How Women Are Presented in 'in Cold Blood'

For the longest time, women’s role in society was very narrow and set in stone. Women weren’t given the chance to decide life for their own, and there was a very sharp distinction of gender roles. Women were viewed as inferior, weak, and dependant. They were expected to be responsible for the family and maintainance of the house. But as the 19th century began, so did a drastic change in society. Women started voicing their opinions and seeking change. Trying to break away from this ideology called “cult of domesticity” was a lengthy, burdensome, and demanding struggle.

F. Scott Fitzgerald tackles numerous grave themes in his renowned novel The Great Gatsby, one of the most prominent being sexism and the disparities of gender equality in the 1920s. The novel tells the story of several upper class men and women navigating prohibition and their own personal drama in their otherwise almost wholly uneventful lives. Every character, regardless of their gender, ends up dead, alone, unhappy, or some combination of the three by the end of the story. But as with most literature, the journey is paramount in comparison to the destination. The way Fitzgerald frames the outcomes of each character varies significantly based on their gender. It is not as simple as “all of the men continue without consequences and get the girl while all the women are either hit by a car or stay in unfaithful marriages” or vice versa. No one gets an entirely, or even mostly, favorable ending. It is instead the reason why one’s finale is inauspicious that must be examined. Men are nearly exclusively characterized in older fiction as being aggressive doers; they are the ones that the story is about and they drive their stories forward. Women, on the other hand, are passive reactors; they are the secondary plot devices to be used to propel the story forward. The men of the novel end up miserable because of things that happen to them, while the women of the story have cheerless conclusions because of actions they took that actively landed them in that place. The Great Gatsby

The setting of both stories reinforces the notion of women's dependence on men. The late 1800's were a turbulent time for women's roles. The turn of the century

In this satirical article, Brady expresses the difference between the roles of women and men in the 1970’s by stating men’s point of view on women and women’s roles in society. Throughout her article, Brady emphasizes the roles of women. For example, women could now “work and...takes care of the children when they are sick”. Comparing the 1880’s to the 1970’s, there has been a big improvement. Many women had jobs outside their home, but still were responsible for most housework and childcare while their husband’s only responsibility in a marriage was to go to work and earn money to support the family. Society’s expectations allowed women to work outside the home to support college education for husbands; however,women had to know how to balance their time between their children and their jobs, making sure that their husbands “cannot miss classes at school.” During the 1970’s, women were still oppressed in many ways and had to follow society's expectations in order to live up to the men’s view of women’s roles in society. Even though society’s expectations of women had improved since The Awakening, most of women’s roles had stayed the same. In the article, Brady specifies how once a husband is “through with school and has a job, [he expects the] wife to quit working and remain at home so that [she] can more fully and completely take

The feelings that Capote illustrates through his imagery have symbolized not only the character’s thoughts, but also the author’s inviting the reader into their personal world. In Part IV, Perry is relating to the tom cats as he watch[ed] their maneuvers” who “appeared with every twilight and prowled” and are notorious for “hunting” (264,1). This description of Perry allows to see what his life has been like and he literally confesses at the end that he’s “done what their doing”, “the equivalent” (264,1). These representations conjure pity for the convict and let the audience hear his cry of desperation when he was a child; homeless, starving and searching, he persevered and the imagery that’s provided shows the critical feelings that Capote wants you, and maybe even himself, endure and grasp hold of for the development of Perry. Another example of how imagery evokes emotions for the author’s purpose is how Capote introduces the deceased Clutter family at their funeral. He states the family’s clothing put around their bodies from a “dress” to a “flannel” and that it “lent the scene an awful aura” because their heads were “encased in cotton” and they were twice the size of “an ordinary blown-up balloon” (115,2). Capote carefully surrounds us with the imagery of the Clutter’s in full detail because he is trying to make them

Women’s history in the United States has always been represented as a struggle for rights. Wealth and status were tied to either their fathers or husbands. In the early 1900s, women were afforded the traditional roles of society. The majority of women worked in the home. If they were of the 18% young or poor women, they also worked in factories as laborers, manufacturing items for the booming industrial revolution (U.S. Department of Labor, 1980). During this time period the workplace was not in compliance with current safety standards. There was no minimum wage yet, work conditions were horrible and they worked long hours, “In 1900, the average workweek in manufacturing was 53 hours,” (Fisk, 2003). Women took “pink

Does deviating from one’s gender norms inevitably doom one down a spiral of moral corruption? Tim O'Brien, author of “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” and Ernest Hemingway, author of “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber”, certainly seem to hold this view, as evident by the fates of the major female characters in their respective works. The deviance of the major female characters in both works appears to corrupt not only themselves, but also pollute their partners, causing them to suffer injury or harm as a result. The degree of injury ranges from negligible, like Fossie’s demotion and broken heart, to fatal, like the bullet that rips through Macomber’s skull. It begs the question, are these stories meant to serve as cautionary tales for their female readers, or possibly for their husbands, so they may recognize gender deviance and stop it in its tracks before their wives transform into Margot Macomber or Mary Anne Bell? This essay will analyze what such characters say about pervading views of women, both in society and in literature.

