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Role of the woman in literature
Role of the woman in literature
Female roles in literature
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Women. Adrienne Rich says we have our work cut out for us. Alice Walker says we could do so much given the artistic chance. Patricia Williams says that we are not sleeping. I listen and relate to these women. And I wonder what do I say? I am a woman. I don't know what it means for me to be a woman. I just am.
Be Insatiable. Be insatiable and still a woman. Stand for your beliefs, be a bitch and yet stay soft and sexy and agreeable. I feel like a lousy commercial for some perfume, "I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in the pan, and never let you forget you're a man, because I'm a woman." I am caught in the crossfire of who I am and who I ought to be according to everybody else. Is this what Williams' dream at the end of her essay was about? The red dress, the hair and she is loud. She is the "her that she had always dreamed of being, fascinating." What I find "Fascinating" is that even she is watching herself from the outside. I do this. I watch myself play each role.
I am not black, or Hispanic. I am heterosexual. I want to be a wife. I want to be a mother. I can look at society and see myself staring back at me, white, Christian and content. Does this make me unqualified to read and understand the meanings in the texts of Alice Walker, of Gloria Anzaldua? What about Adrienne Rich? These women have stared into the face of society and they are not reflected. But I do relate. Sometime I feel like the silent minority within the majority. The one that thinks and feels and understands and yet is overlooked, ignored.
I feel ignored because of the majority view that the because of the majority view that the minority has. I hear about the "Mormon" in this area, the ...
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...s the words of her fascinating self say, "Voices lost in the chasm speak from the slow eloquent fact of the chasm. They speak and speak and speak, like flowing water" and she wakens strong, single hearted and completely refreshed. Florida Scott Card said" you do not need to claim all the events in your life to make them yours, but when you do, you are fierce with reality." It is not always easy o reality." It is not always easy or notable to be a woman. Being a woman speaks from the chasm, it speaks from the walls, and it speaks from voices within, some chiding some soothing, like flowing water.
Works Cited
Rich, Adrienne. "When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-Vision,"in Ways of Reading, 4th ed., (Boston: Bedford Books, 1996).
Walker, Alice. "In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens," in Ways of Reading, 4th ed., (Boston: Bedford Books, 1996).
She alludes to the idea that as people we must look deeper into our lives and see were we may have been given unearned privilege whether is be from race, gender, or sexuality.
Writing with Readings and Handbook. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2013. 52-57. Print.
Meyer, Michael, ed. The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1999.
The author, William Golding, shows many forms of symbolism in the novel, Lord of the Flies. Symbolism means use of symbols to represent an idea from its actual meaning. In this novel, Golding uses symbolism from the beginning to the end of the novel. During the novel, these symbols continue to change and give a new meaning. Three significant symbols from the novel include the conch, the fire, and the beast. Each symbol changes throughout the novel and revolves around the evil that is inside people. There is always a beast within when the darkness comes out.
Updike, John. "A&P." Thinking and Writing About Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2001. 981-86. Print.
Sylvia Plath a highly acclaimed twentieth century American poet whose writings were mostly influenced by her life experiences. Her father died shortly after her eighth birthday and her first documented attempt at suicide was in her early twenties. She was married at age twenty-three and when she discovered her husband was having an affair she left him with their two children. Her depression and the abandonment she felt as a child and as a woman is what inspires most of her works. Daddy is a major decision point where Plath decides to overcome her father’s death by telling him she will no longer allow his memory to control her.
Walker, Alice. (1974). “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens.” Ways of Reading. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, pp. 694-701.
The first symbol that is introduced is the conch. The readers are given the impression at the beginning of the novel that the conch symbolizes leadership and democracy but then they can start to notice a break down of this as the
...al questions, an extended metaphor, and allusion, she persuades her audience to try and break down their insecurities in order to create a rich lifestyle for them. However, gender stereotypes have been and always will be prevalent in society. As she states in the essay, “Indeed it will be a long time still, I think, before a woman can sit down to write a book without finding a phantom to be slain, a rock to be dashed against.” It has been shown that she was correct, seeing as women are still discriminated against in a number of professions. If a woman states, for example, that she wishes to be a mechanic, or possibly even an electrician, many men and other women will likely snort at the idea and think of it as a ridiculous joke. Even though society has come a long way over the years, it will still be an even longer amount of time before women can finally feel equal.
...e relationship with men, as nothing but tools she can sharpen and destroy, lives through lust and an uncanny ability to blend into any social class makes her unique. Her character is proven as an unreliable narrator as she exaggerates parts of the story and tries to explain that she is in fact not guilty of being a mistress, but a person caught in a crossfire between two others.
Abcarian, Richard. Literature: the Human Experience : Reading and Writing. : Bedford/Saint Martin's, 2012. Print.
In the excerpt “I am a Woman” by Mary Abigail Dodge in”My Garden,” she exemplifies that even though she is a woman she characterizes herself as being more than one, that she is worth more that what she is expected to be just like other woman in her society. The author expresses her emotions in this text that even though women that are thought as or looked upon as inferior in her society they could do more than what is expected from them. In the text, Dodge conveys her message, in the most passionate way possible. Dodge creates meaning into her writing, in order for her readers to understand where she is soming from.
Meyer, Michael, ed. Thinking and Writing About Literature. Second Edition. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2001.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "The Yellow Wallpaper" (p.316-327). Literature: Reading and Writing With Critical Strategies. Ed. Steven Lynn. University of South Carolina, 2004
Over the years, freedom was earned by fighting for different rights. When Alice Walker wrote “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens”, women began to realize the social expectations pushed onto their lives. To inspire others, Walker wrote about her mother, and how talent and strength can be passed on through the generations. By indirectly using the author’s message and social criticism, Alice Walker makes you reflect while reading “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens.”