"These writers explore both the social roles that confine them and the bodies that represent the confinement". In light of this quotation, compare how the writers explore gender. 'Wide Sargasso Sea', by Jean Rhys, and 'Sula' by Toni Morrison are both novels that respond to the issues of women that are confined to their social roles. Grace Nichols' book, 'The Fat Black Woman's Poems', supports and also contrasts the views of both Rhys and Morrison. All three texts question gender roles and oppression in society. While Nichols is very outspoken and doesn't let her gender confine her, the main character in Wide Sargasso Sea, Antoinette, is restricted by social and historical roles in her society. Characters like Sula are a threat to the …show more content…
He suffers a certain paranoia around Antoinette and her 'family', and this paranoia can only be truly revealed using his thoughts. Rochester, as a white male, does not connect with his surroundings, he sees it as alien, and to overcome this infamiliarity, he asserts his power and regains control over his wife. For Antoinette, her first person narrative account of her story is a key way of the reader being able to understand her pains as a lonely Creole woman. Both Wide Sargasso Sea and The FBW’s poems give a strong voice to otherwise marginalized women and transforms them both from original tragic demise into a kind of triumphant heroism. Nichols uses humour as the main deconstructive strategy to be an efficient tool for subverting the myths that have oppressed black women. The woman’s body acquires relevance, as the poems focus on a black immigrant woman within a context of white supremacy. Nichols creates persona who she uses to represent the black female body and she constitutes a challenge to black women’s objectification in the Western (British) society, in which she is exiled. The writer occasionally speaks in the first person, has no name, so the third-person poetic voice refers to her as ‘the fat black woman’. The fat black woman refuses to be a victim and, therefore, rejects all the traps laid by racist and sexist society by means of stereotypes that aim at constricting her into limiting roles. It is her that
Amongst the judgmental stares of the audience that has bestowed an image of pathetic vulnerability upon the dancer, the poem’s speaker emerges to provide a portrait of the dancer that is much less lascivious, acknowledging that “Her voice was like the sound of blended flutes / Blown by black players upon a picnic day” (3-4). The sudden juxtaposition of a “picnic day” vis-a-vis a crowded night-club highlights the speakers attempt to remove the sexualized image of the dancer with the intent of identifying her noble power as a member of the black community. The elegance of the dancer, recognized by her soft voice, is affirmed by the speaker’s specific mention of “black players,” displaying black heritage as containing multi-faceted artistic potential. While the poem begins with a dehumanizing portrayal of the dancer, the speaker successfully reformulates the identity of the dancer into a component of a larger black tradition.
In the poem, “Migrant Woman on a Melbourne Tram,” Jennifer Strauss provides an insight into the life of a foreign woman who struggles to conform to the new society which envelops her. Through the use of a variety of language techniques, Strauss highlights the difficulties and challenges faced by her subject, as she attempts to integrate into Melbourne society. Strauss’ reference to the woman’s attire being “impossibly black,” in the opening line of the poem highlights her distinct feature as a foreigner, which ultimately causes her to stand out amongst the crowd. This statement which is further juxtaposed with the sexualised nature of the “impudence of summer thighs, long arms and painted toenails,” puts emphasis on the two contrasting cultures
“In these two books, we have the story of a young man coming of age and finding success in the world and the story of a young woman coming of age and failing to do so. In either book, what gender roles prevailed?”
These books look at each gender on an entirely different level of each other. The roles they fill are completely different. Socially they are held to different standards. I found this to be something that stuck out to me while reading this story. Women are looked at as property that switches from the fathers to the husbands in marriage. Likewise women seem to feel the need to have a man in their presence. These situations are throughout the story.
Racism and stereotypes are explored in Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric, which draws the reader in through a series of vignettes, using poetry, prose and multi-media to detail both subtle and overt incidents of racism that happened to the author, her friends and celebrities. This paper will explore the ways in which modern racism is rooted in historical racism and African American women are subject to intersecting grids of marginalization through racial and gendered stereotypes that began during slavery but which persist today. African American women are relegated to the lowest rungs of the social structure, excluded from opportunity, dehumanized and erased from society, and objectified through hypersexualized images in culture and media. This social milieu shapes the self-identities and society’s perception of African American women, leading this group to devalue themselves and others to devalue them, resulting in some of the highest rates of teen pregnancy, HIV infection and an abhorrent lack of alarm at the rape of black women.
The maltreatment of Indigenous Australians in the town of Eurandangee is represented in many poems, but consistently with reference to The Royal. Rourke, the owner of the bar, makes mention of the ‘… darkies … buying Seppelts out the back to drink there in the park’, which alludes to their segregation and the communities lack of acceptance of Aboriginal people at the time. This notion and oblique reference aid the idea that this community, like most of the time in this specific regard, is dysfunctional. The cynical tone of Sharon; ‘Micky Rourke … is not so keen on blacks. No problem with their money though,’ further represents this same issue. So long as the white community members didn’t have to drink with the ‘darkies’, or see them, or share the same areas of the bar with them there was no reason why their money meant any less than white persons. Similarly, the enforced stereotypes and limitations of women within Eurandangee is seen through Stan’s poem. His wife Peggy, is represented as being confined to the prescribed stereotypes of 1950’s women, mothers and wives, as he tells us she is, ‘… in the kitchen … with the casserole … ready when I’m home at seven’. The unequal treatment of both Aborigines and women within this community highlight it’s lack of cohesiveness, with distinct segregations and limitations being put on these groups and
Discuss the ways in which the depiction of gender roles operates in any TWO of the texts studied on this unit.
