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Gender equality in gender literature
Women's role in patriarchy
Women's role in patriarchy
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Recommended: Gender equality in gender literature
For centuries now, males have dominated society, their homes, and their wives. Always being recognized as the supreme head of the household, inevitably leaving females to be viewed as inferior and most times in a state of infantile dependency. The authors’ use this concept to their advantage in “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “Woman Hollering Creek” by illustrating a homogeneous view of male supremacy over their wives. In the Yellow Wallpaper, the woman is enforced to act in accordance with the demands her husband implements for her. John illustrates patriarchal authority over her by controlling her actions, treatment, and environment despite how she feels. When she communicates her desire to stay in another room with a better energy, she claims: …show more content…
She acts naïve about her situation subconsciously wanting to believe he has a better approach than she, “It is so hard to talk to John about my case, because he is so wise, and because he loves me so” (Gilman 92). Although she is sure that her illness is worsening, she fears to deny her husbands methods of treatment. She is dependent upon his for support and for taking good care of her health, in the end though he destroys her mental state. In “Woman Hollering Creek” Cleófilas is exponentially dependent on her husband for support. The author exemplifies the woman’s dependency; “He’s been up before the rooster earning his living to pay for the food in her belly and the roof over her head” (Cisneros 461). She behaves obediently and does not leave her current situation because she cannot support herself. Cleófilas is left handicapped, due to the fact that her reliance upon her husband is seen as the norm in society. By this standard, he takes advantage of his authority by extorting it in an ill-mannered way. Juan’s actions towards Cleófilas, emphasizing the gender inequality she faces in her
So as we look at the lives of women back in the 19th century, they have the stereotypical trend of being a house wife, staying at home, taking care of kids, the house, and aiding the husband in his work. Being in charge of the household makes women have many responsibilities to take care of, but still women are often looked down upon and men who often think a women’s say is unimportant. The two short stories are about two women who have husbands that are successful and the women who feel suffocated by their lack of ability to live their own lives or make their own decisions. The two stories present similar plots about two wives who have grown to feel imprisoned in their own marriages. In the yellow wallpaper, she is virtually imprisoned in her bedroom, and does not even have a say in the location or decor of the room.
In the short story “Woman Hollering Creek” the conflict of the story is between the main characters Cleofilas, the protagonist, and Juan, the antagonist who are married. The conflict stems from Cleofilas’ perception of how a wife should be treated versus Juan’s idea of how to treat
Cleofilas grew up in a male dominant household of six brother and father, and without a mother, she no woman figure to guide her, give advice on life, or how to love a man. Cleofilas turned to telenovelas for a woman’s guidance on love and appearance, and she began to imagine her ideal life through the television series. Once Cleofilas was married she moved away into a home with her husband, were she pictured everything to be like the couples on the telenovelas, but she soon starts to realize life isn 't exactly like how they view it in the telenovelas. In the story Sandra make the statement ‘From what see can tell, from the times during her first year when still a newlywed she is invited and accompanies her husband, sits mute besides their conversations, waits and sips a beer until it grows warm, twists a paper napkin into a knot, then another into a fan, one into a rose, nods her head, smiles, yawns, politely grins, laughs at the appropriate moments, leans against her husband’s sleeve, tugs at his elbow, and finally becomes good at predicting where the talk will lead, from this Cleofilas
The main character in “Woman Hollering Creek” is Cleόfilas Enriqueta DeLeόn Hernández, a woman who leaves her home in Mexico to marry a man, Juan Pedro Martinez Sánchez, in Texas. Flowing behind Cleόfilas’ new house in Texas, is a stream named Woman Hollering. Cleόfilas imagines her marriage to be filled with joy and love. To Cleόfilas’ surprise, Juan Pedro is a vile husband that is both physically and verbally abusive. Cisneros brings attention to a recurrent issue within the Chicana community. According to The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, “The majority of abused women, (75%) of Mexican-American women reported spousal abuse”
Women Hollering Creek was considered one of Sandra Cisnero's best works. With a Texan view, this 22 short story novel was set upon the late 1960's to 1980's era. There are three distinct sections: “My Lucy Friend who smells like Corn”, “One Holy Night” as well as “There was a Man, There was a Woman”. Each part contains short stories within them. These all consist of a heartwarming girl, Esperanza,who matures into a woman and how she faces these gender roles through love and violence. Cisneros alters the name Esperanza with Chayo, Rachel, Lupe, Ines, and Clemenica, to explain differences between them along with to give the story more lewd effectiveness.
Intertwined in allusions to women of Mexican history and folklore, making it clear that women across the centuries have suffered the same alienation and victimization, Cisneros presents a woman who struggles to prevail over romantic notions of domestic bliss by leaving her husband. In the story Woman Hollering Creek, Sandra Cisneros discusses the issues of living life as a married woman through a character named Cleófilas; a character who is married to a man who abuses her physically and mentally. Cisneros reveals the way the culture puts a difference between a male and a female, men above women. In Woman Hollering Creek, we see a young Mexican woman, who suddenly moves across the border and gets married. The protagonist, Cleófilas’ character is based on a family of a six brothers and a dad and without a mom, and the story reveals around her inner feelings and secrets.
