Analysis Of The Novel ' Nervous Conditions '

In “The Yellow Wallpaper” the main character is constantly being told what she is and is not able to do such as “But he said I wasn’t able to go, nor able to stand it after I got there;… (Gilman)” This is an excellent example of her feeling oppressed, because her husband feels that he knows her capabilities better than she does. Another example of this is “’What is it little girl?’ he said. ‘Don’t go walking about like that—you’ll get cold.’ (Gilman)” This is an example of John thinking that her condition is so bad, she has to be treated like a child, constantly telling her what and what not to do. In “The Story of an Hour” the shows she has felt depressed with “There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. (Chopin)” After receiving news that her husband passed away in a train accident, she felt as if the burden of doing things for her husband was lifted, and that she could do the things she wants to do.

Her mother and grandmother, who obviously favor her brother, essentially ignore Sula. Hannah, her mother, is a very sexual woman who enjoys the company of many men in town to the disapproval of Sula. Because of her mother’s actions, Sula views her with an indifferent and callous sense of hostility. Still, Sula reacts in a negative way when hears her mother say, “‘I just don’t like her’” in reference to her daughter. (57) The difference between loving someone and liking someone is made clear here. It develops the idea of a mother’s ambivalent love. When a child is aggravating, it can be frustrating to love them. But for Hannah, she simply does not like the person Sula is becoming. This realization, for Sula, removes her from

This oppressive nature results in an inferiority complex being developed by the narrator. The narrator is unable to express her opinion

Though this book is written from a young girl’s point of view, even in the first hundred pages there are various forms of

Firstly, oppression is evident through various types of abuse through the main characters, Aminata and Celie. Both have faced several forms of abuse such as physical, emotional, mental and sexual abuse that have stripped away their identity and dignity. For instance, Aminata fights for her freedom throughout her entire life, only to suffer from physical abuse almost everyday on the slave ship and to suffer from sexual abuse on the plantations. Moreover, Aminata

Her trips to Niagara Square begin ostensibly as trips to the public library so as to avoid arousing suspicion from her parents (129). Her attempts to hitch rides start out with “a thumb shyly raised,” played out as if Enid were doing it for the first time, and afraid of the danger it might entail (130). There is also risk: “If the driver turned out to be someone who knew her, then word might get back to the Stevicks and she’d be in trouble” (130). Even as Enid rebels in secret, there is the risk that word could get back to her parents, invoking the expectations of what a “good girl” should be. Such an interplay between what is deemed “good” and “bad” profoundly influences Enid’s life – to her parents, she is the “good” girl, and even her suicide is not discussed, regarded as a fluke that will never again be repeated; when she is alone, Enid acts out her “bad” girl drives, hitching rides with strangers, wandering outside of where she is meant to be, and starting a sexual relationship with her uncle twice her age. In doing so, Enid attempts to control how other people perceive her while still pushing against the moral standards that surround

From the start the novel is laden with the pressures that the main characters are exposed to due to their social inequality, unlikeness in their heredity, dissimilarity in their most distinctive character traits, differences in their aspirations and inequality in their endowments, let alone the increasingly fierce opposition that the characters are facing from modern post-war bourgeois society.

To create an emotional response from the audience to inspire them to take action, both authors point out the feeling of oppression

oppression and her battle to come to grips with the issues of this power imbalance.

It is not the passive result of oppression, but an active reproducing of oppression by consciousness/subjectivity/agency (Ratner, 2011).

In the book Chinese Cinderella it is apparent that Niang has had a positive and also a negative impact on Yen Mah. In the book Chinese Cinderella Niang makes the narrator feel a mixture of negative emotions such as neglect, foreignness, and also a feeling no one should feel, insignificance and humiliation. This is shown when the narrator writes “Niang predicted a hopeless future for me.” (Page 124). This had a very pronounced effect on Yen Mah. Therefore as a result of Niang suppressing her, the narrator was able to aim for something greater and also bring recognition to herself. Niang also affected the narrator’s mental stand point because Yen Mah was treated as a servant when compared to Niang’s own children. In which the way Adeline Yen Mah was treated was very immoral because it gave Yen Mah the feeling of being not as wanted as Niang’s own children. If Niang did not treat the narrator the way she did Adeline Yen Mah may not be the person she is – one that aspires to succeed and also one that sees something beyond her circumstances. In Chinese Cinderella,

Throughout the story we see the protagonist struggle with the gender roles placed upon her by her society; specifically the role she is supposed to play as

Jamaica Kincaid’s Girl explores these controversies and writes a long form poem that includes a list of rules for young girls to follow as advice that will help them be more likeable and become a reputable “woman”. These rules are delivered in a direct emphasis with strict undertone. The guidelines given to the young girl can be inferred as a mother teaching her daughter who is at the age of adolescence. Jamaica Kincaid’s long form poem Girl highlights the stereotypical social responsibilities of young girls which is heavily defined by language, culture, and mothers. In the poem the mother figure covers everything from how to

Nervous Conditions is concerned with women who live in a traditional African society in Zimbabwe (former Rhodesia), who struggle to find their place in the patriarchal system and who search for their independence. Each female protagonist in the novel finds her own way of dealing with her situation; however, this essay focuses on two characters-Tambu and Nyasha whose response to the male power is very different. While Tambu escapes from the environment of inequality in order to seek her liberation, Nyasha chooses to resist the patriarchy but her rebellion against her father ends up tragically as she suffers from the nervous conditions.

The Color Purple by Alice Walker is a true testament to the oppression of women. The main character in the novel is affected by her physical surroundings, in the way of people, which ultimately construct who she is as a person. Celie, the main character, has a father who sexually mistreats her that leads to many of her psychological traits. Later, Celie’s husband abuses her and treats her as if she were less than a human being. Finally, Shug is the end of all things bad for Celie as at first she is a curse but in the end she is a gift. Physical surroundings afflicting this main character are ubiquitous throughout The Color Purple.