In the story Spunk, by Zora Neale, the men in the main female role of Lena were decisively different in their perceived level of manliness as it applies to the time period. At the beginning of our story, Lena, a descriptively younger woman is married to Joe Kanty. While Joe’s age is not specifically mentioned, he is described by the bystanders in the story as being scrawny and meek. How Lena has aligned herself with Joe is not revealed, but it is certain from the beginning that Joe is not considered as manly as Spunk, the title character of the story. Since the only observations that the reader receives are from the male bystanders, there is no point of view from Lena or any of the other women of the story (other than Lena’s actions and words). Just by the fact that Lena is seen publicly with Spunk indicates the level of the disdain that she has for her husband. The bystanders openly praise Spunk “’he ain’t skeered of nothin, ‘“while at the same time belittle Joe, as shown in their reactions to his arrival “…came nervously in the door…[t]he men looked at each other and winked.” The writer also describes Joe’s speech when talking to Spunk as “whiny.” While it could be proposed that Spunk has Lena on his arm against her will, there is no evidence that supports that …show more content…
Even though there are phrases in the story that indicate Lena’s lack of choice in the matter, such as when the bystanders describe Spunk as her “boss,” and relates a time that Spunk challenged Joe saying “A woman knows her boss an’ she answers when he calls.” Joe is obviously intimidated
Out of the Dust is a 1934 historical fiction novel written by Karen Hesse. The setting of the novel is in a struggling farm in Joyce City in Oklahoma. The novel talks of the challenges faced by Billie Jo a 13 year old girl and her family. It tells of Billie’s struggles a she grows up in Oklahoma Dust Bowl during the depression. Billie’s father was a farmer but his crops fail to nourish because of the drought but Billie is determined to make a better life for herself. Billie was a pianist and got a chance to travel around town with other aspiring performers but her mother never gave her the support she desperately needed. She decided to escape but her escape was halted by a horrific accident which let to her mother and her baby brother being bed ridden and later died. The accident left Billie Jo with severe burns on her hands until she could not play the piano the way she use to. However much she tried doing, she felt a lot of pain. She ran a way from home after she thinks that her father does not support her, later on she comes back home and mends her relationship with her father. She meets Louise who her father had met and she starts rebuilding her life. The family in Out of the Dust faces dust storms and an economic disaster resulting from the drought.
The major conflict in Spunk is the two main male characters fighting over the love of Lena Kanty. The character Spunk is in love with Lena but she is married to Joe. Spunk still struts around town with Lena on his arm in front of the town, getting the loungers to talk. “A giant of a brown skinned man sauntered up the one street of the village…with a small pretty woman clinging lovingly to his arm” (Hurston). This displays Spunk and Lena not trying to hide their relationship from the towns people or Joe. Hurston also showed Joe’s cowardliness by stating, “Now Joe knew his wife had passed that way. He...
In the novel Life of a Sensuous Woman, Ihara Saikaku depicts the journey of a woman who, due to voraciously indulging in the ever-seeking pleasure of the Ukiyo lifestyle, finds herself in an inexorable decline in social status and life fulfillment. Saikaku, utilizing characters, plot, and water imagery, transforms Life of a Sensuous Woman into a satirically critical commentary of the Ukiyo lifestyle: proposing that it creates a superficial, unequal, and hypocritical society.
In this novel Roxanne is a famous soprano opera singer from Chicago. Bel Canto, one of the main characters that I chose to study was Roxane Coss. Roxanne is a famous soprano opera singer from Chicago.
In the short story “A Kind of Courage” by Ruth Sterling, the protagonist, Davy, is trying to win Ginny’s heart.
In her work, “This is Our World,” Dorothy Allison shares her perspective of how she views the world as we know it. She has a very vivid past with searing memories of her childhood. She lives her life – her reality – because of the past, despite how much she wishes it never happened. She finds little restitution in her writings, but she continues with them to “provoke more questions” (Allison 158) and makes the readers “think about what [they] rarely want to think about at all” (158).
The world is filled with many different types of societies and cultures. This is due to the fact that many people share dissimilar beliefs and ideas, as well as diverse ways of life. People lived under different circumstances and stipulations, therefore forming cultures and societies with ideas they formulated, themselves. These two factors, society and culture, are what motivate people to execute the things that they do. Many times, however, society and culture can cause downgrading effects to an assemblage if ever it is corrupt or prejudiced. Society and culture not only influences the emotions individuals have toward things like age differences, religion, power, and equality but also the actions they perform as a result.
