In both Mona Lisa Smile and A Thousand Splendid Suns, women were devalued in marriage and education. While, both depicted marriage where men were in control and a woman's place was in the house. They also showed the double standards that women face in marriage. Education was ridiculed, but in the end, its importance was depicted.
Marriage in both contexts is beneficial to men because they were in control of the relationship. The woman barely had any say in the decisions. In A Thousand Splendid Suns, Mariam and Laila were forced to marry Rasheed because they both did not have any other choice. Mariam had no family willing to support her and Laila would not be able to survive in Afghanistan without a male figure in her life. The government
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Girls would take classes such as Home Economics in order to prepare for their married lives. As said above, girls went to school to find potential husbands. After, they got married they either quit school or took long absences before returning. When they did return, the university forgave their absences. The university encouraged this behavior because the university also valued traditional behavior. During this time, women were expected to go to college, but not for the education, they were expected to find husbands. Katherine already goes against the social norms because instead of finding a husband and being married, Katherine chose to continue her education and build a career. Socially, Katherine was outcasted because she did not follow the traditional views. However, Katherine helps the girls eventually see how marriage is not the most important aspect of their life. In conclusion, in A Thousand Splendid Suns and Mona Lisa Smile, men are seen as a dominant force in marriages. Laila and Mariam needed Rasheed in order to live in their country. While in Mona Lisa Smile, Betty and the girls were taught that marriage was the only option they had. In both contexts, women and men had double standards. However, the double standards were more in favor of the men. Education is also devalued, but its importance is depicted. Laila’s father continued to teach her because he wanted her to expand her knowledge, but in Mona Lisa Smile, education was seen as a way to get a marriage
The book begins by explaining the roles that women in this time were known to have as this helps the reader get a background understanding of a woman’s life pre-war. This is done because later in the book women begin to break the standards that they are expected to have. It shows just how determined and motivated these revolutionary women and mothers were for independence. First and foremost, many people believed that a “woman’s truth was that God had created her to be a helpmate to a man” (p.4). Women focused on the domain of their households and families, and left the intellectual issues of the time and education to the men. Legally, women had almost no rights. Oppressed by law and tradition, women were restricted their choice of professions regardless of their identity or economic status. As a result, many women were left with few choices and were cornered into marriage or spinsterhood, which also had its limitations. As a spinster, you were deemed as unmarried who was past the usual age of marriage. Patronized by society, these women were left and stamped as “rejected”. On the other side, If the woman became married, all that she owned belonged to her husband, even her own existence. In exchange to her commitment, if a woman’s husband was away serving in the military or if she became a widower, she could use but not own, one-third of her husband’s property. This left her to manage the land and serve as a surrogate laborer in her husband’s absence. Needless to say, a day in a woman’s life then was filled with a full day of multi-tasking and as circumstances changed, more women had to adapt to their urban
This source provided the unique perspective of what was thought to be the perfect household, with a man who worked and a wife who cooked and cleaned. However, it also showed how a woman could also do what a man can do, and in some cases they could do it even better. This work is appropriate to use in this essay because it shows how men talked down to their wives as if they were children. This work shows the gradual progression of woman equality and how a woman is able to make her own decisions without her husband’s input.
Early on the reader is aware that Mary Katherine thoughts are unusual and eccentric for a girl her age. Mary Katherine was brought up as upper class in a small village, living with her family until their sudden death. With only her Uncle and
As mentioned above, women’s role were unjust to the roles and freedoms of the men, so an advanced education for women was a strongly debated subject at the beginning of the nineteenth century (McElligott 1). The thought of a higher chance of education for women was looked down upon, in the early decades of the nineteenth century (The American Pageant 327). It was established that a women’s role took part inside the household. “Training in needlecraft seemed more important than training in algebra” (327). Tending to a family and household chores brought out the opinion that education was not necessary for women (McElligott 1). Men were more physically and mentally intellectual than women so it was their duty to be the educated ones and the ones with the more important roles. Women were not allowed to go any further than grammar school in the early part of the 1800’s (Westward Expansion 1). If they wanted to further their education beyond grammar, it had to be done on their own time because women were said to be weak minded, academically challenged and could n...
The novel is set in a cultural background wherein women had every reasonable freedom to talk about their marriage and children, but could not carry on what they found it to be good and reasonable because they were restraint by social constructs. Women were bound to their husbands and children and religiously they were conditioned to lots of dos and don'ts. However, a critical look reveals that women were construed to be mere objects of amusement, possessions cared for and displayed. They were expected to be subordinated to their husbands and children (Wyatt, 1995).
In the short story, “Girl,” the narrator describes certain tasks a woman should be responsible for based on the narrator’s culture, time period, and social standing. This story also reflects the coming of age of this girl, her transition into a lady, and shows the age gap between the mother and the daughter. The mother has certain beliefs that she is trying to pass to her daughter for her well-being, but the daughter is confused by this regimented life style. The author, Jamaica Kincaid, uses various tones to show a second person point of view and repetition to demonstrate what these responsibilities felt like, how she had to behave based on her social standing, and how to follow traditional customs.
