Amelia's Body Vs Brokeback Mountain

Gender roles have been a hotly debated topic in the most recent years, especially the role of women in society. Women have had set expectations that they are believed to conform to, which is shown in many pieces of film and literature. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald describes the life of a man in the upper class in the 1920’s, as well as women in the 1920’s. The movie The Princess Bride, written by William Goldman, visually explains the treatment and expectations of women, and especially focuses on the “damsel in distress” stereotype.. Roxane Gay’s “Bad Feminist” explains the stereotypes against women and ways women can come together and fight these constraints. Based on these sources, societal expectations take away from each individual’s identity, forcing women to conform to society's standards. In order to fight against these expectations, women have banded together and formed movements against these standards.

The book I chose to read for this review was Intimate Frontiers: Sex, Gender, and Culture in Old California by Albers L. Hurtado, one of a series of volumes on the American Frontier. He takes an unconventional angle on the topic, however and discusses issues of sex, power struggles, and cultural conflicts that occurred from the initial settlement of California through the gold rush. He does this through the stories of historical figures such as Amelia Kuschinsky rather than relying on sweeping generalizations, allowing the reader a more intimate connection with those they are reading about. His focus, however, lay in the roles and rights of women, the conflicts among cultures due to sex, and how sex and marriage were used to accumulate power.

The setting of both stories reinforces the notion of women's dependence on men. The late 1800's were a turbulent time for women's roles. The turn of the century

Throughout American Literature, women have been depicted in many different ways. The portrayal of women in American Literature is often influenced by an author's personal experience or a frequent societal stereotype of women and their position. Often times, male authors interpret society’s views of women in a completely different nature than a female author would. While F. Scott Fitzgerald may represent his main female character as a victim in the 1920’s, Zora Neale Hurston portrays hers as a strong, free-spirited, and independent woman only a decade later in the 1930’s.

Another major display of a shift in gender roles is the infamous anal rape scene. Ed and Bobby, who is the most effeminate of the group, are taken captive by two (likely) inbred woodland men. These men, pariahs to society, become embodiments of the defilement of nature experienced earlier in the novel, the trash in the river and the poultry processing plant. To Dickey, Man’s encroachment upon nature has not only led to the industrialization that plows fields and fells forests, or littered the wild with our excess and excrement, it has made humanity unable to reunite itself with nature. Once man has defiled a region with our technology and our influence, we may never go back “Dickey's novel suggests that there is no free territory…” (Entzminger). These mountain men have ostracized themselves from society, searching for a way to shake off the shackles of cultural expectation. However, in their attempt to become one with nature they have simply perverted it.

Does deviating from one’s gender norms inevitably doom one down a spiral of moral corruption? Tim O'Brien, author of “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” and Ernest Hemingway, author of “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber”, certainly seem to hold this view, as evident by the fates of the major female characters in their respective works. The deviance of the major female characters in both works appears to corrupt not only themselves, but also pollute their partners, causing them to suffer injury or harm as a result. The degree of injury ranges from negligible, like Fossie’s demotion and broken heart, to fatal, like the bullet that rips through Macomber’s skull. It begs the question, are these stories meant to serve as cautionary tales for their female readers, or possibly for their husbands, so they may recognize gender deviance and stop it in its tracks before their wives transform into Margot Macomber or Mary Anne Bell? This essay will analyze what such characters say about pervading views of women, both in society and in literature.

Vic Lang, one of the central characters, is arguably most affected by the constraints society places on gender — succumbing to romanticised ideologies.

Love between two genders is one of the most common themes in writing. In literature, love is often praised, appreciated and cherished. Another common theme in writing is the looming specter of inequality between men and women, which has been strongly depicted throughout history and is still worryingly present in the world today. It is extremely interesting to realize that though love is treasured and valued, in most cases, it takes both genders to create love, and those genders are often separated by inequality. Both these themes coincide well together; the clash of love and gender inequality is interestingly captivating. In John Updikes A&P and Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants, both stories send a conclusive message to the reader that equality between both sexes in love and attraction is almost impossible; one gender will always be more powerful than the other.

