How Is Lucy Presented In To Kill A Mockingbird

Having studied the time period myself, I concur with her real time assessment of these stark separations. However, I strongly disagree with the statement she makes in her conclusion of the story. By having the women forgo their responsibility to uphold justice in the eyes of the law, or, at a bear minimum, not to obstruct it, Glaspell leads the reader to believe that murder, perhaps the worst crime that can be committed by man, or woman, is to be forgiven without reproach because of purported mental abuse! I find the idea sickening. That there are evil people in the world who take the life of others is bad enough, but to consider that some rationalize such activities because of a certain social persuasion is intolerable.

Anderson’s story contains a four-page description of the events that led to Melinda, the main characters, rape scene. These four pages were enough for Scroggin and Swier to challenge this novel in its entirety and hide it from students, hindering their horizons of literature.

Gender roles throughout history have been portrayed in many works of literature. We imagine that in 2016 our world would be at its absolute best regarding the roles of women considering we just had our first woman from a major party run for the highest office in the nation. Unfortunately, we still seem to have a way to go. Oscar Wilde said, "Women have a much better time than men in this world; there are far more things forbidden to them." It has only been in the past few years that women have stood up and demanded equal pay and equal treatment. There are still many places in the world where women are still very oppressed. In Susan Glaspell 's "Trifles," written in 1916, the theme throughout is that the men are the smart, dominant ones, and therefore very chauvinistic, and the women only concern themselves with sewing and cleaning which is, therefore, insignificant and trifle. The women from the start of the play very clearly see clues to the murder that the men do not ever see. Glaspell tells the story of the murder of Mr. John Wright, who was found strangled in his bed. His wife Minnie is the main suspect. The men in the story, the County Attorney Mr. Henderson, the Sheriff Mr. Peters, and the neighbor who found the body, Mr. Hale, look for scientific clues and totally overlook what is right in front of them. In the 1900 's roles were clearly defined by the men and this is carried throughout the play. The women in this play are the unsung heroes while the men who are

As I sat and began reading Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption, I was flabbergasted by the subject matter and storytelling. I had never heard of the book before in my life, but as I read the description on Google and other sites, I expected a book dominated by prejudice and hostility, but as I began to read, even with a biased mindset I was amusingly surprised. I found myself observed in the epic retelling of justice, hatred, love and the power of forgiveness. In the book, two different people, Jennifer Thompson and Ronald Cotton have their lives thrown together into a mixer of stout confusion and emotion leading to Ronald Cotton going to prison for the rape of Jennifer Thompson, a rape he didn’t commit. I found the topic of the book to be sort of difficult to process due to the reality in it, a reality of both rape and wrongful imprisonment (especially of blacks), both things that are unfortunately highly prevalent in our society, yet seem to be ignored as our culture does not wish to deal with them. In the book the respective perspectives of both Ronald Cotton and Jennifer Thompson are given as they describe how the trial changed their lives forever.

Two drunken white men raped a young black girl, Tonya Hailey, who was walking from a small store where she bought groceries. When the news reached her father, Carl Lee Hailey, he went to their hearing, where he shot and killed the two men, while also wounding a police officer. Carl Lee hires a white attorney, Jake Brigance, to represent him in court. Many people and organizations, such as the Ku Klux Klan, tried to sabotage Brigance’s likelihood of winning the case. With the help of a liberal law student, Brigance successfully acquitted Carl Lee Hailey for the murders of the two rapists.

This ethical analysis will define the hierarchical societal pressures and psychological torment that validates acts of crime committed by Bigger Thomas in Native Son by Richard Wright and Maria in Ian McEwan’s novel The Innocent. In Wright’s novel, the main protagonist, Bigger Thomas, is a twenty year old that is prone to crime because of being marginalized in a racist white society that will not allow him to advance himself. After accidently killing Mary Dalton, Bigger’s fear of being caught is part of psychological torment that partially vindicates him from the crime. This is also true of Maria’s murder of Otto to protect Leonard from getting killed during a fistfight, since Otto had psychologically and physically abused her. Maria’s case is more compelling than Bigger’s, but they both share the underlying hierarchical abuse of society and the psychological torment that vindicates the traumatic outburst that lead to murder. These criminal acts define certain circumstances in which “crimes of passions” are vindicated in relation to the abuse and mental torment of the perpetrator of the crime. In essence, an ethical analysis of Bigger Thomas and Maria will definer the vindication of certain crimes due to hierarchical oppression and psychological torment in crimes of passion.

