Narration In Gwendolyn Stich's Orientation

During a meeting, Ehrenreich expressed her complaint about the vacuum; however, when she looks towards the other employees, she notices the silence of the other employees. Ehrenreich looked towards the other employees for some support in the concerns expressed in the meeting, but instead finds them silent in their own world. She describes one of her fellow waitresses, Gail, as her role model, but at a meeting, she “stares sorrowfully at a point six inches from her nose” (pg 131). Though Ehrenreich viewed Gail as someone she can look up to and model after in her current occupation, Ehrenreich observes a moment where Gail is detached from the meeting’s concerns. Ehrenreich uses her observation of her fellow employees to strengthen her appeal to pathos. She builds her focus on pathos by describing the situation where she experienced the lack of support from her coworkers. Ehrenreich looks for support from her coworkers to help enforce the concern amongst everyone, but finds that everyone impartial to what is being discussed. Even her coworker Gail, who she views as a role model, did not offer her support for the concerns

1. The sexual harassment issue experienced by Julie from her co-worker, as well as the “ogling” she faced

“Orientation” begins in an office setting, and it's as if someone is actually giving the reader an orientation of their new job. The leader of the orientation walks the reader through the office, explaining how things operate and tell personal information about the employees. The leader spills a lot of dark secrets about the employees, and because of that, the theme of violence is repeated plenty. Starting with one of the employees named Amanda Pierce whose husband "subjects her to an escalating array of painful and humiliating sex games" (285). When she comes to work the next day she's bruised or has second-degree burns on her. Also, Kevin Howard, another fellow employee, is a "serial killer." He's known as the "Carpet Cuter" who is "responsible for the mutilations across town" (287), he even has a specific process of choosing and selecting his victims.

Olive quickly gains popularity when most of the student body witnesses, from the other side of the door, her having sex at a party with a boy from school. Little does everyone know that it is all a ruse to get them to think that Brandon, her fake sex partner, is not gay in hopes that this very public display of sexual activity will prevent daily beatings at school and it works! (Perry et al., 2011)

The second person perspective of “Until Gwen” offers in-depth detail and description of flashbacks and thoughts, as well as providing the story, thoughts, and actions which engages the reader. This causes the story to seem more personal and captivating through a connection to both the characters and their storyline, making it more personal. The use of second person allows for further character development and connections to characters that the reader can piece together, and relate with.

The first theme of discrimination can easily be illustrated in all stories and thus becomes an important element in reference to society. The discrimination of gender, age and race is especially represented in the two stories ‘Half lives- The First Luisa Rey Mystery’ and ‘The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish’. In the story ‘Half lives’ Luisa Rey is often exposed to gender discrimination as a result of the environment of her workplace and the people she interviews. One example is when she misses a meeting and her boss replies with “Spare me the woman’s-trouble excuse” (p118). The easy dismissal expresses gender discrimination because he assumes that any petty excuse would

Gwendolyn Stitch is living a facade. Appearing like she has it all together, she graces the office with a shiny veneer. In true form, she has taken it upon herself to be the office party planner and generously bring pastries for afternoon breaks on Wednesdays and Fridays. Gwendolyn is a friend to all and will mask all the anxiety pent up inside her to aide you in your more trivial issue. “Gwendolyn Stitch’s door is always open to all of us…because her door is always open she hides and cries in a stall in the women’s room” (Orozco, 1995, page 5). Her character is important as it addresses the role of a lot of women in the work place, overextending themselves, taking on a lot of extracurricular tasks, all while not taking care of herself. Gwendolyn doesn’t believe that she can be vulnerable in her would place, and she would be right. As her co-worked expressed “She does not let any of this interfere with her work. If it interfered with her work, she might have to be let go.” (Orozco, 1995, page 5). There is a satire approach to Gwendolyn’s character that addresses corporate America prioritizing production over the mental and emotional health of employees.

The general public depicted in An's story utilizes a test to decide how masculine or feminine an individual is to dole out them to specific assignments and sexual orientation particular positions. While this is by all accounts fairly tragic at to start with, it quite accurately reflects the present society. In spite of the fact that individuals are not compelled to seek after professions that fit their cliché gender roles, in reality, there are unmistakable "manly" and "ladylike" connotations with numerous policed acts, wherein not adhered to, is met with prejudice, violence and varying levels of ridicule.

