Repression and Resistance: Reflections of Life Literature is acknowledged for its ability to mirror life. It stands as a reflection for some of the human behavior and it helps to illuminate a genuine picture of the societies. Many writers from all over the world have provided a close innovative observation for life through their inspiring writings. As Nawal El Saadawi states in “New Song for Egypt’s Elite”: “what makes revolutionary thought unique is its clarity and dignity, and its clear grasp of freedom and justice: simple, clear words that are understood without the need for any help from elite writers or thinkers’’ (1). Thus, when ideas reflect the realties and truths about societies they become simpler, clearer and more powerful. …show more content…
Nawal El Sadaawi is one distinctive woman from Middle East who has appeared on the feminist stage as a representative for women’s state of repression. Her ideas and feelings are transmitted into a form of resistance towards the realities of her own society. Through her writing, She expresses her feelings of insignificance, due to the rejection that she has faced because of her daring ideas, in her novel ‘’Woman at Point Zero’’ she is consumed with a helpless rage over the conditions of women from the Arab World, including herself, and her country. The author is an avocets and a rebellion who typically stands against all forms of injustice and violence that are conducted against women in the villages around Egypt. With a free voice and a sharp recognition to the injustice in the Egyptian society, she widely opens the humans’ eyes and minds as to see the oppressions and cruelties against women in her society. As a psychiatric, El Saadawi has examined different examples of crimes that are conducted against her society specially women. Such crimes include sexual abuse and female circumcision. Her country is indulged in hypocrisy at all levels. As a writer, El Saadawi has been rejected. Her books are banned and censored as she speaks against political, social and religious corruptions in these regimes. She has been arrested for her daring ideas and …show more content…
Like Firdus, Ree is psychologically and physically affected by the social ills in her society. Ree is brought up in a society that is heavily dependent on the meth making business and male dominance. Such society doesn’t hold any great expectations for or from a young woman and assumes the lack of women’s ability. This society believes in the male’s power over the female and only accepts blind obedience from women. Ree is not allowed to question or investigate more about hers father’s disappearance. For instance, Uncle Teardrop constantly warns and even threatens her to drop the search for her father and never to try to cross the red lines especially when it comes to questioning the meth network. Such conflicts are too heavy burdens on this young soul. Moreover, she is been physically humiliated and sexually abused. She is been beaten and
If Hosseini aims to convey a message that women are tantalizing and provide warmth to society but are hidden and masked, evidently there must be an issue causing this suppression of women in society; thus the political and cultural backdrop plays in to the impression the reader takes away from the novel. Hosseini conveys his message of enduring and optimism profoundly through these two characters. If not for the political and cultural backdrop of the novel, the story could not have been developed with the significance and comprehensiveness that it currently has, which essentially are the backbone of the impact this novel has on the reader through a striking presentation of reality that has never been seen in this light, sending a motivational message to fight for the right cause and endure when necessary to achieve the ultimate target.
Women play a key role in this novel in many ways. In the case of...
Ismail, M. (2008, February). Literature is the mirror of society. Campus Notes, 1(13), 1-10. Retrieved from
The story can be analyzed using feminist criticism perspective. Feminist criticism is “" the ways in which literature (and other cultural productions) reinforce or undermine the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women"” (Brizee & Tompkins). When reading a text one can find how women were treated in contemporary times. It can be expressed in many areas listed by Brizee & Tompkins. Moreover, Delahoyde also gave more details on the subject when he said “Feminist criticism concern itself with stereotypical representations of genders. It also may trace the history of relatively unknown or undervalued women writers, potentially earning them their rightful place within the literary canon, and helps create a climate in which women's creativity may be fully realized and appreciate.” Women had been undervalued and taken for granted. Many things they do are not as...
In the three chosen works of literature, Ordinary people by Judith Guest, Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley and Antigone by Sophocles, alienation, initiation, journey, suffering and reconciliation are among the themes covered by the these great works of literature. The writers through the various characters in the scripts have clearly brought out the five themes as the main themes. These works of literature act as a reflection of what was happening in the society then. In terms of literature not much has changed and would still expect the same to be happening in the society today. As acknowledged, literature indeed reflects the society, its ill values and good values. In mirroring of the ills of the society, the view is to make the society realize its mistakes and make amends. The good values are set out for others to emulate. As an imitation of human actions, literature presents an image of what people do, think and do in the society.
