My research paper is entitled, Analyzing Heart of Darkness through a Feminist Lens. Through this

It is presently common, to label women as inherently malicious and slanderous individuals. We see these stereotypes present, in today’s society. For instance, when two women get in an argument, others around them, tend to yell ‘cat fight’, declaring that because they are women, they presume them as ‘catty’. This scenario, can also be used as a parallel, that depicts what society does to women. Society sets women in opposition to each other, by elevating a male’s status, and forcing women to seek approval from men. In the book, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, the main character Francie observes, a situation where, a woman is verbally and eventually physically assaulted, by other women, because she is not married (or really, she doesn’t care nor needs the

The Portrayal of the Plight of Women by the Author, In Their Particular Period of Time

Joseph Conrad's novella, Heart of Darkness, describes a life-altering journey that the protagonist, Marlow, experiences in the African Congo.  The story explores the historical period of colonialism in Africa to exemplify Marlow's struggles.  Marlow, like other Europeans of his time, is brought up to believe certain things about colonialism, but his views change as he experiences colonialism first hand. This essay will explore Marlow's view of colonialism, which is shaped through his experiences and also from his relation to Kurtz.  Marlow's understanding of Kurtz's experiences show him the effects colonialism can have on a man's soul.

This annotated bibliography is designed to give the readers comprehensive understand of how the theme of feminism is manifested in William Faulkner short story A Rose for Emily. The information gathered about the story was mainly taken from scholarly journals and credible internet sources. The information gathered on the primary text gives and in-depth and critical look on the topic feminism. Through ongoing secondary research literary critics have a wide interpretations of the primary sources. In relation to the topic feminism, literary critics say that feminism can be seen in the story. Issues that literary critics emphases on are the reason behind the feminism theme. Some say it is because of the author personality, while others say it is just the writer expressing what he sees around him during the time that the story was written. These interpretation by literary critics have influenced me not only to look at the words in story but also to look at the author. Further research on the author would be useful, which will give me a full understand of who he is and what was going on when the story was written.

Analyzing the ways in which a piece of literature includes feminist ideologies can bring out the potential messages that the creators of these productions were attempting to portray, while allowing the reader to critique the literature from a feminist perspective.

In contrast with The Odyssey and Oresteia, a much more recent work, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, women serve as supplements to men`s actions and they are passive characters at mercy of the leading males. Females in Heart of Darkness can be similarly divided into three categories parallel to The Odyssey, yet with major differences. Marlow`s aunt " a dear enthusiastic soul...ready to do anything, anything for [Marlow] " (pg.72) could be identified as the "goddess" who is willing to help in any way possible, she is the higher class white civilized woman who lives in a surreal world, nonertheless she does not possess any power of Marlow like Athena does over men of The Odyssey.

An analysis of the novel which will answer the questions like, what elements of the gothic genre are found in the book ‘The Women In Black’? Considering the characters, settings and imagery, tone and symbols.

Sexuality has an inherent connection to human nature. Yet, even in regards to something so natural, societies throughout times have imposed expectations and gender roles upon it. Ultimately, these come to oppress women, and confine them within the limits that the world has set for them. However, society is constantly evolving, and within the past 200 years, the role of women has changed. These changes in society can be seen within the intricacies of literature in each era. Specifically, through analyzing The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, one can observe the dynamics of society in regards to the role of women through the lens of the theme of sexuality. In both novels, the confinement and oppression of women can be visibly seen as a result of these gender roles. Yet, from the time The Scarlet Letter was published to the time The Bell Jar was written, the place of women in society ultimately changed as well. Hence when evaluating the gender roles that are derived from sexuality, the difference between the portrayals of women’s oppression in each novel becomes apparent, and shows how the subjugation of women has evolved. The guiding question of this investigation is to what extent does the theme of sexuality reflect the expectations for women in society at the time each novel was written. The essay will explore how the literary elements that form each novel demonstrate each author’s independent vision which questions the

In society, there is a lot of violence, in particular, violence against women. Women are very often murdered, far more than is discussed. We never hear about most of these cases, simply because there are so many of them. 25% of women have experienced some sort of domestic violence, and 20% have faced sexual violence, making having faced violence almost normal. The notion that violence is something normal is very dangerous, as it is not only harmful to survivors of violence, but it also makes it more likely that more people will be victims of violence as perpetrators can get away with it more easily. Though violence against women is not talked about enough, our flaws as a society are reflected in literature. An example of an instance in which violence against women appears in literature is in John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men. Said instance is the death of “Curley’s Wife”. She is blamed for her own death, and she is clearly not valued as a whole person, no one reacts emotionally to her death. Victim blaming leads to the normalization of violence and the devaluing of women.

There is an abundance of literature in which characters become caught between colliding cultures. Often, these characters experience a period of growth from their exposure to a culture that’s dissimilar to their own. Such is the case with Marlow, Joseph Conrad’s infamous protagonist from ‘Heart of Darkness’. Marlow sets off to Africa on an ivory conquest and promptly found himself sailing into the heart of the Congo River. Along the way he is faced with disgruntled natives, cannibals, and the ominous and foreboding landscape. Marlow’s response to these tribulations is an introspective one, in which he calls into question his identity. This transcending of his former self renders the work as a whole a

American Literature has always been about men and for men. In this essay, we are going to analyze the women’s role in the book, as inferior and weaker gender.

It is impossible to discuss the role of women in literature without mentioning the influence of feminism. The later in the timeline one reads, the more prominent it becomes. Each new wave of feminism brings with it its own goals, yet it also continues to strive for some of the same goals as past generations because not everything is accomplished all at once. Although “The Well of Loneliness” by Radclyffe Hall and “Rubyfruit Jungle” by Rita Mae Brown, are two starkly different texts that strongly reflect the feminist eras in which they were written, they have some similarities as well.

Just as the shaping of history, and History itself, as Chinua Achebe has pointed out, (Achebe 5) is an affair of white men only and not of "prehistoric" African men, history is also, we could say, shifting the emphasis a little bit, an affair of white men only. One of the minimally active female characters in the novel is Marlowe's aunt, who manages to get him a position with the Company. She is, however, described as utterly innocent in terms of her knowledge of what the colonization of the Congo really is about, buying into the high-strung sentimentalist and morally righteous discourse of imperialism with striking naivety. Only men, Marlowe's attitude towards his aunt reveals, can bear the "realist"

For this essay, we focused strictly on critics' reactions to Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. For the most part, we found two separate opinions about The Handmaid's Tale, concerning feminism. One opinion is that it is a feminist novel, and the opposing opinion that it is not. Feminism: A doctrine advocating social, political, and economic rights for women equal to those of men as recorded in Webster's Dictionary. This topic is prevalent in the novel The Handmaid's Tale. Margaret Atwood, a Canadian writer, spends most of her time featuring women in her books, novels, and poetry that examine their relationships in society. In the book Atwood centers her novel on a girl whom

In Heart of Darkness women are not paid much attention beyond that of Kurtz's mistress and his fiancee. The only other women mentioned in the novel are the two ladies knitting with skeins of black wool, and the narrator's aunt, who got him his job with the Company. Since the aunt and the knitters are no mentioned hardly at all, only the