Silence In Disgrace

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

While culture does present a great importance in one's life, the environment one flourishes in also plays just as vital a role. The setting of the stories stay the same, but where the characters were raised do differ. In the case of Lucy, she had been living on a reserve for her whole life; consequently, she identifies with the struggles and tragedies that occur on the daily basis, but knows that there is a better life she could live. Within the story, Lucy apologizes to Hilda for her house not having running water. To this apology, her friend Flora states, “Oh that's okay, she's studying about Indians, anyway. Might as well get the true picture” (Warrior, 200). With this dialogue in mind, it is clear that Lucy is not happy with her current living conditions, but still proceeds to live in such a horrid place due to her identifying with the area.

Sophie allows for doubt to pierce its way into David’s life for the first time. At the start of the novel, when David first meets Sophie, he gets an insight into a deviant’s life. She has proven to be the first blow to efficiently impact David’s thoughts and make him question the authenticity of his society’s belief system. “It is hind-sight that enables me to fix that as the day when my first small doubts started to germinate.”

Throughout this quarter we have read many books and many genres, at first glance they don’t seem to have any intertwining themes or ideas. Yet when you dig deeper than face value you can see that there is many underlying themes that the average reader might easily overlook. Shame is an overall human element that is seen all throughout; The Things They Carried, the Fifth Child, and Pocatello. Shame is the key to good literature, it is what drives the other emotions, and without shame people would not be people.

In ‘Lucy’ the character Lucy, an immigrant girl, leaves her home in the West Indies to come to America in order to reinvent herself and to discover her own identity. Her struggles for personal freedom and independence would require her complete disconnection from her family especially her mother. To do so, Lucy not only had to let go of her former identity, but she also has to void herself of the self-destruction and loneliness. Lucy’s liberation from the past is the key element to her finding her new self. That too will require her to mentally recolonized her past and present in a way she feels comfortable. The novel places Lucy at a cross road of culture and identities Antiguan and American. Upon arrival to America to work as an au pair for an

Authors often use characters within their novels to show the consequences of challenging cultural boundaries and, in turn, display their own personal concerns. It is not uncommon for characters to reflect an author’s ideology regarding social groups in their contemporary time periods. It is clear that this is certainly the case with the 1975 novel The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, (also referred to as How Violence Develops and Where it Can Lead), written by the German Author, Heinrich Boll. The Lost Honour is, on the surface, an attack on yellow journalism and the damage it causes to the lives of the people reported on. However, with a more in depth analysis of the novel we are able to

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

Jacobs’ narrative is open and honest in its depiction of sexual harassment, describing the nature of the abuse and the tortured emotional state it leaves its victims in. Though the narrative tells of a girl’s life over one hundred and fifty years ago, it remains timely in its reminder that many suffering women do not have the ability to safely end the harassment they face every day, and yet, they continue to endure the consequential

Young David met Sophie in the outskirts of town stuck under a rock and he rapidly decides to help her which leads to the discovery of extra extremities on her feet. After returning Sophie home, her family immediately makes David promise not to tell a soul about her mutation or else she would be banished from their town. David follows through with his promise, but on top of that he takes it upon himself to regularly visit Sophie. They create an intense loving bond over a short period of time. In the heat of a grueling situation, Sophie and her family abruptly leave town because Alan Ervin finds out about her deviation. The love and memories that David and Sophie endured, lasts years until they meet again in a community where diversity is valued. This takes the novel to a new level of thrill, because you do not know if they will ever meet again and rekindle their

In one correspondence between her friend and Mina, Lucy discusses what it means to be a woman by calling it a cult. This cult reflects the expectation of women to serve as domestic homemakers and not venture outside the idea of marriage. The identity of women is something that is not meant to be seen as an individual but in terms of their utility to the sustenance of man. This point can be proven by not only some of Lucy’s thoughts in the text but in many of her descriptions by other characters in the text as well. This lack of individuality in support of patriarchy is reflected in everything that Lucy does. The order of her day, where she will live, and even the smallest details of how she will speak. There is one instance in a conversation with her friend Mina that Lucy notes how she will only speak in a manner that her husband will like. Women in this age where expected to be this way, always dutiful and deferential to men, whether it be their husbands, fathers or brothers. This inferiority to men is important to note because it helps play into Stoker’s (among other Victorian writers and Victorian people’s views in general) character development of the women.

Some might be outraged at the notion that rape is not to be considered a tragedy. It is, of course, a horrific act. One that inflicts so much damage that it can cause PTSD type triggers in survivors. Rape is a before/after moment, people who experience it begin to think of how life was before and now after the event. For instance, with the character Salima, her life before the incident included a loving family with her “good husband” (35) and

Though David represents a seemingly common boy at the time, he has several qualities that make him stand out. However, these character traits are never simply told to us. Instead, the implied author uses David’s actions, decisions, and beliefs to

This lecture is a fictionalized creation of J.M .Coetzee, which upholds his belief that, “…a true sense in which writing is dialogic; a matter of awakening counter voices in oneself and embarking on speech with them.” The two central characters in this lecture, namely Elizabeth Costello a middle aged Australian lady novelist and Emmanuel Egudu are therefore the two counter voices in this piece which is both a lecture as

Next, I’d like to discuss the ways in which the conditions of “Living, Loving, and Lying Awake at Night,” and the roles that were plagued amongst the women in South Africa and how forced migrations affected their situations. Due to the Apartheid era, and men's non existence in their families life because of forced migration, women began to feel as though they could only do for themselves causing for their acceptance without man's presence. In an early reference to the chapter, leaving, the author shows the ways that apartheid affected the women. For instance, “As year went from the woman had come to

The future conditions of the woman’s potential marital worth were much poorer than any punishment the violator could have received. Once a woman was raped, her virginity was no longer available for her husband to have. “‘Virginity is the ornament of morals, the sanctity of the sexes, the peace of families and the source of the greatest friendships.’ Its existence was a precondition for marriage. To publicly breach it was to compromise honor, rank, even life; a ‘deflowered’ girl inevitably became a ‘lost’ girl. . . ‘The ravishing of virginity was the worst rape of all.’” (Cite Book 1) An innocent woman had now completely lost her worth to society and her own dignity due to a man’s egocentric and merciless actions.