The social ramification keeps going to this day. Even though Celia was raped she was given her legal right as a white person would. “Celia’s trial, its causes, and consequences, confront us with the hard daily

Victoria Price and Mayella Ewell are white women who both falsely accused black men of raping them. The first piece of evidence was that both girls were poor and needed money. They saw black men and used them as an excuse to either get money or attention. Victoria would take an easier route to get money by sleeping with white and black men because where she worked, wages were always low and the hours were too long (Ransdell, 1935, pg. 13). Victoria and Mayella both provided information that didn’t add up and couldn’t answer simple questions. A lawyer named Samuel Leibowitz asked Victoria which cart was she raped in on the train. Price claims that she couldn’t show him because the toy replica of the train was too small (Scottsboro, 2005). A lawyer named

This affects the reader truly because we all know this happened but to have an author that is able to paint a picture in your mind makes it all more real and in some parts it was really disgusting the way white people treated the African Americans and the detail on wounds really got me I still can picture the grooves in the foot and being able to place a pencil in them as well as the whipping gashes this makes the reader really want Fredrick to escape his cruel punishments and be

As a 52 year old, white South African, David Lurie has not felt the apartheid era as the majority of the black population did. He was a selfish, arrogant, and over-privileged professor who used his authoritative position to his advantage. After his affair was made public, he gets shamed by the media causing him to lose his university position and making him flee to his daughter’s farmhouse. Such Disgrace would teach David about what most South Africans in apartheid era went through, segregation and discrimination. Per Rachel, “He [Lurie] changes throughout the novel because what he represents about the past society, with his Romantic period interests, no longer holds in this changed South Africa “(56). David Lurie learns to cope with the new

While he waits “at a traffic light,” he “catches his eye [on] a tall girl in a black leather skirt” (Coetzee 194). She is mere stranger on the road, yet he is confident in being able to immediately hook up with her. The way he looks at women, reflects how they are displayed as animals and sexual bodies waiting for someone to catch them and because this occurs frequently, the idea of female bodies being dominated and constructed through male ideology becomes naturalized and accepted as a norm in society. It is evident that though all women do not become prostitutes because they enjoy the idea of it, there is this acceptance of the gender binary, where women choose to transform themselves into this sexualized character that seeks attention and is submissive to the man. Monique Wittig highlights the idea of categories in her text, “One is Not Born a Woman.” She agrees with Coetzee’s representation of the male and female roles and says that “for “woman” does not exist for [them]: it is only an imaginary formation” created by men (Wittig 15). Wittig explains that the category of “women” goes beyond the biological genes and outer appearance. It is something that is created not to make women feel good about themselves or to give them certain types of privileges, but it is a socially constructed idea that subject’s women into a certain type of character that benefits men. She goes on to say that “Once the class “men” disappears, “woman” as a class will disappear as well, for there are no slaves without masters” (Wittig 15). Consequently, the class of “women” is created in response to “men,” where if the category of “men” did not exist, then women would not be so restricted in the things that they are allowed to do and they would not have to live a life trying to satisfy men in order to

Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize winning play Ruined takes place at Mama Nadi’s brothel in the Congo where a civil war is being waged and coltan is the new gold being mined from the earth. Mama Nadi reluctantly takes Sophie and Salima into her establishment to work alongside Josephine as entertainment for miners and soldiers. Before coming to Mama Nadi’s, Sophie, Josephine, Salima all experienced rape. The word rape is so common in our society that it has lost its intensity and heinousness to a person who has not experienced it. Rape is a general term to describe what the women experienced but it does not give any hint to the struggle that comes after the event. For example, what it does to a person’s mind, the lasting scars on someone’s body, and how it can change a person’s personality. Many critics assume that rape is the tragedy in the play, but Nottage’s use of the word “ruined” emphasizes that the real tragedy is the consequences of those soldier’s actions on these women 's lives and how it affected their interactions with society.

After the women have discovered the true story of the crime and distracted the investigators from discovering the same truth, they have a brief exchange amongst themselves about the relationship among women. Mrs. Hale declares that never visiting Mrs. Wright was “a crime” and asks, “Who’s going to punish that?” (The Concept of Crime). What Mrs. Hale describes is a different kind of crime, of course, than the murder which Mrs. Wright has committed. Yet it seems that Glaspell wants to make a commentary about other kinds of crime and their impact on individuals. After looking at all the little “trifles” of the crime the women soon discover that the whole reason behind Mrs. Wright murdering her husband. The reason was because she was lonely and isolated. In the play Mrs. Hale mentions that before Minnie

Throughout Webster’s play and Larsson’s novel, the women display solidarity, bravery, and assertiveness. Salander and the Duchess live how they please, with no fear of retaliation from the patriarchy. In the face of death, The Duchess courageously accepts her fate instead of begging for mercy, and when a victim or witness of violence, Salander takes action to ensure that justice is served, rather than shrinking away in fear. The Duchess and Lisbeth Salander are the most courageous

When the word rape comes to mind, the words that I could relate it to are violence and sexuality. A while after the rape, Lucy slowly starts to open up to David and when she says “I think they do rape.” (158). Indicates the black men are attackers, and that they literally do rape, as well as clarifies for me that indeed Lucy’s rape was both violent and sexual. Additionally, just as Lucy is being assaulted, we see more violence when David gets knocked out, “A blow catches him on the crown of the head… He is aware of being dragged across the kitchen floor. Then he blacks out.” (93). This here pinpoints that David was hit hard on the head, showing violence as a result of Lucy’s rape moreover, seeing this assault on David, clearly demonstrates that the assault on Lucy was also really brutal. Once more, indicating it was forced and showing how very much tied the relationship between sexuality and violence is in this