Daniel Orozco Orientation Summary

The story “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, anticipates the audience to recognize a male as the focus of the story but instead there are two main characters. Flannery O’Connor focuses her story on the grandmother and The Misfit as the two main characters. It is throughout her story and juxtaposition of the characters that the author conveys conflicting moral codes and faith between The Misfit’s principles triumphing over the grandmother’s principles. The literary device that expresses the theme of the individual’s opposing values is the use of indirect characterization in contrasting differences of appearance, speech and actions.

This example is an appropriate for the critical analysis because it displays a situation where attractiveness is related directly to the job. The Hooters example is relevant because the uniforms female employees are required to wear proves to the requirement of an attractive appearance in the workplace. We can easily imagine that the uniforms are intentionally sexualized, which in fact they

Oftentimes, in the public, people have to be “normal” to be successful and accepted. Author William Saroyan believes that society steers people to be conformed and fit in, but he wants people to be able to be diverse. In the short story “Gaston,” Saroyan shows that carving a unique path can turn out to be erroneous. Through symbolism and contrast, Saroyan conveys the theme that society does not always accept people’s differences.

In John Updike’s coming of age story “A&P,” the protagonist Sammy sees what he believes to be an unfair act to three teenage girls in bikini in the grocery store. He makes an immature decision and quits in front of his manager that decided to address the girls about their clothing choice in front of the entire grocery store, instead of talking to them in private. Unfortunately, the teenage girls do not notice Sammy’s heroic act, and he is left alone in the parking lot to face the repercussions of his childish actions. John Updike chooses to write in first-person, so the reader gets to know the narrator’s real character. In his short story “A&P,” John Updike demonstrates that Sammy is an immature character immaturity from his disrespectful personality, judgmental attitude, and misogynist beliefs.

The general public depicted in An's story utilizes a test to decide how masculine or feminine an individual is to dole out them to specific assignments and sexual orientation particular positions. While this is by all accounts fairly tragic at to start with, it quite accurately reflects the present society. In spite of the fact that individuals are not compelled to seek after professions that fit their cliché gender roles, in reality, there are unmistakable "manly" and "ladylike" connotations with numerous policed acts, wherein not adhered to, is met with prejudice, violence and varying levels of ridicule.

As I was about to walk in the barber shop, I suddenly remembered what my Lieutenant had to say to me, “don’t go in the shop, he’ll kill you, he’s a rebel”. While these interpretations have a chance of being valid, I continue to believe that killing isn’t an easy task due to the repercussions that come along with it. When I entered the barber shop, I could see an individual who was tall and was carrying a muscular build. At this point of time, the barber had not yet noticed me, so I took a few steps and made sure I was visible in his peripheral vision. Eventually, I was noticed and a few seconds later, conversation was initiated on how my beard is four days late a shave. After several minutes of discussion, I was indeed ready for my face to become hairless. He sat me down in his

In the short novel The Outsiders, written by S.E. Hinton, many 1960s stereotypes are used which separate the characters by where they live, how they dress, and how they act, but Hinton quickly gave characters who did not abide or fit these stereotypes. This showed that no matter your hair, dress, home, hobbies, or financial situation, everyone will always be different, but that doesn’t mean no two people cannot become friends. The stereotypes that follow you do not determine your personality or actions, only you.

There is an apparent biased view against women in the short story “A+P” by John Updike. Society is male-dominated and women are discriminated against, whether they know it or not. Such a restrictive culture and societal views are indicated by the inner thoughts of the narrator, Sammy, who is the clerk at the supermarket. The interactions of three girls with the rest of the townspeople are documented in Sammy’s mind. Sammy’s descriptions of people, the dialect of the characters, and the actions that are noted converge to reveal the nature of the time and place of the A+P supermarket.

