Gender Equality In John Steinbeck's Whale Rider And The Pearl

Gender roles have been a hotly debated topic in the most recent years, especially the role of women in society. Women have had set expectations that they are believed to conform to, which is shown in many pieces of film and literature. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald describes the life of a man in the upper class in the 1920’s, as well as women in the 1920’s. The movie The Princess Bride, written by William Goldman, visually explains the treatment and expectations of women, and especially focuses on the “damsel in distress” stereotype.. Roxane Gay’s “Bad Feminist” explains the stereotypes against women and ways women can come together and fight these constraints. Based on these sources, societal expectations take away from each individual’s identity, forcing women to conform to society's standards. In order to fight against these expectations, women have banded together and formed movements against these standards.

Equality has been a hot topic in the past century. Women and African-Americans have not had equality for that long. Women gained quality in the 1920s and African-Americans gained equality in the 1960s. It took them a lot of time to get those rights and dream in Of Mice and Men, show equality must be worked for. In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck utilizes the characters of Crooks and Curley’s wife to illustrate that equality takes a long time to come by.

How is a woman in an era dominated by men expected to gain attention? Steinbeck wrote the novel titled Of Mice and Men emphasising the male society while displaying American dreams crushed throughout the novel. Whereas, minimal wiggle room for Curley’s wife expands upon her husband’s father’s farm because of its majority being men and her being the inferior sex. Her image demonstrates a sexual figure towards the male workers when Lennie and George saw her for the first time as stated, “She had full, rough lips and widespread eyes, heavily made up. Her fingernails red and her hair hung in curls with a cotton house dress,” whereas red usually provokes people as an attention seeking color from its vividness bringing along attention to her hands

All humans are different. We have different skin colors, not everyone is the same sex. That is what make us human. These differences are what bring us together, but they can tear us apart. Humans can be plain and simply cruel to one another. John Steinbeck shows us how us as humans can be cruel and our cruelties of the past that still live one to today. He brings to light that people who stand out or are mistreated to say the least. Humans were cruel in the past and they’ll always be cruel. It’s just human nature.

Popular culture is often a reflection of society; both literature and the media have the capacity to cement ideas in the minds of readers and viewers. In many cases, the notions and stories glorified by the media refrain from sharing a true depiction of society and are narrow-minded in their focus. Recently, the feminist movement has denounced popular culture for its ignorance, fighting for a more realistic portrait to be painted by those with the power to reach millions. Specifically, both Roxane Gay’s Bad Feminist and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “The Danger of a Single Story” share how the classic gender stereotypes seen in popular culture are unable to capture the full spectrum of stories that define society, and are limiting in their portrayals of women. Moreover, both authors share personal stories, reference prominent world figures, and cite relevant statistics in their works. Therefore, in both Bad Feminist and “The Danger of a Single Story”, Roxane Gay and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie appeal to readers pathos, logos, and ethos in order to construct the argument that the single story of women in popular culture is stereotypical and restrictive.

Many people in the world today grow crazy and mad when surrounded by even the slightest bit of wealth and good fortune. Even a strong person who recognizes their priorities can still become corrupt with too much power. There is no better example of a person falling into the path of evil and corruption than in a novel written by John Steinbeck. In the novel The Pearl, by John Steinbeck, the author writes about a poor Indian man named Kino who becomes corrupt from the wealth of a magnificent pearl. Steinbeck uses the motifs of music, light and dark imagery, and values to develop the theme that good fortune, wealth, and prosperity steer even the most innocent of people towards a path of evil and corruption. The reader learns that one

Have you ever heard someone say to you or someone you know something similar to the following? “Oh, you’re a girl so you can’t do this.” or “This is for girls, so you can’t play with it” These kinds of statements are said all the time in our culture. Even children, then innocence of our society, can be the authors of these sayings. It is because of what they were taught.

“A girl was standing there looking in. She had full, rouged lips and wide spaced eyes, heavily made up. Her fingernails were red. Her hair hung in little rolled clusters, like sausages. She wore a cotton house dress and red mules, on the insteps of which were little red ostrich feathers.

Throughout history, women have fought for equal, political, economic and social rights. Women have been portrayed as being subservient towards men and so very few have ‘broke through the glass ceiling.’ No more is this shown in the 1937 novella Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck. The novella tells the story of two migrant workers George and Lennie, who trek across the country in order to work on a ranch. The depression is upon the USA and whilst working hard and earing little money both George and Lennie dream of owning their own land where they can have a happy life and live easily. Unfortunately their dream turns into a delusion, when Lennie has a tragic incident with Curley’s wife. It is clear from this novella that John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck’s Women’s Essay John Steinbeck was a nobel award winning author. He wrote many amazing short stories and novels. Including “The Chrysanthemums” and Of Mice and Men. In these books both of the only female characters in the story are ruled by men, and society.

Recently in Mainz, Germany, the dairy brand Müllermilch sparked quite a feud with fellow customers and returning buyers of designs featured on milk bottles. The front design of the bottle presented almost nude women making obscene poses, while grasping onto the different flavors of the drink. On top of the sexist images, racist pictures of women were also placed. The cartoon shown on the chocolate flavored drink, was of a darker-colored woman, when all of the other flavors presented lighter-colored women. Many feel that women should not be depicted simply as a piece of ‘food,’ and that gender inequality and racism is a matter that should not be promoted, but should be obstructed when the sales audience contains

What Are Women “Girls want attention, women want respect.” This fictitious novel, Of Mice And Men, was written by John Steinbeck, and was published in 1937 during Franklin D Roosevelt’s presidency in the United States. At the same time, the country was undergoing the Great Depression. In this piece of writing, Steinbeck briefly included some historical elements such as, racism, cowboy’s, American dream, and Women’s rights. Of all these aspects, the one I personally find the most intriguing is Women’s Rights.

In “Of Mice and Men” society is portrayed as discriminatory towards women, the disabled and the minority. Society treats them differently in terms of objects, based off their appearances and their actions. The people in this novella are rejected because of how society sees their faults and weaknesses. In the eyes of the dominant men, Curley’s wife is seen as a weak, powerless and inferior person.

In The Pearl, by John Steinbeck, evil transforms certain humble citizens into envious savages. It is this evil which moves the story along and adds drama. It causes the beginning of a happy spirit, but the downfall of goodness and humanity.

This book tells a story about two parents and their child’s troubles with their own personal enemy, greed. It starts with Kino, the father, a pearl hunter that lives in a small brush house village near a small sea side town in Mexico. He needs to pay for his son, Coyotito, treatments for a scorpion sting. So after being refused treatments because they cannot provide payment to the doctor they go to the gulf in search of a pearl filled oyster, to pay the doctor. Kino, Juana his wife, and Coyotito get in their families canoe head to the shallows to look for the small shellfish containing the iridescent gems they seek. While filling a basket with the oysters outlining the sea floor Kino catches a peak of a glimmer coming from a large oyster under an outcrop. Once he has placed the large shellfish in the basket, swimming towards his canoe. Once inside the canoe Kino uses a knife to open the meat filled shell of the oysters revealing no pearls in all the small ones. With hope filling both Juana and him, he opens the large oyster to reveal a large pearl, “as large as a seagull’s egg.”( The Pearl page 25) Joy filling both of them he screamed, startling those who were also in the shallows looking for the oysters bearing pearls. The villagers called it “the pearl of the world.” (The Pearl page 27)