As a result, women were stuck at home, usually alone, until their husbands got home. In the story, Jane is at home staring at the wallpaper in her room. The wallpaper’s color is described by Jane as being “repellent, almost revolting” (3) and the pattern is “torturing” and “like a bad dream” (10). The description of the wallpaper represents Jane’s and all women’s thoughts about the ideologies and rules upheld by men prior to the First World War. It is made evident that this wallpaper represents the screen made up of men’s ideologies at the time caging in women. Jane is subconsciously repelled by this screen and represents her discovering continuously figuring out what she wants. Metaphorically, Jane is trapped in that room by a culture established by men. Furthermore, Jane compares the wallpaper’s pattern to bars putting further emphasis on her feelings of being trapped and helpless. Later in the narrative, she catches Jennie staring at the wallpaper’s pattern and then decides to study the pattern and determine what it means herself. Her study of the pattern is representative of her trying to analyze the situation in which she’s in. By studying the pattern, she progressively discovers herself, especially when she sees the woman behind the
In society, there has always been a gap between men and women. Women are generally expected to be homebodies, and seen as inferior to their husbands. The man is always correct, as he is more educated, and a woman must respect the man as they provide for the woman’s life. During the Victorian Era, women were very accommodating to fit the “house wife” stereotype. Women were to be a representation of love, purity and family; abandoning this stereotype would be seen as churlish living and a depredation of family status. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" and Henry Isben’s play A Doll's House depict women in the Victorian Era who were very much menial to their husbands. Nora Helmer, the protagonist in A Doll’s House and the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” both prove that living in complete inferiority to others is unhealthy as one must live for them self. However, attempts to obtain such desired freedom during the Victorian Era only end in complications.
Women have struggled for decades to carve out their place in society, but before they could do that they were tasked with standing their ground in their own marriages. Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a journalist, feminist and women’s rights activist who used her writing to shed light on women’s unequal status in the institution of marriage. In Gilman’s time it was a social norm that women were concerned only with the domestic trappings of the marriage, while the husband took the active role. In Gilman’s most famous short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Gilman uses a captivating plot, the symbolism of some frustrating wallpaper, and an overall theme of the importance of self expression to articulate the sometimes harmful aspects of a woman’s place
It is pretty interesting how almost any factor of life can influence an individual’s state of mind. Factors like: social media, media, education, religion, kinship, and oneself has the power to persuade the mind on whether something is “good or bad”, “right or wrong”, “vice, or virtue”. In Woman Hollering creek and other stories is a book written by Sandra Cisneros a Chicana Author known for the widely admired House on Mango Street. Cisneros draws attention to all types of socio-economic statuses within this collection of short stories. Breaking down social construction built buy societies between our communities, religion, and education. In Women Hollering Creek and Other Stories, Cisnero’s representations of masculinities and femininities
In the story "Woman Hollering Creek" Sandra Cisneros discusses the issues of living life as a married woman through a character named Cleofilas; a character who is married to a man who abuses her physically and mentally .Cisneros reveals the way the culture puts a difference between a male and a female, men above women. Cisneros has been famous about writing stories about the latino culture and how women are treated; she explain what they go through as a child, teen and when they are married; always dominated by men because of how the culture has been adapted. "Woman Hollering Creek" is one of the best examples. A character who grows up without a mother and who has no one to guid and give her advise about life.
Without freedom, the urge to escape is prevalent. When a lady’s husband is too overprotective and smothers his wife, she may eventually end up running away from her problems. In the play, A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen, and in the story, The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the main characters, feel trapped by their husbands. Both of these stories demonstrate that during the time period that the stories were written, some men behaved in an authoritarian manner which caused stress and trauma to women. The women in these stories each take drastic action.
"The Yellow Wallpaper" motivated the female mind of creativity and mental strength through a patriarchal order of created gender roles and male power during the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century. While John represented characteristics of a typical male of his time, the yellow wallpaper represented a controlling patriarchal society; a sin of inequality that a righteous traitor needed to challenge and win. As the wallpaper deteriorates, so does the suppressing effect that male hierarchy imposed on women. Male belief in their own hierarchy was not deteriorating. Females began to think out of line, be aware of their suppression, and fight patriarchal rule. The progression of the yellow wallpaper and the narrator, through out the story, leads to a small win over John. This clearly represents and motivates the first steps of a feminist movement into the twentieth century.
Woman Hollering Creek is a short story that tells the story of a young woman who married a man that was supposed to be her happily ever after. Soon after their newlyweds phase Cheófilas’ husband revealed his true self: abusive, distant, dominating, and ungrateful. Cheófilas struggles to accept her new reality and meets other woman whose hearts have been ripped apart due to their love toward men. During her second pregnancy, Juan Pedro and a “black-and-blue” Cheófilas’ disturbing relationship is discovered due to a routine sonogram. The doctor insisted that Cheófilas is removed from her husband presence for the protection of her children, so she flees to a bus station where she will regain her freedom and worth. This story strongly emphasizes how women should never depend on men, men only try to rule over their wives, and men
In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator and her husband John can be seen as strong representations of the effects society’s stereotypical gender roles as the dominant male and submissive female have within a marriage. Because John’s wife takes on the role as the submissive female, John essentially controlled all aspects of his wife’s life, resulting in the failure of the couple to properly communicate and understand each other. The story is intended to revolve around late 19th century America, however it still occurs today. Most marriages still follow the traditional gender stereotypes, potentially resulting in a majority of couples to uphold an unhealthy relationship or file for divorce. By comparing the “The yellow wallpaper” with the article “Eroticizing Inequality in the United States: The Consequences and Determinants of Traditional Gender Role Adherence in Intimate Relationships”, the similarities between the 19th century and 21st century marriage injustice can further be examined. If more couples were able to separate the power between the male and female, America would have less unhappy marriages and divorces.