Demythologization Of Virginity

How are Elie and Ender compared as the characters from the books they were in? The characters Elie and Ender have some things in common, but they also have different scenarios. These two characters act the same and have had similar events going on because they both dealt with having to be away from their homes and having to work more than ever. Next they were also shown to be shy when it came to meeting friends but they both attend to make some. Ender and Elie also had the feeling they wanted to go back home and leave after something bad that just happened.

In A Mexican Self-Portrait, written by many authors, this article focused on the different lifestyles of the poor and rich woman in Mexico. The representations of women in Mexico for both high and lower classes in Latin America were very different. For lower class they were considered “tortilleras’’, however, one of the most well known was referred to as “La China”. La China was one of the most notable types portrayed in the “Mexican Self Portrait”. She was considered to be an unnamed independent woman of the popular class.

In “Lieutenant Nun: Memoir of a Transvestite in the New World” by Catalina de Erauso, a female-born transvestite conquers the Spanish World on her journey to disguise herself as a man and inflicts violence both on and off the battlefield. Catalina discovers her hidden role in society as she compares herself to her brothers advantage in life, as they are granted money and freedom in living their own lives. Erauso decides to take action of this act of inequality by forming a rebellion, as she pledges to threaten the social order.The gender roles allotted to both men and women in the Spanish world represent the significance of societal expectations in order to identify the importance of gender in determining one’s position in the social order in the Spanish World.

society he lives in on lies. Both characters share their attraction towards the opposite sex in

American Literature has always been about men and for men. In this essay, we are going to analyze the women’s role in the book, as inferior and weaker gender.

The critical nature of Santiago’s relationship with Victoria Guzmán allows Márquez to satirize the servant-master and patriarchal complexes present in his portrayed culture. The sexual relationship between Ibrahim Nasar and Victoria Guzmán, parallels that of the relationship between Santiago Nasar and Divina Flor and highlights the social constructs and environment, which reduced Victoria Guzmán into servitude through the juxtaposition of the aforementioned combative personalities of Victoria Guzmán and Santiago. Márquez is successful in the sense that he can create a social commentary on the portrayed Arabic and Columbian cultures while still maintaining false objectivity by inserting variation into separate accounts. Márquez’s uses periphrasis, syntax, and chronological divisions between chapters to subdue overt comparison between the portrayed values of Columbian culture and its societal norms with the conflicting relationship of Victoria Guzmán and Santiago Nasar, effectively shrouding his commentary.

Esperanza, the main character is a good example of gender roles over the course of the book. “She was a horse woman too, born like me in the Chinese year of the horse-which is supposed to be bad luck if you’re born female-but I think this is a Chinese lie because,the Chinese, like the Mexicans, don’t like their women strong.” (Cisneros 10) This is an example from the text showing how women are viewed by men in Mexican culture, they don’t like their women strong. Furthermore proving how women are viewd differently than men. Women are supposed to be the smaller, more fragile sex, compared to men who should be big, macho, and masculine. Another example from the text is “..and then as if he ust heard the news himself, crumples like a coat and cries, my brave Papa cries. I have never seen my Papa cry and don’t know what to do...I hold my Papa in my arms.” (Cisneros 56-57) This shows gender roles because Esperanza has never seen her father cry, showing that men in Mexican culture are supposed to be strong, and emointionless, unlike their female counterparts who are seen as weaker and more emotional.

renewal. Another symbolic feature is the bracelet that is around her arm, which was said to have

There are few female characters against the background of male soldiers, maquis and dinner party guests, which is what makes their appearance all the more pertinent. For instance, the maids that work with Mercedes do not concern themselves with anything other than cooking and cleaning; referring to Vidal as, ‘un señorito’ after he complains about the burnt coffee is almost a comical way of showing their total ignorance to his personality, especially when juxtaposed with the fact that Mercedes not only knows him but is prepared to fight him. Similarly the women at the dinner party, Carmen included, do not involve themselves in the discussion in any way other than to ask her, ‘¿cómo se conocieron usted y el Capitán?’ which is a reflection on how under Franco, ‘unos fuertes prejuicios machistas estaban… arraigados en la sociedad… no necesitaban protección del Estado’1 Even Mercedes acknowledges her inferior status before Vidal, saying, ‘al señor no le interesa lo que alguien como yo piense.’ From a more specific point of view, it could be said that it is predominantly the passive

All four sisters reject their stereotypical role as women in the society by standing up for their beliefs and the revolution. When Minerva said,” It’s about time we women had a voice in running our country,”(Alvarez ?Chapter 1?) shows how outspoken she is about her country. The way Minerva demands equality shows the influence that men have over women in the Dominican culture. During the 1960s, the men expected women to be housewives, and to just cook and clean. In the book when Jaimito says,” The Mirabal sisters like to run their men, that was the problem. In his house, we was the one to wear the pants.”(Alvarez, 176-177) That shows that men expect women to be below them.

In Chronicle of a Death Foretold, the way women have been represented and characterized gives us an idea of how the female gender are treated differently from the male gender as well as children in Latin America during the 1950s. The husbands were given all the authority, also known as machismo, whereas women weren’t allowed to take charge of anything, and were portrayed as weak and impotent.

As a woman, Angela Vicario is the epitome of a traditional Colombian woman. A traditional Colombian woman is expected to be virgins when they get married; but Vicario defys this social custom causing Vicario to get “softly pushed his wife into [her house] without speaking,” (46). These details emphasize the idea that women are given different standards than men. The details help highlight Marquez’s criticism of how the traditional Colombian woman is treated as and thought of as. From a very young age Vicario and her sisters were taught “how to do screen embroidery, sew by machine, weave bone lace, wash and iron, make artificial flowers and fancy candy, and write engagement announcements,” (31). These skills were taught to better prepare the girls for marriage; displaying the difference in gender roles. Marquez uses parallel structure to emphasize the amount of skills one has to learn before they can be considered as good and pure. Many years after Bayardo San Román returns Vicario she still does “machine embroidery with her friends just as before she had made cloth tulips and paper birds, but when her mother went to bed she would stay in her room until dawn writing letters with no future,” (93). The diction of the words “no future” and “still” suggest that Vicario’s life is stuck in

In order to fully understand a more in depth evaluation of both why and how men conform to this social phenomenon, one must know how hegemonic masculinity is defined. This term was made popular by Connell’s work Gender and Power which critiqued the male social role and how hegemonic masculinity has developed (Connell 830). Scholars agree that hegemonic masculinity is characterized by “being emotionally detached and

her away from her task powerless. When Ismene tries to persuade her sister into staying

Gabriel Garcia Marques provides a unique platform in his novella, Chronicle of a Death Foretold (COADF) to analyze facets of traditional Colombian values. The characters provide context regarding particular sectors of religion, cultural values and social norms throughout the novel. Marquez highlights a multitude of cultural juxtapositions throughout all of his novels, however, COADF in particular comments on the social hypocrisy of religion and the double standards due to gender norms throughout the novel. In the novella, Angela Vicario’s character highlights misguided principles and helps to understand how women and other groups of people in the country are maltreated. Common themes throughout the novel often victimize Angela Vicario, such as sexual identity, alcohol abuse and religious scrutiny. Marquez conveys these themes through imagery, symbolism, allegory and most especially periphrasis. This paper will effectively highlight how these factors demonstrate the cultural discrepancy in allowance of freedoms and the roles of women in the novel, and broader country.