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Gender roles of women in literature
Gender roles of women in literature
Female roles in literature
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The women in both stories “I looked for you, I called your name” and “The Burning House” are in marriages destined to fail. In “I looked for you, I called your name” the female character is seeking a healthy, happy relationship, but is not fulfilled in the marriage. Her husband seems to care about her, but seems unready for this type of commitment. In “The Burning House” Amy is also in a marriage that is coming to an end. Both women were unable to express their true feelings. These two women are from different eras, but are experiencing similar feelings. In the story “The Burning House” Amy is a young woman surrounded by many men. There is her husband Frank, His brother Freddy Fox, His friend JD from college, His friend Tucker from a therapy group, and a lover Johnny. Amy feels alone and unable to express her true feelings, even though she has all of these people around her. “I have known everybody in the house for years, and as time goes by I know them less” (Beattie pg. 253). She is friendly and has connections with her husband’s friends and brother, but feels they are more loyal and connected to …show more content…
Amy and the wife in “I looked for you, I called your name” have some differences. Amy has been married for a few years and there is a child involved. This makes the relationship a bit more complicated. She is able to escape her thoughts by smoking marijuana.The woman in the other story newly married wonders if her marriage will improve over time. She also escapes by using pills. Amy has a more realistic approach; she realizes time will not change her situation and is having an affair. The other wife wonders about her husbands priorities and commitment to the marriage. They rushed into a marriage they were not ready for. She was not in love with him. She needed someone in her life. The two women were hopeful for change and wanted their marriage to suceed, but neither ever
Nell Bernstein, the author of Burning Down The House: The End Of Juvenile Prison has a very strong opinion about juvenile facilities. He believes that children do not learn to correct their behavior by being forced into these facilities because the main root of their behavior stems from their “broken” family structures, in more cases than not. This is supported from the text when he states “In fact multiple studies have shown that putting youth behind bars not only fails to enhance public safety; it does just the opposite, driving low-level delinquents deeper into criminality and increasing the likelihood that they will end up behind bars again and again.” Bernstein really tries to push his audience to agree with his opinion; to stop putting
In both of these stories there are certain characteristics of females that are the same, they are inner strength, obedience, honor and respect, the good of the family is better than the good of the individual.
Both stories were written in different years, but both are written about women in the same era. When women went against the norm during the era the stories were written in they were often looked down on. Especially, Emily, who never married and because she was never married she was constantly judged by the women and men in her city. During that time, it was odd for women not to be married. Emily eventually found someone, but it was known that he was a homosexual.
The Imagery of Smoke, Fire, and Burning in The Columbus School for Girls by Liza Wieland
Amy states, “I’ll do any or everything to get a baby” (77). Her eagerness leads her to seek solace in another man, Holland Winchester. This adulterous affair results in an ill-conceived child. Billy is not a trouble-making man until trouble finds him shortly after he discovers the affair between his wife and Holland. Billy asks Amy angrily, “Whose child is it?” (116) and he eagerly waits for Amy’s reply. Amy replies Billy, “It’s my child, Billy. But it can be ours if you want” (118). After hearing this, Billy truly doesn’t know what to do and he takes a promise from Amy that she will never be with Holland again. Thus, though Billy is angry at his wife at one moment, he doesn’t want to loose her wife, so he compromises the situation. Moreover, Billy also tries to understand Amy’s situation and remembers how Amy chose him to be her husband regardless of his abnormal leg. Figuring out all situation, Billy forgive his wife and accept her child as his own. Thus, Billy is a good man who understands and loves his wife and becomes a hero for his
Have you ever wondered what women were like before the liberation movement of the 1970s? In the plays Antigone, by Sophocles, and A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen, women are represented as weak, underlings to men. However, both protagonists in the play, Antigone and Nora, show their strength and courage when they go against society. Antigone shows how strong she is when she goes against the King’s decree and buries her brother who is a traitor. Nora, to save her husband’s life, takes out a loan which wasn’t allowed for a woman to do in the 1800s. Both these actions show these two women were strong enough to go against society’s belief, and do what needed to be done. It’s important for men and women to give their opinions and feelings in a relationship because there needs to be a balance of power. Sophocles and Ibsen show how society has placed constrictions on women from five B.C. to the 1800s by portraying Antigone and Nora to be intelligent, determined, yet subservient women.