Gender inequality is a problem that has been plaguing the world for a very long time. The United States has made great strides to promote gender equality. Despite all of those strides America has made, there are still reminders of the gender inequalities people have experienced in American Literature. The good thing about this is that the slow progression of change in the women’s rights sector can be seen by comparing various pieces of literature dealing with the issue of gender inequality to the time of its creation. The best way to observe this progression is by comparing two different pieces of literature from different time periods, and take note of differences, as well as the events that could be viewed as responsible for those changes. Two literary piece that
2013530423 Huang, Daisy American Literature Christina Davis Feb. 12, 2016 The Consciousness of African American Female in Quicksand Citing a few lines by Langston Hughes, Nella Larsen starts to pursue and construct racial and gender identity of African American Female in her prestigious novel Quicksand, concerns much about the mixed-raced female’s perturbation of double consciousness and identity quest. Due to the similar trajectories between the author and the heroine Helga Crane, Quicksand has long been presumed semi-autobiographical, featuring a restless female mulatto struggling to find a comfortable place where she belongs. Helga Crane, a typical character of mixed-raced girl, faces the journey of seeking ethic identity filled with confusion
Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) presents some of the complicated issues of postcolonial Caribbean society. Rhys’ protagonist, Antoinette Cosway, a white Creole in Jamaica, suffers racial antagonism, sexual exploitation and male suppression. She is a victim of a system, which not only dispossessed her from her class but also deprived her as an individual of any means of meaningful, independent survival and significance. However, Antoinette’s narrative perpetuates her agency and validates her quest for self and identity.
Women who have gone through some form of abuse and psychiatric trauma experienced a great deal of pain. It isn't always easy to deal with but there are coping mechanisms that help them overcome the pain, hurt, and emotionally distressing experiences that come along with abuse and psychiatric trauma. Physical abuse and verbal abuse can hurt a person in such a way that it will influence them to make unconventional life decisions. The female characters such as Antoinette in Jean Rhy's "Wide Sargasso Sea", Nieve Guerra in Wendy Guerra's "Everyone Leaves", and Telumee in Simone Schwarz- Bart's "The Bridge of Beyond",have experienced psychiatric trauma differently. Some of them managed to overcome it and live the rest of their lives with content
Wide Sargasso Sea is a novel written by Jean Rhys, discussing the life of Antoinette Cosway. Antoinette and her family are Creole and they live on a sugar plantation in Jamaica. Due to Antoinette’s Creole background, she and her family face a lot of problems and discrimination during their lives. However, when Antoinette grew older she had one friend named Tia. They played and talked together despite their obvious differences. On the night that Coulibri is set on fire, Antoinette flees with her family when she sees Tia. In search of comfort, Antoinette immediately goes to Tia, but instead of compassion Tia strikes a large stone at Antoinette’s face causing her to become injured. This event is significant, because it marks the first time that Antoinette experiences betrayal and hurt from someone whom she is fond of. This leads her to become reserved and begin to lose hope in others throughout the novel. Antoinette does not describe the physical pain of the attack, but rather the internal pain that she faced. This instance of betrayal from Tia exemplifies Antoinette’s isolation and loneliness in the community which ultimately causes her to lose her identity.
“ You cannot talk about genre without talking about gender.” Initially, this would appear to be a simplistic statement. On closer analysis, however, one fact becomes evident. It is the representation of gender which informs the genre of the text. Ismay Barwell , in her essay ‘ Feminist perspectives and narrative points of view’ states that “ Every text is gendered since every act of narration…..involves a process of selection….and the nature of that selection implies certain values” ( p.99). She makes the point that “ The desires, attitudes and interests which guide any choices made must be either male or female”( p.98 ). It is within this frame of reference, that the two texts will be analysed.
Wide Sargasso Sea is divided into three parts. Throughout the whole novel, gender discrimination is the most severe problem in Antoinette’s life and it mainly reflects the communication between Antoinette and Rochester. Rochester uses absolute European standard to measure all things he see in Jamaica. He thinks Antoinette’s appearance is attractive but it is strange to his England or European standard of beauty. It looks like Rochester regards Antoinette as a commodity instead of a woman. He makes comments on Antoinette’s appearance, which is very rude. Antoinette is like a toy for Rochester. She has to follow the orders of his husband. Rochester gets marriage with Antoinette, but he doesn’t love her at all. Just like he said, “The woman I am going to marry is meaningless to me. She has no relationship with
Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys, follows the extremely difficult life of Antoinette. Antoinette’s mother, Annette, treats her daughter as a problem and the relationship between daughter and mother shapes the life of the daughter. This one negative relationship can be the root foreshadowing all negative relationships Antoinette later develops. The relationship between Antoinette and Annette defines Antoinette.