Who Is The Self-Conscious Women Of The 1930s?

Jeannie Estevez

A1

Research Paper Rough Draft

Women of the 30s

Dorothy Parker's "A Telephone Call" is about a woman who encounters a man who does not call her after claiming that he will. This woman then begins to try to resolve her problem in many different ways. For example, she continuously begs God for the call of the man, she slowly counts to five hundred by counting in fives, and she tries to think of what the man really said when he claimed he would call her. In the 1930s, women with such qualities similar to the main character set out in "A Telephone Call" are described to be insecure. These women could have developed in a variety of ways. This paper puts forward extreme research and information of how self-conscious women of the 1930s

One of the first insecurities of the protagonist that occurs is when she states "I know you shouldn't keep telephoning them--I know they don't like that. When you do that they know you are thinking about them and wanting them and that makes them hate you" (Parker par. 3). The woman is being judgmental towards herself, and it is a belief that this is a true meaning of insecurity. She is describing herself negatively with lack of confidence. Women were expected to reach certain anticipations, to the potential of the satisfaction of society. If they were to strictly act a certain way, one can imagine how their manners were meant to be. One would understand how women were "faced [with] immense pressure from the exaggerated social stereotypes to be beautiful, well mannered, well dressed, good mothers" (Kidd par. 11). Women were given a stereotypical image, but one can say how they could have wanted to be seen different and they were unable to express the differentiation of themselves because they had a fear of how society would judge them. Not only did women have some sort of stress of what society thought, but they also had stress from the "very little time for socializing, however, as the hard times called for desperate measure on their part" (Kidd par. 11). With such shortage of the time for socializing, it is more difficult to express any emotions that have been contained for an extended amount of time. For example, insecure women can be giving thought to being suicidal. Being suicidal takes place in "A Telephone Call" when she is only talking to herself and how she is The ability to socialize with others can have a tremendous effect. Being suicidal can end just by having a friend that actually cares for ones daily problems. Notice that in the setting of the story, she is not talking to a relative or a friend, she is only speaking to God. For example, the protagonist says "nothing's enough, if I never