We’ve studied three fictional novels throughout this course, all of them having to do with plague or epidemic. These books all fits into the genre of dystopian. One of the themes that seemed prominent throughout all three books were the roles of the female protagonist or antagonist or the male counterpart of it. In Matheson’s book, I am Legend. The protagonist is a masculine man named Robert Neville, he is the last surviving human on the planet, living with only vampires around him until he meets what presumably is another human that is a feminine character. We find out later she is the reason he meets his demise. In contrast, James’ novel The Children of Men, the female character of Julian plays a huge role in saving humanity from the health crises they are facing in their world. The role of gender plays a huge part in these two works of literature, the health of both genders in both books determine the outcome, Julian being healthy, and Neville being able to survive by himself, they both represent an exceptional idea of masculinity and femininity. But the meaning of gender changes because of the epidemic of crises they are facing, for Neville’s case seeing a woman for the first time in three years, or Julian being pregnant, these changes the importance of gender.
Robert Neville is able to survive by himself for 3 years, creating a livable environment inside his house. He shows a great deal of masculinity throughout the whole story. He is still able to stay healthy despite
All Neville has is himself. If he wants to keep living he has to work hard to keep his home up. He struggles with the motivation but yet he still perseveres. His will to live is often almost non-existent but nonetheless he gets up early and does his daily maintenance routine. He knows that it would be so easy to just give up but he doesn’t and the question is why?
The role of the patriarchal society and its impact on the oppression of female characters
Vic Lang, one of the central characters, is arguably most affected by the constraints society places on gender — succumbing to romanticised ideologies.
The passivity that society expects women to possess is a major contributing factor in the deaths of females in both stories. Society’s silencing and oppression of the characters makes the audience feel remorse for their actions. Lastly, the authors depict female characters as more human than their male counterparts, challenging the ideal female stereotype. The female characters in Shakespeare’s Othello and Shelley’s Frankenstein reflect how society treats women. It is imperative to use literature as a means of correcting social beliefs as they truly represent society’s perspective. As a result, literature is a significant contributing factor in societal
Is family important to you? Are they with you through your life? Do they make you laugh and happy? Well the place in the book is a mess. The government is corrupted and the people were not fair. The rich were separated to a different part of the city away from the poor. Families were lost and abused like Day’s. In the Legend series, Marie Lu illustrates the theme that family is important to happiness through Day’s actions, Day’s symbolism and Day’s dialogue.
Reading literature, at first, might seem like simple stories. However, in works like William Faulkner's “A Rose for Emily,” Katherine Mansfield's “Miss Brill,” and Kate Chopin's “The Storm,” the female protagonists are examples of how society has oppressive expectations of women simply because of their gender.
Throughout the years, different forms of literature have generally shown women as weaker than men. They have played archetypes such as the mother archetype or the lover which have traits less desirable than the roles that men would take. These archetypes tend to limit their personalities and they become characters that are solely there for inconveniencing the hero. Stereotypes for women have affected these archetypes, but throughout history many people have made efforts to change these archetypes and make them more desirable. Even though archetypes for women have been shown as weak, it has changed throughout the years.
The military walked up to Day’s house and knocked on the door plague. The military went in, after 20min they came out and put a red X on the Door showing that they had the plague. Day had to get the medicine and fast but how will he get it and will it be in time? In this fiction book with 305 page book called Legend by Marie Lu, you will find out if Day can save his family or If he dies trying.
I have thought about many different ways to organize this paper and have come to the conclusion that the best way to approach the topic is on a book-by-book basis. My perceptions of the gender biases in these books vary greatly and I did not want to begin altering my views on each so that they would fit into certain contrived connections. What interests me most in these stories is how the authors utilize certain character’s within their given environment. Their instincts and reactions are a wonderful window into how the authors perceive these “people” would interact with their surroundings and often are either rewarded or punished by the author through consequences in the plot for
The different roles women and men characters play in the stories are also largely influenced by the society’s views. Women are portrayed
In the novel Legend, by Marie Lu, Tess has always been an optimistic and caring friend to Day. When Day was about two years into his life as a street boy, he found Tess, an orphan. After breaking into the hospital, Tess tends his wounds. “She’d needed my help so much in the early years that sometimes I forget how much I rely on her,” pg 55. This shows just how much Tess cares for Day, sending taking the time to care for his wounds. Furthermore, Tess, being like a younger sister to Day, doesn’t desire to become another burden for him to carry. “I’ve dropped it off... along with our gift bundle,” pg 52. In this situation, even though Day was out cold for two days, she managed to find shelter, drop off the stolen pain suppressants, and manage to care for for his injuries as well. Lastly, another example of Tess expressing her kindness and optimism, was after a ‘government official’ otherwise known as June, told him he would never be able to buy a plague cure with the limited amount of Republic notes he had. “You still have time...we’ll find the plague medicine before then, I’m sure of it,”pg 82. This shows another side of her optimistic personality, despite their situation. Overall Tess’s friendship is priceless.
As a result of the abuse female characters have faced, it has become an objective for authors to prevent this. There have been clear strides recently, putting women as the protagonists, and not in a manner that has them dealing with persecution. The amount of strong, female characters is a large stride in the right direction to end the conflict regarding women’s roles in literature. However, this sudden influx of women in literature may lead to the reversal of the issue; the absence or abuse of men. While certainly literary equality is the end goal, to flip the issue would be just as bad and lead to sexism on the opposite spectrum. To truly mend the rift between genders, there must be no discrimination, the idea that an author is trying to use sexist undertones by not writing the lead as a female should not have to be an idea that readers think about when analyzing modern books. While even still there are issues of gender inequality in literature, there must be moderation from both ends for a resolution to be possible. The only way for equality to be achieved is with the absence of sexist ideals from all
In I am Legend, Richard Matheson depicted Robert Neville as another man in another life before the plague broke out. He was a father and a husband. Your average joe working a blue collar job in the 1950 's, facts of life that change for him once the plague took hold of humanity. He created a safe-guarded sanctuary for himself within his own home fortified by garlic and crosses from the vampires who dominated the fallen world outside. Solitude was his only companion. Society provided Neville with support, structure, morals, and a community. With the fall of society, Neville priorities had changed. He had changed. Whilst the novel appears to focus heavily on alienation, Matheson perhaps also meant to depict another underlying plot theme. The
What features or characteristics of the human condition can you identify in Judith Wright’s Legend? How has the poet used specific language techniques to emphasise these attributes of life.
This topic is extremely important as it revolves around the subject of feminism and sexualism, two topics that need to be taken more into consideration when reading a novel. The portrayal of female characters in novels that are read around the world are very impactful towards the female portion of the world as it places them in a spectrum of what they should act and look like to meet the standards of society. Focusing specifically on the development of the female characters and how they are just as powerful as men is an interesting idea to navigate around, focusing on the feminist portion of the novel. In current academic studies there has been substantial amount of works that are about women empowerment, with authors that believe the exact same, such as Purple Hibiscus and The Help.