Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Portrayal of women in literature
Portrayal of women in literature
Portrayal of women in literature
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Portrayal of women in literature
Woman as Objects in The Youngest Doll
A maiden aunt never marries because a river prawn bites her calf and, due to minimal treatment by her physician, nestles there to grow. She devotes her life to her nieces, making for them life-sized dolls on their birthdays and wedding days. When only the youngest niece is left at home, the doctor comes to see his patient and brings his son, also a physician. When the son realizes the father could have cured the leg, the doctor says, "I wanted you to see the prawn that has paid for your education these twenty years."
The young doctor becomes the aunt's physician and marries the youngest niece, taking her and her wedding doll to live in a house like a cement block, requiring his wife to sit on the porch so passersby can see he has married into society. The doctor sells the doll's diamond-eardrop eyes, and when he wants to sell its porcelain, his wife tells him the ants ate the doll because it had been filled with honey.
The doctor grows older, but his wife keeps the firm, porcelain skin she's always had. One night he watches her sleep and notices her chest isn't moving. Placing his stethoscope over her heart, he hears a distant swish of water. "Then the doll lifted up her eyelids, and out of the empty sockets of her eyes came the frenzied antennae of all those prawns."
Rosario Ferre, a Puerto Rican writer whose mother came from the landowning elite and whose father, an industrialist, was a pro-statehood governor of the Commonwealth, is herself a supporter of independence for the island. Set in Puerto Rico in the era in which the old sugar cane aristocracy was giving way to the new industrial wealth, each class patriarchal in its own way, "The Youngest Doll" contains a shocking doctor-patient scene showing how social classes use their power and, in particular, how they use women as objects.
Males with a prawn bite would probably have been cured, without even having to ask for cure; research studies would have been done, if necessary, to find cures. A woman was not treated, however, even when a cure was possible. The patient is reduced to a mere commodity and nothing else; the physician uses the aunt's treatment payments to fund his son's education.
Dunn, Ross E., The adventures of Ibn Battuta, a Muslim traveler of the fourteenth century,
There exists a long held belief that the United States of America was founded on the principles and doctrinal views of Protestantism. Modern age Christians have scoured historical documents in an effort to provide evidence for a Judeo-Christian foundation in the nation’s republican framework. Likewise, their opponents have written lengthy dissertations and argued over various media outlets that Christian conclusions are unfounded. Yet despite their endless debate, religion, especially Christianity, has and continues to play a fundamental element of America’s cultural, societal, and political makeup. The Second Great Awakening, the religious revivalist movement of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, ignited not only a religious revolution that transformed the American landscape, but it also developed and cemented the individualistic ideologies that have driven American thought in subsequent generations.
Narrated by the mother of two daughters, the story opens with an examination of one daughter's favoring of appearances over substance, and the effect this has on her relatives. The mother and her younger daughter, Maggie, live in an impoverished rural area. They anticipate the arrival of the elder daughter, Dee, who left home for college and is bringing her new husband with her for a visit. The mother recalls how, as a child, Dee hated the house in which she was raised. It was destroyed in a fire, and as it was burning, Dee "(stood) off under the sweet gum tree... a look of concentration on her face", tempting her mother to ask, "'why don't you do a dance around the ashes?'" (Walker 91) She expects Dee will hate their current house, also. The small, three-room house sits in a pasture, with "no real windows, just some holes cut in the sides" (Walker 92), and although, as Dee asserts, they "choose to live" in such a place, Dee keeps her promise to visit them (Walker 92). Her distaste for her origins is felt by her mother and Maggie, who, in anticipation of Dee's arrival, internalize her attitudes. They feel to some extent their own unworthiness. The mother envisions a reunion in which her educated, urbane daughter would be proud of her. In reality, she describes her...
Women in the 19th century were not treated much better than property. A woman had absolutely no rights. She was not her own person, she was the person that everybody else expected her to be. Women did not have any power over the man in a public or private setting They were treated as property and were supposed to do as the man said. Also, women were not allowed to have jobs, and expected to keep to the house and raise the children. While today it is harder to comprehend the treatment of women in the 19th century Henrik Ibsen does an amazing job portraying this in his drama, A Doll House, with one of the main characters Nora.
Ibsen, Henrik. "A Doll House" The Norton Introduction to Literature. By Kelly J. Mays. Eleventh ed. New York: Norton & Company, 2013. 1447-96. Print.
