmas that affect Poland. As David Paul argues in Politics, Art and Commitment in the East European Cinema, “Wajda’s style is in tune with Polish culture’s unending search for great dilemma” (171), he also notes the psychological and existential current that both Man of Marble and Ashes and Diamonds have. Wajda’s tendency to produce movies that focus on Polish individuals who face social issues that require a moral decision represent his place in a movement scholars call the Cinema of Moral Concern. Both films mentioned above, critique institutions and the state by imbuing Polish society as a whole within a single character and his or her situation. In this essay I will argue Wajda’s portrayal of women in cinema especially in Man of Marble has drastically changed since Ashes and Diamonds. In fact, the juxtap...
Inmates in prison know that no matter what their sentence if they behave good or bad they will nearly get out at the same time from 9 years if good to 10 if bad, or a 15% reduction leaving them to not bother trying to rehabilitate themselves due to the little amount it will affect their stay making them more likely to return. It is suggested that if we increase the inmates time from the normal minimum bottom line sentence they would receive normally and gave them a much higher sentence for acting badly they would be forced to attend classes such as anger management and treatments for themselves making them more fit to leave the prisons and join our society. This in return would decrease the amount of needed prison
...e are a mix of colors and features. In all three novels, each one of the male characters is unique in their own way; which allows them to go against the stereotypes that are in place for them. Whether it was part of the author’s goals or not to go against the stereotypes in place for Arab males, it’s refreshing to see that they didn’t confine them to a set characteristic, personality, or feature. Each author allowed these characters to be free from the confinements of the stereotypes set in place; allowing for the readers to understand them in a way that’s different and unique to their own.
Society places ideas concerning proper behaviors regarding gender roles. Over the years, I noticed that society's rules and expectations for men and women are very different. Men have standards and specific career goals that we must live up to according to how others judge.
James Joyce explores ideas of youth, alienation, adulthood, transformation, and disillusionment within his work, “Araby.” In this narrative, an unnamed narrator anguishes over his infatuation with Mangan’s sister. “Araby” explains how this simple love sends the storyteller into the harsh and real adult world. During the quest for a girl, James Joyce uses the journey of the narrator to explore ideas of sight, revelation, coming of age, and change.
The concept of violence might only represent a negative image. It refers to a set of radical human behaviors, for example, perpetrator would use physical force to hurt or kill people on purpose. Besides, the typology of violence in World Health Organization (WHO) has an explicit structure, which comprise physical, psychological, and sexual to families, partners, friends or strangers (). However, in this essay I shall focus on critically analyzing Farkhanda Younis’ story, which could reflect how violence against women as an urgent issue in our society.
“Araby” is told from the point of view of a young boy on the verge of adolescence. Because is written this way, the story is relatable to almost any male audience. The style of narration is called first person point of view or first person story. Because this story is about the boy's confused feelings and newly appearing curiosities of teenage years, the first person point of view allows the reader to see how the young boy (narrator) thinks and feels. This allows the reader to create a closer connection to the character in the book.
Perhaps the main reason I liked this book was the unfaltering courage of the author in the face of such torture as hurts one even to read, let alone have to experience first-hand. Where men give in, this woman perseveres, and, eventually, emerges a stronger person, if that is even possible. The book’s main appeal is emotional, although sound logical arguments are also used. This book is also interesting as it shows us another face of Nasir – the so-called “champion of Arab nationalism” – who is also the enemy of pan-Islamism. The book is also proof of history repeating itself in modern-day Egypt.
As an Arab American, a Muslim and a woman writer, Mohja Kahf challenges the stereotypes and misrepresentation of Arab and Muslim women. Her style is always marked by humor, sarcasm, anger and confrontation. “The Marvelous Women,” “The Woman Dear to Herself,” “Hijab Scene #7” and “Hijab Scene #5” are examples of Kahf’s anger of stereotypes about Muslim women and her attempts to fight in order to eradicate them, in addition to her encouragement to women who help her and fight for their rights.
Males are always regarded as powerful individuals and females as powerless, which do not reflect the changing social status of females in the society today (Bahiyah et al., 2008). The female characters in the short stories that I have chosen portrays how men suppress women in the name of religion and society for their selfish individual needs. The gender issues that have been brought up in the short stories are viewed from the aspects of religion and culture that molds the social constitution of the society. Therefore, in this essay I will address the portrayal of female characters in the short stories Night and Day by Dina Zaman and Mariah by Che Husna Azahari and how they are discriminated and oppressed by illustrating the attempts that are made by the female characters to free themselves from the