Thesis Statement: Men and women were in different social classes, women were expected to be in charge of running the household, the hardships of motherhood. The roles that men and women were expected to live up to would be called oppressive and offensive by today’s standards, but it was a very different world than the one we have become accustomed to in our time. Men and women were seen to live in separate social class from the men where women were considered not only physically weaker, but morally superior to men. This meant that women were the best suited for the domestic role of keeping the house. Women were not allowed in the public circle and forbidden to be involved with politics and economic affairs as the men made all the
When studying gender roles in history, one will find that females are often depicted in similar ways no matter the era or region of study. Even when comparing the industrialized, early, twentieth century to today’s progressive era, there are striking similarities between female roles. We can see that over the course of the twentieth century, the qualities of loyalty and honesty have decreased in marriages due to the treatment of the two main female roles as depicted literature. The first was the role of the wife. The wife was often portrayed as a housekeeper and a nanny. Dull in appearance, there was no aesthetic beauty to this typical female. The other main role was the “other woman.” The more mysterious and promiscuous character, this woman portrayed the other part of the female population. Both of these types of characters are composites that portrayed the average, disposable female while how they were treated conveyed the general handling of females in the early, twentieth century.
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
Kuttner also agrees, “a lot of ugly realities were concealed by “traditional values”; the legal and economic emancipation of women was long overdue, and the task now is to reconcile gender equality with the healthy raising of the next generation.” (124). Before the 1890s, females had no other options but to live with their parents before marriage and with their husband after marriage. They couldn’t work and if they did, their wages were way lower than men.
In the short story “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid is a story that everyone can related to. The story is about a mother telling her daughter what to do, what not to do and how to do things. Kind of like society or parents or a friends of what to do. There has also been always been expectations of what to do and how to do things in life regards of gender, nationality or religion. The male has he’s duties and the female has different duties. However, in the typical society today, a person is supposed to graduate from high school and go straight in to an Ivy League university, to get a degree in a field of study that makes lot of money. While working a person must save money for that dream big house with the white picket fence. At the same time, you have to look for that perfect spouse so you can have the big beautiful dream wedding. After the wedding it’s the romantic honeymoon to Bora Bora. After a couple years the baby comes, and you are a happy family. Typically, that is what parents teach their children of what is what is expected of them.
In the novel A Thousand splendid suns, Hosseini exemplifies the need for companionship and love through the genuine lack of these characteristics in Mariam, a underappreciated, illegitimate woman. Mariam’s battle for self-worth shapes the sincerity of her relationships with others and how they feel they should treat her. The product of Mariam's experiences illustrates how essential love and companionship are when discovering dignity and purpose through adversity.
...present powerful characters, while females represent unimportant characters. Unaware of the influence of society’s perception of the importance of sexes, literature and culture go unchanged. Although fairytales such as Sleeping Beauty produce charming entertainment for children, their remains a didactic message that lays hidden beneath the surface; teaching future generations to be submissive to the inequalities of their gender. Feminist critic the works of former literature, highlighting sexual discriminations, and broadcasting their own versions of former works, that paints a composite image of women’s oppression (Feminist Theory and Criticism). Women of the twenty-first century serge forward investigating, and highlighting the inequalities of their race in effort to organize a better social life for women of the future (Feminist Theory and Criticism).
The short stories “Souls Belated” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” have in common ‘Marriage’ as main theme. However, the marriage is treated quite differently in both short stories. In "Souls Belated", Lydia chooses to take control of her destiny, to deviate from conventions and to choose what is good for her. She is the strongest character of the couple. Whereas, in "The Yellow Wallpaper", the name of the main character who is also the narrator of the story is not known. She is identified as being John’s wife. This woman, contrary to Lydia in "Souls Belated" is completely locked up in her marriage. This essay will first describe and compare the characters of Lydia and John's wife in the context of marriage, and then it will look at how marriage is described, treated and experienced by couples in these two short stories.
In the early 20th century, many women went to college and worked professionally, but the mid-20th century myth of the middle-class suburban housewife downplayed the importance of women's education. Feminists knew that girls and women must be encouraged to seek an education, and not just "something to fall back on," if they were to become, and be seen as, fully equal. In her article, "The Long Way Home," Myrna Kostash discusses her experiences as a feminist in university. "It was 1963 and there was none of us who did not believe we would be different from the brigades of women in the suburbs. We were students. We would be clever, and we would travel, and we would have adventures." (Kostash, The Long Way Home, 167.) University provided the perfect place for like-minded women to meet, extend their influence and advocate for change. "Although university women continued to be the support base of the women's liberation groups, it was not unusual when their meetings included young working women, high school students, middle-aged housewives, single mothers, women from old left groups" (Kostash, The Long Way Home, 170.) Yet, although women were more educated then they had been in the past, the only socially acceptable role for them was to get married and have children. The second wave of feminism sought to change this perception and fought to give women opportunities on par with men including wage equality, maternity benefits, and the right