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Single mothers in society
Single mothers in society
Being a single mother in today's society
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An unwed mother is the unfortunate being who bears a child out of wedlock, and she is someone who is shamed upon by the rest of the world. If one were to listen to a story of an unwed mother, all he/she would hear about is the whispering and pointing they experienced. For years, the shame of being an unwed mother forced many women to hide their secret or even give their children up. In the timeless novel of Les Miserables Victor Hugo uses the theme of social injustice to hint at the lifestyle of being an outsider. The characters who experience social injustice are not slightly affected by the inequality, but so much that it completely changes their way of life. In the novel, the characters are going through ups and downs to escape the inequality …show more content…
Social injustice is seen as an evil thing which no one wants to face. The ones who face it are very unfortunate and have to go through many challenges to outcome it. An unwed mother is most likely to face social injustice. She is seen as someone who is irresponsible, selfish, and someone who is perfectly fine without a father for her child. These types of stereotypes and judging is what pulls down the confidence of a single mother. A single mother is not only seen as a label for someone who is shameless, but also seen as a way for others to criticize her children, her morals, and her principles. It is obvious that unwed mothers have many emotional and financial struggles which causes them to take damaging jobs and to not devote enough time for their kids. Society does not care what the reason is but their job is to judge others based on his/her status, or his/her past. Unwed mothers who are constantly criticized by society often have no strength to fight and give up on life. On the other hand, others make self sacrificing decisions which affect their life in such a way that they are no longer who they were before. Les Miserables shows how unkind society is to unwed mothers which forces mothers to make sacrifices on extreme levels to protect their children. The life of an unwed mother is something only the mother would understand. While others think it is a horror, the mother might not think so. Even if the life story of an unwed mother is about others pointing and whispering at her, she may think it is worth it, because at the end she has a beautiful angel in her arms who she loves with all her
Society looks down on women when they don’t uphold to what they normally do. Furthermore, she talks about how men are not seen equally and there only social role is to work and come home and do nothing. In my opinion I realize that these social roles have changed for the better. Now both men and women are helping out with household work which I think would be less stress and work on women.
She uses The Awakening as an indictment of the restrictions put on women, highlighting the gender issues during her time that were deep seated and hotly debated. Women were property, and as such had no property rights and therefore very few options apart from marriage. Most women were completely dependent on men. They were expected to keep house and raise children, though many were unsuited to the task.29 The “voluntary motherhood” movement advocated for a woman’s right to choose if and when she would have a child30, a choice that was obviously not given to Edna, considering her feelings about motherhood. Chopin created a character that objected so strongly to the obligation of motherhood that she committed suicide, a shocking contradiction to the idea that the “mother-woman”31 was the
because of both its truth and its presentation. Fay Weldon may as well have been
These two works deal with the social oppression that women, especially lower class women face. Cee, as a child experienced the hardship a typical lower class American faces, combined with her race, her hard life is can only better imagined. As a young girl, she is physically abused by her grandmother, who is described in the novel as a woman who owns a car and a home, and by extension does the Moneys favor by housing them (Home 44). Cee had been born on the road when her parents lost their home in Texas, and moved to Lotus, Georgia. Her seemingly middle class grandmother holds that over her head. Being born in the streets – or the gutter, as she usually put it – was prelude to a sinful, worthless life” (44). Lower class or poor women are not only oppressed by the upper class, they suffer more from the hands of middle class people
This ascribed identity is the result of restrictions placed on her by domesticity and the female oppression that weakened and upset her normal course of development. Through tyrannical marriages, her confidence would be shattered and she would be entirely dependent upon her husband; even surrendering control of her body to him. In education, she would be taught to be obedient and superficial so that she would remain dependent in the domestic sphere and serve as a decorative object for her husband. She was kept of out of working professions to force a sense of respectability on her and prevent her from using the intellect and talent she was born with. All of these mistreatments impacted some portion of middle-class life that prevented women from living the same quality of life as men. Therefore, the domesticity described by these two women was used to justify a forced subjugation that disrupted the natural progression of female intelligence, and