In a nation brimming with discrimination, violence and fear, a multitudinous number of hearts will become malevolent and unemotional. However, people will rebel. In the eye-opening novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns written by Khaled Hosseini, the country of Afghanistan is exposed to possess cruel, treacherous and sexist law and people. The women are classified as something lower than human, and men have the jurisdiction over the women. At the same time, the most horrible treatment can bring out some of the best traits in victims, such as consideration, boldness, and protectiveness. Although, living in an inconsiderate world, women can still carry aspiration and benevolence. Mariam and Laila (the main characters of A Thousand Splendid Suns) are able to retain their consideration, boldness and protectiveness, as sufferers in their atrocious world.
In order for us to deal with how a consideration of femininity can effect our understanding of a literary text, we must also be able to grasp the notion of `feminism' and `Feminist Literary Theory'. A dictionary definition of `feminism' is: `the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of the equality of the sexes.' Although this leans towards feminism in the historical sense of the word, it still provides the grounds, or foundations, from which feminist literary theories were created. Feminists argue against the stereotyping and social construction of female norms, seeing them as created by men in order to establish their own sense of power. It is thought that while males suggest that gender is sex and not actually a construct, the female role will become much more passive, stereotyped and controlled.
...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).
Gender is a concept that has been socially constructed to identify people as male or female, masculine or feminine. The concept is used as to regulate the way people live and is something that influences the representation of female bodies in novels. Gayle Rubin’s article, “The Traffic in Women” uses several theorists, such as Freud, Marx, Levi-Strauss and Engels to understand the role of the women and show how they are oppressed and weak in comparison to men. Angela Carter reinforces Rubin’s beliefs by sharing similar ideas of male dominance in her novel, The Bloody Chamber. She demonstrates how gender is a reflection of the body in stories such as, “The Snow Child,” “The Erl-King” and “The Tiger’s
Humanity is a list of struggles and revolutions that led to our current evolution. Till now, revolutions are constantly taking place. Revolutions can differ in nature, ranging from intellectual, to technological and even political which we are witnessing currently especially in the Arab world. Yet along with this diversity in nature, we find out that disobedience is driving motor behind them. So it appears that disobedience is a must in order to evolve as a species and that obedience is what’s holding us back from attaining our highest possible level of “intelligence”. Humans are after all social animals and need to be part of a group to survive. However, obedience is also a must for any society to persist and exist in a healthy atmosphere, for without it chaos would appear and thus there would be no chance for innovation and evolution. As we will see being part of a group can be accompanied by what’s known as a group mind, so finding the right combination between being obedient and disobedient is essential to be understood if Humans are to continue in their forward evolution. In fact as writer Fromm states: “If a man can only obey and not disobey, he is a slave; if he can only disobey and not obey, he is a rebel (not a revolutionary)”. From this statement and as it will be later on explained, being Human means having the freedom to both obey and disobey.
The concepts of obedience and disobedience are evident from the beginning of one 's life. Young children are born with the tendency to do things that are against what they are told or what they know they should do. They don 't have to learn how to disobey; it is an innate behavior. This struggle between obedience and disobedience carries on throughout our lives. There are three major factors that can cause obedience and disobedience; authority, social pressure, and situations. Each of these vastly impact an individual 's behavior and cause them to act in ways they would normally not.
Literature has many purposes, and opens doors to unique worlds. Through Literature, we discover ourselves and world time and again.
In keeping with the trend set up in this field by the pioneer, namely Margaret Atwood and Shashi Deshpande weave their narratives around female protagonists and delineate their struggle as neutral observers. These novelists write in a context of increased activity and new possibility. Even though preoccupied with the personal life of their protagonists, these writers also address social and intellectual
Disobedience always has been used to get a point across or make a statement. Over the last 400 years there have been instances that people have disobeyed to make a point such as to give human rights to people, the abolishment of slavery or to end a war. Oscar wilde stated that “Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history is a man's original virtue. It is through disobedience progress has been made”. Through rebellions , uprisings and protest there was always change. The people's voices were heard loud enough that action took place.
For thousands of centuries literature has been used as a clever device to show the negative outlook in which society has on women at that time. The common theme of men exploiting women for personal gain and using their heavy-handed power to make women feel inferior can be seen in writings from the ancient Greeks all the through authors of the 20th century. Writers and intellectual thinkers such as Plato, Peter Abelard, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Henrik Ibsen, and even women such as Virgina Wolfe, and Fatima Mernissi have all written about the struggles caused by domineering men which women have fought against for so long. It is not until the late twentieth century that we see a positive almost spiritual view of women from the stories told by Gao Xingjan in his book One Man’s Bible. The 1994 publication of Fatima Mernissi’s memoirs of her girlhood in a harem spoke powerfully in favor of women shedding prescribed gender roles in favor of embracing their own identities. It is books such as Fatima’s and Gao’s which will help carry out feminist movements into the 21st century.