Gender Roles In The Addams And Morticia

Esperanza and Mholo are similar in the manner they have each faced the challenges associated with a humbling living situation. Deeper than their living situations they both have experienced dealings with social class and cultural differences and the stereotyping resulting from them. Mholo secretly stays with her sister in the basement of a very well off family. When madam of the family ushers Mholo off the property, rather show her a little hospitability and allow her wait for her sister. Suggests the madam was uncomfortable with Mholo’s presence because she was different than her family. Esperanza lives with her entire family in a small one bedroom one bath house in a neighborhood with a less than respectable reputation attached to it. Esperanza

Men and women have played gender specific roles, from the earliest sign of civilization to modern society. In the cult classic “Night of the Living Dead”, stereotypical gender role were on display. George A. Romero’s film hinted at subtle references to the responsibilities of men and women and depicted the stereotypes America held during the 1960s. Men played the protectors and enforcers, while the women represented the submissive homemakers and caretakers. Romero’s film portrays the sexes, men and women, in their respective stereotypical behaviors. Stereotypes that sets the undertone for the duration of the film.

A poignant figure in Esperanza’s life is her own grandmother. In fact, Esperanza was given her birth name after her grandmother. A touching gesture that came from good faith. A name may have some value, but for Esperanza there was a high intrinsic quality to such a simple component. Despite, never encountering her own grandmother in person, Esperanza was grateful to have fond memories by carrying her legacy through her name. Life’s motto concerns dealing with adversity and carrying the legacy of one’s family eternally. Being confident and smart was the only way to live by. No man was needed to help raise and nurture herself. Her grandmother instilled in Esperanza a sense of fortitude and independence. It is sad that a regret of Esperanza is linked to her grandmother, further illustrating the physical and mental hardships one can endure in

At the next psychosocial stage, we find Dolores is in stage four of Erikson’s theory, industry vs. inferiority. This is when a child begins to seek approval for their accomplishments, start to hone their skills and complete goals. At this point, Dolores’s family television has taken over most of the family’s time, mom, dad, and even grandma when she visits watches it. She is not going outside to play and is desperately seeking attention from her parents. Her dad is spending a lot of time with his employer, Mrs. Masicotte. When her and her father’s “meetings” would go too long she would intentionally dare herself to do bad things. Dolores said, “my actions-each of which invited my father’s anger-shocked and pleased me” (Lamb, 10).

The novel, The Joy Luck Club describes the life of four mothers: Suyuan Woo, An-mei Hsu, Lindo Jong, and Ying-ying St. Clair and their four daughters: Jing-mei "June" Woo, Rose Hsu Jordan, Waverly Jong, and Lena St. Clair. All four of these families fled China in the 1940s and tried to retain and maintain their culture and heritage. All of the four daughters are very Americanized and the mothers try to show and teach each of their daughters a little about the chinese culture. All these mothers hope to give their daughter strength, respect for herself, and to create a strong bond and relationship between themselves. Tan gives us something to relate to by telling us the story of Chinese women and their daughters. The all may

The 1950s and 1906s both have social issues that can be seen throughout and are shown in the books A Raisin in the Sun and The Help. The Help takes place in the 1960s. Skeeter Phelan is a recent graduate from college with a degree in writing. Elaine Stein is a publisher in New York who Skeeter tries to launch her book idea to. Skeeter Phelan interviews the maids in Jackson, Mississippi to show the discrimination shown towards them by the families that hire them. Both the characters in The Help and A Raisin in the Sun have similar experiences in housing and gender roles due to the eras the books take place in, although education plays a different role because of opportunity for the characters in A Raisin in the Sun than The Help.

In Lewis Carroll’s, Alice in Wonderland, traditional gender roles are reversed by portraying women with masculine behaviors and males with qualities generally attributed to women. Where aggressive and dominating behavior is seen as masculine, and sensitive and submissive acts are considered feminine, Carroll paints a picture of a society where these qualities are switched. For instance, the Queen of Hearts is a dominating and aggressive figure who terrorizes her meek husband. While some characters seem to possess qualities that Carroll's contemporaries would consider traditional, they are in the minority and they serve the purpose of teaching Alice something about the true meaning of gender. Alice has to navigate this bizarre world to discover

Gender roles are a set of societal norms that dictate the different types of behavior which are generally considered acceptable for people based on their actual or perceived sex or sexuality. In the graphic novel “Fun Home: Old Man, Old Artificer” by Alison Bechdel and the story “Shiloh’ by Bobbie Ann Mason the main characters switch gender roles. These stories use irony to convey the gender roles men and women are supposed to have; however Old Man, Old Artificer reveals what happens when you try to cover up your secret by switching gender roles while “Shiloh” reveals that changing gender roles can cause a marriage to end.