Upper and middle-class women in that era mostly had a role as their husband’s ornament, the angel of the house. With the emergence of middle-class society due to the Industrial Revolution, many new rich men wanted to show off their valuable "treasure"; a wife that is passive, obedient, beautiful, submissive, pious, and pure. This beautiful-to-be-looked role of a wife is similar to that of wallpaper. In a patriarchal society, relationship between a husband and a wife was similar to a relationship between a parent and a child. A parent had a right to say things and a child had an obligation to listen and to do what the parent said. A child was not supposed to disagree. The child must submit him or herself to the parent. It made the child dependent on the parent. It can be seen clearly that the husband treated his wife as a child. He called her his “blessed little goose”), and “little girl.” When the narrator tried to tell him what she thought was good for her, but not appropriate to the husband’s opinion, the husband used sweet words to force his idea toward the wife. “My darling,” said he, “I beg of you, for my sake and for our child’s sake, as well as for your own, and that you will never for one instant let that idea enter your mind! … Can you not trust me as a physician when I tell you so?” The myth of the natural inferiority of women greatly influenced the status of women in law. Under the common law of England, an unmarried woman could own property, make a contract, or sue and be sued. But a married woman, defined as being one with her husband, gave up her name, and virtually all her property came under her husband's control.
Motherhood is a compassionate kinship between the mother and her offspring. Becoming a mother can be planned or unplanned depending on the person. Families tend to cherish the new beginning to a little human life. When someone decides to have a new life, it isn’t easy, and not only can some women not get pregnant, but the variation your body endures is amazing. The body goes through many life changing experiences. Some women can gain weight, or have a rollercoaster of emotions due to their hormones. Having a child is a very hard thing, because your whole life changes and it’s not all about you anymore. Children cannot control the family or mothers they have when born, they aren’t able to understand the concept of what is happening with their mothers or families until they are older. In novels, Incidents in the Life of a Slave girl, by Harriet A. Jacobs and The Awakening by Kate Chopin motherhood is portrayed in many different ways. The two stories differ in my way but both encounter similarities of motherhood in various ways.
For instance, the family decline perspective basically say how the culture and moral of the family is breaking down or weak (Newman and Grauerholz, 2002, p. 20). The culture of family has not decline because of caregivers being employed. MacDonald did a great job illustrating that a woman can actually have it all even if it requires help. In addition, this family decline perspective promotes this atmosphere how women are not as value as men when it comes to the public sphere and private sphere of the family. For instance, why did not the public feel like the father neglected this duties to protect the family through any endangerment. Many in society have this ideology of a separate sphere, that oppresses women. The separate sphere is surrounded around this notion that a woman place in society is in the private sphere which can be referred as the home ( Newman and Grauerholz, 2002, p.284). While the man is able to explore in the public sphere which is anywhere outside the home. In order to be a “good mother”, a woman should make sure that she is taking care of the home and responsibility for her maternal duties. However, that notion of women being located in this private sphere has changed because McDonald has reported that “seventy percent of all mothers in the United States work outside the home” (MacDonald, 2010, p.1). There, only thirty percent of mothers are staying at home. However, that goes with the notion that if a woman can afford to stay home that she should. According to MacDonald’s, she conceptualizes women that work as a “Volvo- Class”, “Women who presumably were married to high earning husbands and also presumably could afford to stay home”. These women that might be apart of the Volvo-class are assume to stay home and raise their children instead of hiring a caregiver. However, women who are not apart of the Volvo-class that collect government checks are not allowed