Miss Maudie Atkinson’s (43) house was set ablaze on December 15th. The snow had just fallen for the first time since 1885. Maudie set a fire in the kitchen to warm up late Tuesday night when it caught the rest of the house. Around 1:00 am the commotion started and people were outside the burning home. The men of the neighborhood rushed to get Miss Maudie and her belongings out. No one was hurt thankfully, other than Mr. Avery, who was saving items from the upstairs when the stairs burned out and had to climb through the window where he then fell into Miss Maudie’s bushes. The bad news is the house is totally destroyed. There is no disappointment from Miss Maudie though, who is very optimistic and says “I’ve always wanted to build a smaller
Amy and Nick’s relationship, for example, demonstrates how both a female and a male try to live up to certain standards in order to form a cohesive relationship. This was proven when Amy comments on Nick’s habits, “[…] he replaces a pipe beneath our sink and repaints all the rooms we painted before and didn’t like” (83). It’s notable that, Amy, fake diary Amy, gives Nick tasks that a stereotypical man does around the house. Amy, fake diary Amy, also portrays herself to be a dotting housewife (85). Amy, through her fictional diary, paints a picture of her and Nick as a stereotypical couple that does stereotypical things. This argument is furthered when Amy says, “We pretend together that we are happy and carefree and in love” (409). This quote illustrates that there are certain expectations of couples that need to be met in order for society to view the couple as happy. Just like individuals have roles as males and females-males and females have roles in order to form a couple. This is also seen through Rand and Marybeth, Amy’s parents. Rand and Marybeth are the epitome of a perfect marriage and exact opposite of Nick’s parents, who divorce while Nick, is still young. The novel comments on Nick’s parents saying that Nick’s mom, while married to his dad, always did the housekeeping, the cleaning, and the caretaking. Nick’s farther was the breadwinner (144-145). These roles are traditional yet the relationship fell apart. If this is put into contrast with Rand and Marybeth’s relationship, a successful marriage, it’s important to note that Rand and Marybeth didn’t fall into traditional roles. Rand was characterized as sensitive and Marybeth made just as much money as Rand (147-155). Overall, Flynn highlights various types of relationships-some traditional, some not; these relationships further emphasized or deflect from typical male and female roles in
An important section of Amy’s character development comes from page 233 to midway 234 in Gone Girl. Until this point it was established that Amy was a incredibly genius woman who framed her husband for murder taking a year to do so. She frames him because of his infidelity with a young student of his. The first lines of 233 are, “You know how I found out? I saw them. That’s how stupid my husband is.” This gives Amy sympathy from the reader. She was betrayed by her husband who was so incompetent that she saw him with his mistress. This betrayal to Amy makes her the lost, confused and broken housewife. Amy continues with how she was listening to old scratchy albums and even admits that she was not lying about how Nick and she did this together. I felt sad for Amy, here she was reminiscing with music that gave the gumption to go see Nick spontaneously. Go to The Bar, enjoy drinks, and walk around before kissing in sugar cloud snow. It
Bake or dry (pottery, bricks, etc.) in a kiln is used in the book, To Kill a Mockingbird. The character,Miss Maudie, bakes a cake for Jem, Dill, and Scout. "I've not got all the morning to pass on the porch-Jem Finch, I called to find out if you and your colleagues can eat some cake. Got up at five to make it, so you better say yes."(287)
Amy's loyalty to her mistress is evident from the beginning of the novel when we are also told by Roxana herself that Amy is as “faithful to [her], as the Skin on [her] Back”(25). Amy proves this when she says: “if I will starve for your sake, I will be a Whore, or any thing, for your sake; why I would die for you, if I were put to it” (28). This is proven true over the course of the novel, but immediately after those words are spoken, our narrator denies that Amy should be a whore for her. Later in the novel, however, Roxana takes Amy up on this offer, and excercises her power as a mistress to abuse Amy's loyalty by forcing her to sleep with the Landlord. Roxana tells us:
Human beings never had the option to choose their gender before birth. Although there are some differences that displays noticeable contrast between males and females such as physical traits, everyone is still equal as human beings. However, there are some societies in which gender plays a huge role in what a person does. Men would be described as masculine and powerful, having to do things that require power––physically, mentally, or both. On the other hand, women would be portrayed as feminine and inferior in which they would work as traditional housewives, usually confined under men. In both A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen and the movie Revolutionary Road, the female protagonists were precise illustrations of what confinement to traditional
Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House is a 1878 play that explores the confining nature of social roles and expectations. The story follows Nora and her family as they attempt to navigate conflict, debt and familial life around the holiday season. One of the most notable moments in the play is the final scene, in which Nora tells her husband Torvald that she is leaving him in order to gain her freedom and create an identity for herself outside of her family obligations. The play ends as Nora makes her decision to leave, and slams the door behind her. Often regarded as “the door slam heard around the world”, Nora’s choice to leave her family can be regarded as a symbolic representation of women’s choice to leave behind the oppressive gender roles which prevent them from creating their own individual identity. On the other hand, Nora could be seen to abandon her family and run away from her problems. For both past and current audiences, the significance of the door slam in entirely subjective, as for each individual audience member it could create a wildly different emotional response.
She wrote that “I have to do something to stop myself from going mad. I didn’t really mean to start cutting myself.” As a counsellor, I want to help Amy to deal with the divorce and how to adjust to a new life after divorce. I have to keep in mind about the factors that play in a role in how Amy adjusts to a new life, such as: “the cumulative stress… following a divorce”, Amy’s “temperament and personality”, Amy’s “age”, and her
The purpose of this letter is to express my concerns to have Amy around your family. I urge you to not believe a single word coming from her mouth. She is not your friend, she is a pathologic liar, has developed an impressive ability to play the victim and love to manipulate people around her to cover her laziness, lack of organization and her endless lies.