Role of Women in Literature Essay

1. Why did Cato object to repealing the Oppian law? What was the basis of his objections?

There are several instances in the story that “the American” reiterates “Jig’s” options for her future. Although he expresses that he would support and love her no matter what the ultimate choice is, she feels conflicted and her pain, which builds throughout the story and as the conversation progresses, becomes more obvious. What is most interesting is, as his second thoughts about the unspoken abortion spike, her resistance to discuss the topic any further grows in tandem. Although the two heroes’ love for one another is evident, there is the aching uncertainty between them: Is there room for a child in their relationship built of travelling, drinking, and discovery?

Jig's main objective throughout the story is ensuring that her partner is happy. This is apparent when she tells him that she will go through with the abortion. "Then I'll do it. Because I don't care about me." "And I'll do it and then everything will be fine." Through these comments it is evident that she truly believes if she has an abortion their relationship will be fine giving little thought to the emotional and physical trauma the procedure will cause. Jig's subservient attitude is indicative of her low self esteem throughout the story. She allows herself to be shaped by a man whose care for her is more than obviously not a reciprocation of hers for

Throughout the history of society, women and men both have faced the constricting roles forced upon them, from a young age; each gender is given specific social and cultural roles to play out throughout their lives. Little girls are given dolls and kitchen toys, little boys are given dinosaurs and power tool toys, if one was to step out of this specified role, social conflict would ensue. Contrast to popular belief, sex is a biological construct, and gender is a social construct specifying the roles men and women are to follow to be accepted into society as “normal”. The effects of gender roles have had on women have proved harmful over the decades. Although the woman’s involvement in society has improved throughout the decades,

“Everything we read constructs us, makes us who we are, by presenting our image of ourselves as girls and women, as boys and men” – M. Fox

Throughout American Literature, women have been depicted in many different ways. The portrayal of women in American Literature is often influenced by an author's personal experience or a frequent societal stereotype of women and their position. Often times, male authors interpret society’s views of women in a completely different nature than a female author would. While F. Scott Fitzgerald may represent his main female character as a victim in the 1920’s, Zora Neale Hurston portrays hers as a strong, free-spirited, and independent woman only a decade later in the 1930’s.

     “So it is naturally with the male and the female; the one is superior, the other inferior; the one governs, the other is governed; and the same rule must necessarily hold good with respect to all mankind.” This quote, spoken by the famous Aristotle, proves to be timeless. The words express knowledge concerning gender that proves to be centuries ahead of its time. Aristotle however, may not have even realized the amount of truth expressed in these few, simple words. Men are commonly thought of as the dominant of the two sexes, but as we have seen through many of the literary works studied, this is most certainly not the case. In dealing with books such as Macbeth written by

Annette Bair and Marilyn Friedman have opposing views on whether women have distinct moral perspectives. Like Friedman, I believe that women have no different moral perspectives than men. Some people, like Bair, think that women base their moral perspectives on merely trust and love and men base theirs on justice. Friedman points out that care and justice coincide . People use justice to decide what is appropriate in caring relationships and care is brought into account when determining what is just. Since these two moral perspectives correspond, gender does not distinguish different moral perspectives.

The sexualisation of women in advertising has become a very prominent and controversial issue in today’s society. Many brands, products and campaigns we are presented with portray women as being available and willing sexual objects, who exist to cater to the male gender. Gucci is one such brand that does this, focusing on emphasizing the sexual appeal of the female gender in order to sell their products, because as advertisers know: ‘sex sells.’ This new cultural shift can however, be seen as politically regressive for women, as the ideology it brings negatively impacts how women are viewed by society and how they view themselves.

The role of women in the society is always questioned and for centuries, they have struggled to find their place in a world that is predominantly male oriented. The treatment of women was extremely negative; they were expected to stay home and fulfill domestic duties. Literature of that time embodies and mirrors social issues of women in society (Lecture on the Puritans). But, slowly and gradually, situation being changed: “During the first half of the 19th century, women 's roles in society evolved in the areas of occupational, moral, and social reform. Through efforts such as factory movements, social reform, and women 's rights, their aims were realized and foundations for further reform were established” (Lauter 1406). Feminist poets like Emily Dickinson and Anne Bradstreet talked substantially about feminism in different lights in the past two centuries. They were very vocal and assertive about their rights and the ‘rights for women’ in general. While they might have been successful at making a good attempt to obliterate gender biases but still there are lot of disparities between the two genders. Nevertheless, their poetry reflects a deep angst.

In the past, as well as the present, the societal roles of women have shifted drastically. Over the course of history, women have gradually gained a voice in society, though this was often held to a lesser standard in relation to the male population. This paper will discuss the developing roles of women over time, in correlation to their portrayal in literary texts over the realism, modernism, and postmodernism eras. To assist in supporting and further explaining these points, context for each particular era will be provided prior to explanation. Passages from each of the texts will also be used as support to aid in illustrating the female’s role in the story, and how it relates to the real world. The women’s position will be compared to that of the male lead in each of the works, as this will display the level of lacking equality during each era. Due to the common theme of women’s position against a male counter-character in each of the literary works, readers are able to connect the emphasized relations to the roles of women during each of the time periods, while simultaneously comparing and contrasting society’s gender norm development.

The textbook identifies four approaches to gender development: biological, interpersonal, cultural, and critical. Define each theory. Then answer the following question: which of the theoretical approaches to gender do you find the most valid? Be sure to include at least two examples from your own experience as well as two scholarly sources to back up your claim.

First I want to say this has being a very interesting class where it help me see this controversy topics on women in literature, where many women’s, writers, had experience a struggle life based on the oppression, sexual harassment, domestic violence, psychological and physical abuse from men dominion. These essays show me how women with lack of opportunities, lack of freedom, and with major problem such as sexual and racial discrimination they overcome this conflicts by writing their stories and personal experience to the people so we can make conscience in order to avoid this oppression against minorities communities including women. I can say the University of Texas at El Paso, those offers women in literature course, where they help the community to understand the diversity between men and women and the struggles that our people had face, plus it shows how they over come these situations. I think that 50% of the people think that gender don’t matter, but I can say gender could matter when we are studying literature, because some of them don’t think this situation is an important tool for us to see and learn the variations of ideas, life experience, and personal opinion about our people and writers. I do share the opinion that we need to expand our mind into new directions in order to understand other people works, and not fall into the ignorance and close-minded. Women in literature it is a legitimate category for us to studying the writer’s works and more for a better

For the society womanhood mean woman should take care of her family. Society has a lot of expectations from a woman. Now days society expects from a woman to be able take care of kids, and husband. If woman has kids, then that mean she has reached her womanhood. Somehow, if does not want kids someday, then she is still considered a girl. Having kids mean that your name is being pass on for next generation. When husband come home from work, they expect form their wife have their dinner made, and their kids are on put on for sleep. Society expect from a woman to take care of their family and from a man to make money so they can feed their family. If both gender change their roles, society would say they both have not reach their

The girlfriend, Jig, is an unusual character because throughout the story there is little detail about her. Ernest Hemingway never gives any physical description, leaving a lot of room for imagination of her appearance. She comes across as a beautiful, high class young lady that doesn’t truly explain how she feels. She is in a significant argument about whether or not they want to have an abortion. That is a significant decision to make for a women because it is her body and her baby. Abortion often leads to a women becoming depressed because it leaves