Damsels in Distress Essay

John Steinbeck sets his novel The Grapes of Wrath during the Depression of the 1930's. Universal archetypes play a significant role in Steinbeck’s story. Steinbeck creates a cast of characters whose archetypes can be easily related to. The Earthmother, haven versus hell, and the evil figure with the ultimately good heart are archetypes described in The Grapes of Wrath to show the bad and good times during a time of hardships.

“…seems to be the glue that holds this family together” (Hams 1). Through the journey to California, there are many struggles faced along the way but she retained her composure and remained calm just to appear strong for the family. “She seemed to know, to accept, to welcome her position, the citadel of the family, the strong place that could not be taken” (100). The position Ma is in is not effortless. She puts in a great deal of effort to remain the rock of the family, even though she has lost her many possessions. Without her, there wouldn’t be a Joad family.

In the 1930’s John Steinbeck wrote two stories, The Chrysanthemums and Of Mice and Men. In these stories, Steinbeck highlighted the struggle and oppression of women during that time Both of his writings took place on a ranch in Salinas, California during the 1930’s, during the great depression. Both Elisa from The Chrysanthemums and Curley's wife from Of Mice and Men had internal conflicts and despised their husbands. Steinbeck's women proved to be strong and intelligent, especially compared to the men around them.

As the Joad family progresses on their journey through the country, the characters transform and develop along with the plot. One character in particular has the largest transformation, where their whole personality changes, being Rose of Sharon. In the beginning of the novel, Rose of Sharon would only spend time with Connie, and he would be the only person she had real concerns for. Whenever she would speak it would be selfish, or relating to Connie. One quote that demonstrates the selfishness that Rose of Sharon possessed at the beginning of the book is “The world had drawn close around them, and they were in the center of it, or rather Rose of Sharon was in the center of it with Connie making a small orbit around her” (p.176). This quote truly shows how self-centered she was by saying the world revolves around her.

hardship out of anyone. She has a still-born baby. This was the one thing in Rose of Sharon?s

In the early 20th century, a male author, John Steinbeck, wrote about women’s oppression in the short story, “The Chrysanthemums”. It was different than other stories about women’s oppression because it was in the male point-of-view rather than a female’s point-of-view. This brilliant short story is narrated by a third-person narrator and has some interesting characters such as Elisa, Henry and the traveling salesperson. In John Steinbeck’s “The Chrysanthemums”, the juxtaposition between female and male norms and the symbolism throughout the story illustrates how women were perceived as simplistic and weak people reflected by the gender expectations in the early 20th century.

The long, hard war of human equality in society, has been a war since the beginning of civilization. The Great Depression, a tragic time in America’s history, reflects American determination, but also social inequality. In the fiction novella, Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck uses symbolism and characterization to address ableism and sexism in society. Steinbeck addresses these flaws in society in an attempt to ultimately bring awareness these riffs before society falls.

The Grapes of Wrath, written by John Steinbeck, is considered by many to be the hallmark of American literature. It covers the journey of the Joad family as they stick together through one of the harshest eras in American history, the Great Depression. The structure of the Joad’s narrative is interspersed by smaller, highly descriptive interchapters, which sets the novel apart from other classics in its ability to make the reader understand and relate to the Joads and everything they went through. The detailed, impactful vignettes foreshadow problems the Joads have to overcome and the overview descriptions in the vignettes contrast with the specificities of the Joad’s story. They contain Biblical allusions, colorful descriptions, and objects that can interact with the main characters later in the narrative. Through the use of imagery and diction, the vignettes make Steinbeck’s message more impactful and meaningful.

A clear concept in John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath was the way families were run. At the beginning of the twentieth century, men led the family. They made the decisions and they made the money for the family while the women worked behind the scenes and kept everything going. What the men did not realize, or did not want to recognize, was that the women were the ones who were really in control. Though they did not take credit for it, they were the ones who bought and cooked the food the men ate, bore and reared the children the men helped create, and did everything they could to make a better life for themselves and their families. This changed once the Dust Bowl struck. Soon after, women took charge of the family affairs and slid

John Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath, takes place during the Great Depression, a time when troubled and distressed American men and women lived; a time of poverty and an economic crisis. When change is thought upon, it is to be thought of new life and new experiences. The Great Depression is the kind of change that replaces a part of American living with “ Somepin’s happening. I went up an’ I looked, an’ the houses is all empty, an’ the lan’ is empty, an’ this whole country is empty” ( Steinbeck 94). In his work, Steinbeck presents the hardships that Americans had to go through by being mindful of particular aspects which makes the reader understand the characters’ distress. For example, the landscape of the farm lands. Even though the land has its brutality, it grows to be the scenery for humans to be able to recognize and consider their troubles about work and life in general. With these concerns, there are differences between the people who are accustomed to the landscape and admire it, and those who do not agree with it. In the novel, Steinbeck uses attributes of class conflict and injustice as a way of presenting and socially commenting that the Great Depression brought attention to more problems beyond the idea of poverty.

At the beginning of the novel, Rose of Sharon (or Rosasharn as she is called by the rest of the Joad family) is the eldest daughter of the Joad family, and is dreamy and self centered, blissfully unaware of anything other than her own happiness and contentment. She is expecting a child with Connie Rivers, who announces big plans to study electronics at night in hopes of giving his family a better life than that

The book Girl, Interrupted is about a teenage girl Susanna Kaysen. At the age of 18 she voluntarily sent herself to the McLean hospital. In the beginning of the book the Susanna was talking to a psychiatrist she has been seeing for awhile, she has had a couple of suicide attempts so she started seeing that doctor. The doctor had recommended Susanna to go to McLean to help her be anti-depressive and help cure her borderline personality. Susanna ended up being in the hospital for 2 years.

These two statements are very important because they are the backbone of the whole book. These are the strongest parts that support the women she is. She is so hand in hand with God that she doesn’t even once criticize the reasons she’s in captive but as I have stated before, she blames herself for not praying enough. In the sixth remove she explains her circumstance, her being surrounded by her former enemies amidst no Christians at all but herself. She exclaims, “Oh the experience that I have had of the goodness of God, to me and mine!” Without any form of disbelief she praises the kindness of God. The beauty of her relationship with God is that she mentions no matter what kind of situation she is in whether it be near death or with luxuries. And she sees every good thing that happens to her as a sign of God. To sum it up, everything that has happened to her was pre-planned and the grace of God.

Unlike the other two women, Shahrazad, the vizier's daughter, used her womanly powers to save instead of destroy or deceive. Even though her life was at stake, she put herself in the position to be the heroine for the kingdom.

In many, a tragedy do the tragic heroes have flaws that lead themselves to their own demise. The main character always acts exactly on his or her own emotions; thus aiding their tragic flaw and leading to their own demise without giving them the time to stop the repercussions of their emotion driven actions. In the play “Antigone” by Sophocles many of the characters are simply too headstrong and passionate about their beliefs to realize that they would greatly regret the decisions they are making. All of the characters share this characteristic; it is alluded to in the play that this is caused by their blood relation to Oedipus and how they are too cursed.