In each of these selected pieces, the woman’s position is dependant in some form to the male figure. Each work deals with conflicting views of the female protagonist and the expectations of their male counter-character, though each has a differing outcome that correlates to the woman’s reaction to this male supremacy. “A New England Nun” features Louisa and Joe Dagget, who come to a mutual agreement to call of their engagement. This ending follows closely with realism, as there is a healthy development and closure to the conflict. Then, Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” has possibility of development, however, the loose end does not establish any sort of progress. This piece ends with the American asking if Jig is alright, to which she smiles and states she’s fine (. Despite the fact that there is no closure to this particular ending, there is a chance that Jig does defy the American’s wishes. Lastly, Brooks’s poem “A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon” follows the chaos and self-conscious characteristics of postmodernism, as the white woman’s thoughts of the “Fine Prince” evolve from submissive denial to hatred, over the course of the piece. Although these pieces end quite differently, each portrays a woman that is submissive in some way or another at a point in the story.

Throughout history, Australian has always been perceived as a land of men. This is due to the colonization of Australian during the eighteen and nineteen century, where men are seen inferior to women. They also are domesticated within the house duties that the society has influence because of their gender. Although, Henry Lawson “the drover wife” and The Chosen Vessel” by Barbara Baynton challenges the Australian society through Australian literature by placing women in harsh environments. The drover wife is short stories about women who face the new obsolesce while living within the harsh environments. The Chosen Vessel has a similar aspect of the drover wife but the lead female experience the harness of the environment, which lead to her death. Both women display their own straights and heroics while facing their fears, through their selfless action. They are both portrayed of women of the bush but their fate had stored different outcome for both women. This essay will examine both the drover wife and the chosen vessel both contain a simple plot, but it expands on many issues of gender expectation and domesticated within the household role of the expectation of women. It will also examine the religious aspect of the historical narrative that has been seen within both bush stories.

Both Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants and John Steinbeck’s The Chrysanthemums portray oppressed female characters in the early 1900s. In Hemingway’s short, Jig is oppressed by her lover known only as “The American,” whereas, the main character in The Chrysanthemums, Elisa Allen, feels the weight of oppression from society (male dominated) as a whole. Although the driving force of the two women’s subjugation varies slightly, their emotional responses to such are what differentiate the two.

Brokeback Mountain, being the more homosexual romance-oriented Western that it is, subverts a large number of the typical traditional elements of the Western film genre as a whole, this one especially, by having another male be in the position of the love interest of the hero. Although this subversion in particular is very problematic for Jack, as it puts him in the shoes of being associated with all things relating to femininity in the relationship. For example, Jack is the one who makes the first move when seducing Ennis, using his own allure and sexuality into tempting Ennis when he calls him into the tent, leading Ennis down somewhat of a risky path. Ennis, however, is portrayed as somewhat of a saint, his being repressed and restrained by social standards, saying to Jack, “You may be a sinner but I ain't yet had the opportunity”. Another interesting typical thing in the Western genre that was altered was that instead of Indians being the villain, the enemy is that of a ignorant and oppressive society–a society that would kill Ennis and Jack for being “different”, Ennis says to Jack, “this thing takes hold of us at the wrong place, wrong time and we're dead,” which shows how much they both worry about it–but the two cowboys still have to find some way to pull through and struggle to find their true selves in this society, but it is also that fear which causes the devastating events

In “Hills Like White Elephants”, and “Good People” Ernest Hemingway and David Foster Wallace identify the political and moral problems of abortion and how it effects on loving affairs. Even though the characters in their story share similar behaviors, shown by the dominant males promoting the operation to remove an unborn child, the females who value even though they face some difficulties of child rearing, as well as the two couples’ refusal to discuss conflicts with each other, both authors have different conclusions resulting from the sharp differences in setting, diction, and role of religion; Hemingway indicates love is bare and dull as well as presented by woman’s submissive role to the male’s prerogative while Wallace

To what extent is cultural isolation the predominant factor within the relationships in the short stories of “The Thing Around Your Neck” and “Brokeback Mountain”? I will be analysing the ways in which relationships are explored in The Thing around Your Neck, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; how there is a cultural isolation within the relationships, in comparison with the way they are explored in Brokeback Mountain, and how the relationships between the protagonists of the two stories are challenged with other factors as well; these other factors being class, identity, racism and homophobia. In The Thing around Your Neck, Adichie uses second person narrative, this type of narration is unorthodox and gives deeper insight into the events and they

“Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway and “Happy Endings” by Margaret Atwood share a gender-oriented theme. They both show women struggling to attain equality against their male partners. This theme is depicted through the use of symbolism, point of view and plot conflict.