She shows a female character doing what previously only men had done; directly committing herself to the criminal underworld, walking dangerous streets at night, boldly trespassing into perilous areas and defending herself- all the things that only men would do in conventional versions of the genre. On the very first page, Day introduces this concept of ironic mockery by creating confusion as to the gender of the character. A tough voice that fills the requirements of hard-boiled school men is established, and only after turning the page does the reader realize that the terribly hung-over narrator is a female private-eye and the blonde in the bed is a good-looking male.

Perez turns a seamless innocence picture of a man and woman working in an office after hours into a sexually charged interlude between the two characters. Starts out innocently with the author telling us that the man and women stayed late at work. Then he gives us a lust filled rant about the women attire and the man's long-awaited desire to be alone with her. The man goes on about how she volunteered to stay late and that he would have never have asked her. He is giving us the idea that he was hiding his true yearning for her possible showing his sense of dignity that he uses to subdue his primal urges. The author talks about the man having to open a window because "This office at night is a bit stuffy", but is the man being warm this an indication of an autonomic response created by his anticipation and primal longing for the

This is only a single chapter on her wickedest ways-the deepest shade among many brilliant lights. But we would say to the parents of San Francisco to look closer to their daughters, for they know not the many dangers to which they are exposed-know their associates, guard their virtue-and to mildly counsel their sons, for when upon the streets of this gay city they are wandering amid many temptations.”2 –B.E. Lloyd, Lights and Shades in San Francisco,

Sammy from “A&P” was originally distracted when three girls came into the store he worked at. Sammy was in the middle of checking out the “cash-register-watcher” and did not want anything to do with the girls, but as soon as his co-workers started add specifics about what happened the girls Sammy stands up for the girls by quitting his job. He observed the girls and thought; he really examined the “queen” she in a way set an example for how they should act. When Sammy’s manager Lengal comes in he says, “Girls, this isn’t the beach,”(21). He continued to repeat this as if he thought it was a funny joke. He was taking pleasure in correcting them and telling them that they were not dressed appropriately to be in the store, but at the beach. One of the girls spoke up

When the two station attendants try to exploit the men, McMurphy helps them gain the upper hand by posing as criminally insane (Fick). Even though the patients “become men”, adult sexuality is conspicuously absent from the novel. It is mainly the men’s cause to “remain boys on their own terms” (Fick par. 8). McMurphy’s women are boys’ companions. Candy and Sandy are good bad girls. “McMurphy’s sexuality complements a personal consistency that obliterates the distinction between past and present. Returning from the fishing trip, for example, he stops by his childhood house and tells the men of his own sexual initiation” (Fick par. 9).

When it comes to female characters, authors depict women with a sense of realism, that being that they are a common folk with a usually large but simple impact in the story. On the contrary, John Steinbeck’s female characters in his novel East of Eden do not have the sense of being normal women, and he goes to extremes when it comes to the women being good or bad. Faye, Olive, and Cathy are all women that have taken to extremes in their acts of kindness or evil. Faye is too good of a person, especially in the society that she is in. Olive helps an enormous amount in the military with work she has done that seemed unlikely for her to do by herself. Cathy, on the other hand, commits horrible acts that would immediately classify her as mental, but is ironically one of the smartest characters in the novel. These kinds of women are uncommon, especially in their society.

     At the same time, the readings of the women's masculinity and androgyny must be similarly reconsidered. While Irving reads Lena as one who "conforms more readily than Ántonia" and assimilates in a manner "too complete" in that "she, like Jim, is lethargic" (100), I would argue that Lena's refusal to marry and her achievement of the independent, successful life she sought belie any ready categorization of reinforced hegemony, undermining standard patriarchal demands; and her success can be contrasted with Jim's loveless marriage and the vague reference to the "disappointments" that have failed to quell his "naturally romantic and ardent disposition" (4). Similarly, as Gilbert and Gubar highlight, the happiness of the "masculine" hired girls stands in stark contrast with the emotional restriction to which town wives are subjected: "Energetic and jolly, Mrs. Harling must stop all the activities of her household so as to devote herself entirely to her husband" (197). While it may be true that "their disturbing androgynous qualities, and their unwillingness to accept traditional female roles" position the hired girls as "outsiders" (Wussow 52) and that these facts can be read as critical of the feminine, it seems more