The fact that he secretly smokes and does not live up to his own high standards reveals the impractical nature of the perfect family. The community views the Clutters as the American Dream family, however, Capote implies that a perfect family is an illusion. Later in his description of the Clutter family, Capote focuses on Bonnie Clutter, the mother of both Nancy and Kenyon Clutter and wife of Herb Clutter, and her postpartum depression, which forces her to remain indoors and keeps her from community events. After the birth of her youngest child, Kenyon, “the mood of misery that descended never altogether lifted; it lingered like a cloud that might rain or might not.” (27) In describing the depth and intensity of Bonnie’s mental illness, Capote utilizes a simile to compare her depression to a gloomy cloud to demonstrate how just as storms hang in the sky and create a dark, melancholy feeling so does Bonnie’s depression constantly loom over her and ruin her daily life. Although Bonnie has created a typical healthy family, she cannot care for her family or involve herself in raising her children due to her constant, almost crippling depression. With Bonnie’s flaw, Capote shows again the unrealistic nature of an American Dream family. Bonnie’s “cloud” of depression prevents the Clutters from truly achieving the family life of the American Dream. Near the end of Capote’s description of the Clutter family, he introduces

Capote’s book “In Cold Blood” is a true story, however, he uses several fictional writing devices such as foreshadowing, irony, and flashbacks. Foreshadowing occurs when the author reveals information about future events and scenarios, one example of this device is that Mr. Clutter was “unaware that would be his last day alive”, this emphasizes for a first time reader that something unexpected is going to occur to that character that day. Capote seems to saturate the text with cruel irony, he states that the family is going to be murdered which makes readers anxious to discover crucial details. Hours before the death Mr. Clutter signs a life insurance policy, making readers wonder not only how ironic that is, but also wonder if someone benefiting from his death is responsible. Flashbacks occur to show the readers events that have occurred in the past to explain the character’s motives or show an event that troubles them. “In Cold Blood” shows real events, it is not a fabricated reality of Capote. He is however sympathetic in several ways. Capote reveals facts about the killers, and makes the readers sympathetic for the family (how they did nothing to deserve these events), and for Nancy’s boyfriend who was temporarily suspected of this brutal crime. In my opinion, Capote did achieve his goal of being objective and sympathetic and he coined the term “non-fiction novel” perfectly.

1. The first essay clearly shows the impact that an ideology of domesticity on women in New England in the 1830’s. The writer at first calls this time period a “paradox in the “progress” of women’s history in the United States”. During this time apparently two contradictory views on women’s relations to society clashed, unusually, those two being domesticity, which essentially limited women, giving them a “sex-specific” role that they must abide to, this mostly being present at the home with their husbands and whatever kids they may or may not have had at that time, and feminism, which essentially tried to remove this domesticity, trying to remove sex-specific limits on women’s opportunities and

As hardworking women living of the prairie, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters can relate to Mrs. Wright’s situation. They know personally that long days of doing laundry, cooking, and cleaning can become very tiresome (Hedges 91). They realize that living on the prairie can force a woman to be confined to her own house for weeks at a time, and because Mrs. Wright never had children, the grueling loneliness that she suffered must have been excruciating. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters both experience the constant patronization and sexual discrimination that most women in the early twentieth century lived with. They empathize with the difficulties of Mrs. Wright’s life and almost immediately a bond is formed with a woman they do not even know.

Capote Although Capote portrays stolen innocence in the death of the Clutter family, he also uses effective language tools for the purpose of additionally depicting Perry’s stolen innocence, therefore Capote encourages humans to grasp sorrow for the unknown, the people with a questionable background, that may feel more pain if they do not commit the painful. After the town of Maycomb had time to grieve, the cleaning processes resumed, beginning with the destruction of the Clutters’ bloodiest belongings through fire. However, their belongings were not the only thing destructed in the blazing fire.

From the beginning of time, sexism has greatly impacted and hindered women from all walks of life. This was particularly true in America’s history. In the 1930’s, females were treated as though they were strictly sex objects. In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, this case is evident when Curley's wife is objectified and disrespected on multiple occasions. Although Curley’s wife is considered an antagonist of the story, she is actually a victim of sexism based on how the men on the ranch act toward her and take away her basic freedoms.

Early twentieth century America is shaped by World War I , the effects of industrial growth, and a beginning of a new age in literature. Despite movements for progressive reforms like the prohibition of alcohol and the movement for women’s suffrage women’s rights were still limited by traditional gender roles. Women are a “detached portion” of their husbands and expected to submit to his every demand. As result of women being viewed as flighty and emotionally unstable, men must take the dominant role and every decision made in the family is approved by them. Moreover, the purpose of a woman’s life is to maintain a household and birth and care for her

Cormac McCarthy’s novel, Suttree, demonstrates the prejudice deeply ingrained within society, as well as the way it largely affects its readers. The misogynistic attitude is certainly not a new one. Women have been oppressed and viewed as less than men, in personal accounts and in narratives, for a long time. In the minds of the men in this novel, women are seen as merely an addition to men or an afterthought, and certainly not able to hold the value of a whole person on their own. The only real relationships with women the reader observes are Cornelius Suttree’s romance with Wanda, and then with Joyce. The lens through which Suttree views women is skewed, hostile and distrustful. He consistently views women as either irrational, emotional, or as purely sexual objects. There are many examples of the twisted language used to describe women, from Suttree’s wife, to his mother, to waitresses in restaurants, to these women with which he is intimate.