In the short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates and the novel, Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley unique gender/sexual roles and disobedient actions portray through the main characters’ to defy the cultural status quo. Irony, juxtapositions, and foreshadowing are being used in each piece of literature to help the reader comprehend and compare what the author is saying about the characters and their motives now and in the near future. Connie, in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” can compare to Bernard and John in Brave New World, because all are ignoring the rules, whether it is society for Bernard and John or her friends’ parents for Connie. Each character wants to be with the opposite sex and experience life, even if they are being told otherwise. The authors each make these protagonist main characters appealing to the reader because we feel as if we can connect to them and perceive their desire to oppose what the rules are and how they want to be divergent from what their controlling forces are telling them to do, whether it is parents or society.

In this text, Rose eloquently utilizes pathos to create an emotional connection towards the blue-collar workforce. Rose also writes about his family members to try to establish a connection between readers and his memories, so that the reader could relate and begin to understand the requirements of such careers. These experiences demonstrate how passionate workers like Rosie and uncle Joe are about their careers, and how their passion encourages them to seek further ways to learn and improve. Throughout his article Rose vividly recalls the stories for the audience, “Rosie took customers’ orders, pencil poised over pad, while fielding questions about the food. She walked full tilt through the room with plates stretching up her left arm and two cups of coffee somehow cradled in her right hand” (Rose 3). The reader is better able to grasp the fact that blue-collar careers require more intense cognitive abilities than other social classes give them credit

“Hair” by Hilma Contreras and “Park Cinema” by Elena Poniatowska are short stories rich in their context as depicted through their characters. Both authors depict similar male protagonists with specific differences. The resemblance amongst these two characters is made prevalent through the portrayal of male weakness. The primary character flaw possessed by both male protagonists is obsession. Aside from obsession, there are comparable themes carried throughout both short stories. “Hair” and “Park Cinema” both incorporate motifs including, destruction of beauty, hate, lust, and most prevalently, obsession.

In the story “Love in L.A.,” throughout the entire story the reader is able to understand and identify gender roles, associations and stereotyped characterization throughout the conversation between the characters, the thoughts of characters, and how Dagoberto Gilb wants us to put our own ideas of the male and female stereotypes. Gender roles are first shown when Jake, one of the main characters, is giving a brilliant sketch of a car he’d rather be driving and have freedom than actually working and living a steady good life. From the description of the car we can see that he is interested in features that would attract and impress any woman, and these same features are not particularly well-matched to him, “the fact was that he’d probably have to change his whole style” (275). Jake

In the story A&P by John Updike a young cashier by the name of Sammy learns about the power of desire and the mystery of others minds when working at an A&P supermarket in a small town north of Boston in the 1960’s, where there was a lot of social norms and many people didn’t step out of them. The young nineteen-year-old Sammy wasn’t expecting his Thursday shift at A&P to go the way it did when income three young girls but, these are not your socially normal teenagers who come walking in the door. The moment these girls walk into the A&P they attract every male eye in the store towards them, which clearly shows the kind of power their sexuality grants them over their opposite sex. In turn, Sammy imagination and interpretation of these

Gender roles are socially constructed rules that dictate the types of acceptable behaviors based on sex. In modern society, gender roles continue to hinder the progress of equality between a man and a woman. A man and woman’s acceptable role in a 1960s American society is clearly portrayed in the episode of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (2007), written by Matthew Wieners, of the series Mad Men. The episode illustrates the concepts of the glass ceiling and glass escalator, and how these concepts affect home and work life for two women: Peggy Olson, one who plays by her gender role, and Rachel Menken, one who breaks free of her gender role.

In the various works provided to the class many themes are present in all of them, this paper will be focusing on the authors methods of critiquing social norms. The short story, A Telephone Call by Dorothy Parker paints a harsh reality from the perspective of a highly anxious woman forced into a lifestyle that many would relate to in the 1900s. “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning exposes the duke and the terrible social norms he reinforces through a poetic format allowing the reader to interpret his strange behavior on their own. Their Eyes Were Watching God, a novel, by Zora Neale Hurston attempts to defy social norms and showcase the positive outcomes of such. Lastly, A Streetcar Named Desire is a play by Tennessee Williams which satirically points out the extremist behaviors that are approved and even rewarded by society. These pieces of literature from different genres still point out the same issues in social norms in regards to the power struggle between men and women and gender roles. Although the perspective changes, as the characters are different or the economy of words is different between the genres the message stays the same.