Just like Hurston’s other stories, Spunk deals with the nature of marriage and the struggle between a strong man and a weak man. The setting of the story is in a rural all-black southern town whereby the people of the town speak in Southern African American dialect. Hurston wanted the reader to understand the kind of marriages blacks have and how adultery is apparent in the marriages. The themes in Spunk reflect the lives of the people in the South at the time the short story was written. Masculinity and power are common in the short story as Zora Hurston uses different literary devices for the reader to be able to analyze these themes in the story. Spunk and Lena are having an affair and they are not afraid to parade it for the town people to see them. In addition, Lena is ready to Marry Spunk even after he kills her husband Joe.
"Two Kinds" is truly an amazing work; it captivates readers with by telling a story of a young girl trying to find herself. Amy Tan does a phenomenal job, not only by portraying a very real mother-daughter relationship, but at showing how much a young girl can change. Jing-Mei evolves throughout the story in a way that many people can relate to; crushed hopes, obeying your parents even if it means doing something you don't want to do, and finally standing up for what you believe in.
I used “How it Feels to be Colored Me” by Zora Neale Hurston as my mentor text for this essay.
Zora Neale Hurston’s writing embodies the modernism themes of alienation and the reaffirmation of racial and social identity. She has a subjective style of writing in which comes from the inside of the character’s mind and heart, rather than from an external point of view. Hurston addresses the themes of race relations, discrimination, and racial and social identity. At a time when it is not considered beneficial to be “colored,” Hurston steps out of the norm and embraces her racial identity.
In the short story, "Two Kinds" by Amy Tan, a Chinese mother and daughter are at odds with each other. The mother pushes her daughter to become a prodigy, while the daughter (like most children with immigrant parents) seeks to find herself in a world that demands her Americanization. This is the theme of the story, conflicting values. In a society that values individuality, the daughter sought to be an individual, while her mother demanded she do what was suggested. This is a conflict within itself. The daughter must deal with an internal and external conflict. Internally, she struggles to find herself. Externally, she struggles with the burden of failing to meet her mother’s expectations. Being a first-generation Asian American, I have faced the same issues that the daughter has been through in the story.
“Miss Brill” by Katherine Mansfield tells a story of a lonely, English lady in France. Miss Brill is a quiet person who believes herself to be important. The whole afternoon at the gardens, Miss Brill does not converse with anyone, nor does anyone show any inclination to talk with her. She merely watches others and listens to their conversations. This provides her with a sense of companionship; she feels as if she is a part of other people’s lives. Miss Brill is also slightly self-conceited. She believes that she is so important that people would notice if she ever missed a Sunday at the park. It does not occur to her that other people may not want her to be there.
The folk tale of “Little Red Riding Hood” has numerous variations and interpretations depending on what recorded version is being read or analyzed. “Little Red Cap,” by the Grimm Brothers, and “The Grandmother,” as collected by Achille Millien, are different in numerous ways: the depth of the narrative structure, characters involved, length – yet, the moral lesson is largely unchanged between the two versions. One of the more glaring differences between the two versions is the way that the narrator and the actions of the characters are used to describe the young girl, female, and the wolf, male. Being either female or male are matters of biological makeup. The characteristics of femininity and masculinity that are associated with being female or male, however, are socially and culturally defined. How do these different descriptions inform gender construction, and more specifically, how do gender constructions help to naturalize stereotypes within the collective conscience of society?
“Spinster” by Sylvia Plath is a poem that consists of a persona, who in other words serves as a “second self” for the author and conveys her innermost feelings. The poem was written in 1956, the same year as Plath’s marriage to Ted Hughes, who was also a poet. The title suggests that the persona is one who is not fond of marriage and the normal rituals of courtship as a spinster is an unmarried woman, typically an older woman who is beyond the usual age of marriage and may never marry. The persona of the poem is a woman who dislikes disorder and chaos and finds relationships to be as unpredictable as the season of spring, in which there is no sense of uniformity. In this poem, Plath not only uses a persona to disclose her feelings, but also juxtaposes the seasons and their order (or lack thereof) and relates them to the order that comes with solitude and the disorder that is attributed with relationships. She accomplishes this through her use of formal diction, which ties into both the meticulous structure and develops the visual imagery.