Stokowski, L. A. (2009). Bipolar disorder and adhd in children: Confusion and comorbidity. Retrieved from http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/711223_4
Feminism is the advocacy of women’s right and is on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men. Centuries ago, women did not share the same equality as men. Men and women’s gender roles were practiced with greater acceptance than by today’s standards. More-over, gender roles among women decades ago, were wrapped within the limits of their political, economic, and social rights and freedoms. The man’s role was to work and to make important final decisions for the family. Were-as, the wives were to stay home with the kids and obey her husband. Feminism changed all those aspects in the world for men and women to be treated to have the same rights. “A Doll’s House” is a profound play to make direct connection on why feminism started. The main character in the play Nora is wife and a mother that struggling to gain equality in her life. In
“The Youngest Doll” by Rosario Ferre is ultimately about an aunt who constantly creates life-sized dolls for her three nieces. It becomes more of an obsession rather than hobby when the author explains that each year the aunt spends more time and effort into making these dolls resemble her nieces as much as possible. Towards the end of the story the youngest niece ends up marrying a doctor. The doctor who she ends up marrying views her more as an object to flaunt rather than respecting her worth. Many of the critics who analyze the story come across the idea that Rosario Ferre is attempting to make it appointed that during this time period there was a mixture of sexism, racism, gender, and class implications. As I agree with all of these statements,
...ce was calling almost all of the flocks in our area into our decoys. For as many duck hunts as I have been on, I have never seen someone so productive with duck calls.
“What I suggest is that children be allowed to grow into their own right to vote at whatever rate suits them individually,” argues Vita Wallace as her major claim in the essay “Give children the vote” (1998, p.147). This is a thoughtful argument by Wallace, but I disagree with it. In this essay, Wallace presents her opinion, but the major claim could also be presented as a fact, judgment, or policy (McFadden, 2003). Throughout the essay, I see the interesting approach Wallace takes to try convince the audience. In my opinion she is unsuccessful.
Evidence from prior studies of this issue suggest that dietary supplements of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, have the potential to reduce violent tendencies with individuals with psychopathic disorder (Gesch, Hammond, Hampson, & Eves, 2002) (McNamara & Carlson, 2006). Additional studies show strong correlations between individuals with antisocial, psychopathic disorder and deficits in functioning of the prefrontal cortex, and reductions in grey matter (Oberstar, Anderson, & Jensen, 2005) (Gregory, 2012)(Raine, 2013). Although associations have been found between fatty acid deficiencies and psychopathic disorder in violent offenders, as well as prefrontal cortex deficits in functioning, there has been little study of dietary ...
The Struggle for Identity in A Doll's House A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen, is a play that was written ahead of its time. In this play, Ibsen tackles women's rights as a matter of importance. Throughout this time period, it was neglected. A Doll's House was written during the movement of Naturalism, which commonly reflected society. Ibsen acknowledges the fact that in 19th century life the role of the woman was to stay at home, raise the children and attend to her husband.
In "A Doll's House", Ibsen portrays the bleak picture of a role held by women of all economic classes that is sacrificial. The female characters in the play back-up Nora's assertion that even though men are unable to sacrifice their integrity, "hundreds of thousands of woman have." Mrs. Linde found it necessary to abandon Krogstad, her true but poor love, and marry a richer man in order to support her mother and two brothers. The nanny has to abandon her children to support herself by working for Nora. Though Nora is economically advantaged, in comparison to the other female characters, she leads a hard life because society dictates that Torvald be the marriages dominant member. Torvald condescends Nora and inadvertently forces Nora to hide the loan from him. Nora knows that Torvald could never accept the idea that his wife, or any other woman, could aid in saving his life.
Henrik Ibsen published A Doll House in 1879, which was a time period of intense debate over women’s rights. Ibsen believed in the equality of people; consequently, the play displays the unjust inequality between men and women during the 19th century. Women were expected to fulfill the roles of a daughter, wife, and mother. However, to conform to the standards of the time women would repeatedly sacrifice their own happiness for the sake of men (Shahbaz). Nora attempted to fulfill the roles society expected of her, but she could not. Henrik Ibsen demonstrated how a woman has a duty to herself first by showing the negative effects of restricting women to the subservient roles of a daughter, wife, and mother in A Doll House.
To begin, if society is encouraging the sexualization of young girls by their clothing, many believe that it begins at an early age with toys. The toy market already splits the store into two aisles with dresses and dolls for girls and cars and action figures for boys. Dolls have been around a long time and every girl dreams of having one because they can be whoever you want them to be. Barbie is a popular brand because of all the different things she can be with her wide variety of clothing options. Lately, parents have been seeing how barbies come packaged with more makeup and tight clothing. To a young girl, this may seem like the appearance is the only way to be more attractive. In Emily Chapman’s article, she mentions a study conducted