She argues that women today are not getting married so young, instead focusing on themselves professionally, financially, and socially. Traister does not shame women for being married or is not persuading women choose whether to get married or not, but she provides facts and personal experiences of different women being single and married. Women have the freedom and power to make their own choices. For example, she uses historical figures like Susan B. Anthony, Jane Addams, Frances Willard, Alice Paul, Mary Grew, and Dorothy Height who were single women, but had significant roles and careers, but they did not need to have a man to be the great women that they were. They did not have to be married to be successful. Doctors Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell, Florence Nightingale, Clara Barton, and Dorothea Dix were not married as well, but instead they were married to themselves and their careers which is not a bad thing and should not be looked down upon. However, there were married women like Frida Kahlo and Ida B. Wells, but they challenged typical women roles and were feminists, even with a husband. Traister argues that there are unknown unset society rules for women. Society claims that women are expected to fulfill their roles which is to be married and have. If women do not live
After reading, "Ibsen 's Motherless Women" written by Ellen Hartman. Hartman tries to make the understanding of how children who grow up without a mother are usually more challenged then those who don’t. They think and live more diverse rather than growing up with a maternal figure, she goes into details about how the characters in his stories are more likely to do what shouldn’t be done, just because the female protagonists grew up motherless. I agree with the observation they made of women because women had it difficult back then already, not imagining the experience of being motherless. For instance a mother guides a child and without that they have to grow up making decisions on their own. Life was more difficult for Nora because she
Analysis of Movie Moulin Rouge In this essay I will be analyzing in depth four scenes from Baz Luhrmann's critically acclaimed Moulin Rouge that was released in 2000. I will be analyzing the opening sequence, the sequence in the Moulin Rouge itself, the two dancing sequences 'Like a Virgin' and 'Tango Roxanne' and the final scenes of the film. Throughout this essay I will be commenting on the filming techniques that Luhrmann uses and what affects these have on the audience, also I will be analyzing how the film is similar and different to typical Hollywood Musicals.
In Bruges is a dark comedy written and directed by Martin McDonagh. This movie is Martin McDonagh’s feature début and was the opening night film for the 2008 Sundance Festival. McDonagh received a nomination for best original screenplay at the 81st Academy Awards and won the BAFTA award for best original screenplay for the film. The movie was filmed entirely in the Belgian city of Bruges, a beautiful city distinguished by its canals, cobbled streets, and medieval buildings. The film centers around two Irish hitmen hiding out in Bruges. The two hitmen are sent to Bruges by their boss to await orders after botching a job in London, where a young boy was accidentally killed during the hit of a priest.
The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Hall-25 Anniversary Celebration was filmed for the 25th anniversary for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s critically acclaimed Phantom of the Opera. The script was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Richard Stilgoe, with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The show is based off of the book Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux. The show opens in Paris 1905 at an auction of old theater props from L’Opera Populaire. As they are auctioning off old props of the theater they come up to an old music box with a monkey on top of it. An elderly man buys it and the auctioneer soon moves on to what he calls “ chandelier in pieces” and coincides with the mysterious Phantom of the Opera. The cloth over the chandelier comes off and the it comes to life with light and we are transported back to 1881. The show follows Christine, a young vocalist with great beauty, and an Opera House Phantom who yearns to be closer and love her. The Phantom, who has a deformed face hides it from the world behind his mask try to lure Christine to his heart by teaching her the ways of music and vocals only for her to fall in love with her childhood friend Raoul. The Phantom, who has been alone for all this time, does
William Shakespeare was a famous playwright in the 16th century and considered to be the best playwright of all time. One of his works is called Macbeth; it is a very famous play where the character Macbeth is prophesied to become King and kills his way to get there sooner. Lady Macbeth is clearly more responsible for the murder of King Duncan because she insults his courage and whips him into committing the murder.
There are many approaches one could take to analyze a specific work. One of these critical approaches is called biographical criticism. This is the belief that authors reflect events and feelings from their own lives into their writing. By taking this approach, a reader can find out more about the author through the work of literature. They can also have more insight into the story by seeing the true meaning behind it and seeing the author's intent. Of the dramas we have read in class, Tennessee Williams' “A Streetcar Named Desire” was a play that really captured the essence of biographical criticism. After researching Williams' life, it is clear that he echoes his own personal experiences throughout the course of the play.