In Jamaica Kincaid’s story, Girl, a mother is talking to her daughter about all the proper things she must do to be considered a good girl to her family and to the public, and when she grows up, a proper lady. She must follow the rules that are given to her by her own mother and by society. The mother also teaches the daughter how to act when things don’t go her way. She is told that along with being a proper lady, she must also be able to get what she wants and be independent. This story was written in the late 1970’s and gender roles, for women, back then were not being “followed” because women wanted equal opportunities (Women In the Workforce). “Gender stereotypes are beliefs regarding the traits and behavioral characteristics given to individuals on the basis of their gender” (Deuhr). This essay will discuss the gender roles that were given to women in the story, during the late 70’s, and in today’s society.

Another example is the enigmatic Vera Atkins who challenged conventional ideas of gender roles. Atkins was a volunteer for the Special Operations Executive (SOE) founded by Winston Churchill. She was a Jewish refugee from Romania and was the brilliant and highly-effective leader of the SOE. During her time, there was a fear of the “voluntary” spy, spies that were too eager to be a part of the Intelligence agencies. These people were considered to be moles sent by opponents. Vera Atkins was perceived as an enigma by those around her during her wartime service and social life. She took after her father’s footsteps and maintained a life of privacy. Her father had advised her that “There’s safety in conjecture” and became known for her contradictions;

Sitcoms reflect the changes going on in the world to show what society is like. Sometimes it’s a show about nothing and oftentimes sitcoms actually affect the world. Sitcoms created gender role stereotypes for society and they did not always show an accurate representation of life. Early on, sitcoms were family focused and they eventually begin to shed light on different problems in society. Throughout the sitcoms The Trouble With Father, Sex and the City, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Bewitched women transitioned from being in the traditional role to being an effective part of the workplace. Women were portrayed differently throughout these sitcoms; they portray women to be leaders, submissive, or the fool.

While watching the “Ladies Room” episode of Mad Men, a lot of traditional gender roles were portrayed. Gender roles are often defined as how a society defines how women and men should think and behave. Men are often taught to show instrumental qualities, such as competitiveness, dominance, and confidence, while women exhibit more expressional qualities, such as empathy and sensitivity. The Mad Men episode started off with a man showing dominance by being demanding towards a waitress. While at work, the men competed against each other all while messing around and having fun at work. Women in the episode expressed themselves by gossiping and showing feelings towards others.

In Phillip’s film adaptation of The Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, Mabel embodies the effects of society on an individual through the stereotypes imposed on her as a servant. This extremely lower class character in the film is expected to conform to the standards of a servant to a gentleman of utmost respect right after being picked up from the streets. This is seen at the very beginning of the film when Dr. Jekyll tells Mabel “a servant is there to serve, they don’t exist” (Phillips). Not only do Mabel and all other servants of the Victorian Era have very limited power and rights, but they are barely even seen as human. Dr. Jekyll is not the only one who sees servants like this, it is the shared view of

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell is a well-written novel that sends out the important message of not listening to society concerning stereotypical gender roles. Eleanor and Park both chose to defy traditional gender roles. Eleanor preferred to wear men’s clothing to express her individuality. “Today the girl was wearing a giant man's shirt with seashells all over it. The collar must have been really big, like disco-big, because she'd cut it, and it was fraying. She had a man's necktie wrapped around her ponytail like a big polyester ribbon. She looked ridiculous”(34). Eleanor did not care about traditional gender roles and dressed as she wanted for her own reasons. Dressing in men’s clothing items allowed Eleanor to willfully reject

Charles Dickens, “Great Expectations” follows a boy named Pip through a journey of meeting new people around the town and also is considered an Orphan. There are a lot of characters that are introduced like Miss Havisham who always wears a wedding who shows up a lot in the book. Pip changes a lot through the novel with wanting to be a gentlemen but has made a lot of mistakes and blames it on his sister Mrs. Joe who raised him by hand. The women seem to be different from the men in this novel with different roles they play so I’m going to show they are different.