Listen Here's A Story

Jeannette and her siblings adapt to self- sufficiency from a young age, from being emotionally and physically neglected by their parents. The children don’t expect anything so they learn to work with what they have and what opportunities come their way. Jeannette saw the suffering of the family and took this leadership for the family guiding her sibling in the correct path.

Lastly, the readability of this book is amazing. The information is presented well that is laid out in an organized manner. Due to the many different aspects and sides to the women discussed in the book there are sections laid out devoted to specific loyalties people and race. The tone of the book is pleasantly understood, so that many people of many different education levels are able to appreciate the information presented by Carol Berkin. The reader is immediately drawn in to the general overview located in the preface. Further on in the book Berkin is able to personalize the information so that the

Even though it was easy for women to obtain jobs in the field of domestic work or laundresses, they faced heavier exploitation; considering, that with these jobs women often had no time to care for their families. Leading a life in extreme poverty, these women had no choice, but to search for other opportunities to keep their families, and themselves, alive. At some point African American women even had to sacrifice their prides, in order to earn breadline wages to survive.

In some cultures women are expected to get married, produce and take care of kids, cook, basic housewife work. In the chapter, My Name, it shows how Esperanza would have liked to know her great grandmother, because he was a wild horse of a woman and wouldn’t marry. Until her great grandfather threw her over his shoulder like a sack and married her apparently. This is shown how Esperanza’s great grandmother didn’t want to marry and live up to the expectations, but unfortunately was forced into marriage. In the chapter, Alicia Sees Mice, it said how Alicia was studying hard and goes to college

Mayo Angelou explains the reality between struggles and the beauty of overcoming them in her poem called “Woman Work”. This poem is about a mother, preferably, a single mother that has children that she takes care of. The poem starts off by saying, “I’ve got children to tend / The clothes to mend / The floor to mop / The food to shop / Then the chicken to fry / The baby to dry / I got company to feed / The garden to weed / I’ve got shirts to press /

In the 1950’s through the 1960’s women were not respected in there everyday lives, in the job field or in general. They did not have the rights they deserved, so during this time the “women’s movement” began. Women fought for their rights and fought for the self-respect that they thought they deserved. In the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, the character Mama, expresses her feelings of pushing or extracting a new side for a woman. Her role explains that woman can be independent and can live for themselves. Through her behavior in this play she demonstrates that women can support and guide a family. Mama is in charge of the family, which is unusual, since men are traditionally the “head of a family”. Through Mama’s wisdom

Although this course is about global women’s movements, the overall argument in which I intend on taking for the purpose of this book review is that besides women, First Nations men are also victims of oppression. In addition to oppression, first nations are often stereotyped by society. Rice’s book does a good job on reflecting this idea once again, through the use of first person point of view stories. It allows the reader to really understand how these stereotypes affect the everyday lives of First Nations people. Before getting into how stereotyping affects the lives of these people, we will begin with looking into oppression and how it relates to the textbook.

Hawa is the main character in this book. Though she is not the author of the story, the story is told from her perspective. Hawa was born in the 1950’s to her family in Ghana. Her stories were tape-recorded in the 1970’s. At the age of three, Hawa’s mother died, and Hawa was then passed from family member to family member to care for her. Hawa had a very distinct personality—she was very stubborn and tended to get herself trouble. When asked not to do something, she would turn around and do that very thing. Because of this, she never managed to stay with one relative for very long. At one point, she lived with her aunt who forced her to do all the work. Hawa was forced to carry heavy items to the market while her cousin taunted her. This obviously frustrated Hawa, and it resulted in her returning to live with her father. At the age of 16, Hawa was forced to

Gundersen organized the book in many different ways. The prominent topics throughout the book were relocation, education, marriage, pregnancy, and constant changing times. The three women she selected belong to different classes, and have come from separate parts of the world. This choice was not by mistake, she chose these three completely separate lifestyles to show that these problems were not only occurring inside of one area or class. She selected these women to represent a whole for all women of this era. All women had to deal with the same problems, maybe not in the same way, but in similar ways.

Janie and her grandmother represent a culture of women that were stereotyped into a specific gender role, putting them as the last class in society. They received no compensation or respect for their services. Their work specifically benefited only those they worked for, and supported. Through compromising themselves in this way these women were subjected to even more maltreatment.

In this essay I will use Anne Fadiman’s book, The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down, in order to analyze its rhetorical situations & effectiveness. This book is filled with lots of emotion, anger, betrayal, misunderstandings and compassion. It talks about a Hmong family who lives in America and has a daughter named Lia Lee that is diagnosed with epilepsy. Fadiman explains the difficulty with communications between the two different cultures. Before Anne Fadiman became a writer she was a student at Harvard University. After graduating, she became a worker as a wilderness instructor in Wyoming before returning to her home town New York to pursue he career as a writer. She has been a staff writer at “Life” and editor of “The American Scholar”

“Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman,” written by Marjorie Shostak; is a culturally shocking and extremely touching book about a woman who had gone through many struggles and horrific tragedies in her life. This book also emphasizes the perspective of most of the women in the society. There are many striking issues in this book that the people of the !Kung tribe go through. Marjorie Shostak, an anthropologist, has written this book and studied the !Kung tribe for two years. Shostak had spent her two years interviewing the women in the society. She was very eager to learn more about how women’s roles differed from our own here in the United States. She knew that the !Kung were one of the

Ntleko had a rather humble beginning. She grew up without much money in a community where education for young girls was not common or deemed necessary. Young girls were raised caring for the household and were expected to be married off at a young age to do the exact same thing for the rest of their lives. Her father had the same mindset, and it took years and a meeting with the community chief for him to allow her to enter the first grade at age 14. Because Ntleko’s mother was no longer with her, members of the village would often visit her and help her with things she needed. Mrs. Mckechnie was one of them who made a lasting impact on Abegail. She encouraged her to get education, and that is what she went on to do. After elementary school, she could no longer afford the requirements, so she ran away to work for a family, and it wasn’t until she had enough money saved up to afford schooling that she returned home. With the help of Mrs. Mckechnie, she was able to complete high school and even nursing school.

However, when their mother came through the door and told them of a hungry family, the 4 women did not hesitate in giving away their luscious breakfast to those in need. The children delivered the food to the family and “a poor, bare, miserable room it was, with broken windows, no fire, ragged bedclothes, a sick mother, wailing baby, and a group of pale, hungry children cuddled under one old quilt, trying to keep warm”(24). The sisters realize what a harsh environment they live in, and because the setting is so pessimistic, they try to share the little wealth they have so that everyone may live long full lives. The setting in which they live, houses many people who have even less wealth than their own family. However, because of this dreadful place, they try and make sure that their community, or their family, is taken care of, even at the expense of their luxuries.

Women have always been treated differently from our male counterpart. As a woman, we are automatically born with a strike on our back, and as an African-American, we are seen at the very bottom of the totem pole. The trials and tribulations that we are put through no man could possibly withstand. In “Homegoing”, many issues that are still prevalent in today’s society is discussed. The author of the novel touch bases on the importance of family, cultural heritage, and gender inequality. Gender inequality is one of the main issues that women today face. In the beginning of the novel, the women of the village were controlled by the men in all aspects of life. Every move they made were scrutinized by their man counterparts. As the book progressed throughout the decades, the women were still facing issues that the women of today face.