Socialization In The Book Ragtime

The two passages, Breaking Tradition by Kathleen Ernest and A Family Affair by Gina DeAngelis and Lisa Ballinger, portray the changing role of women during the Civil War and World War II. Each passage shows how war transformed women’s roles in society in the 1800’s. In the 1800’s, women’s opinions and decisions were restricted during the Civil War and World War II, due to laws and traditions.

Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America’s Independence by Carol Berkin is a non-fictional expository book about changing women's roles before, during, and after the war. It surrounds various positions of not only White American women but, African American/slave women, distinguished, poor and Native American Women, as well as British women. It first covers pre-war norms, then looks at how the war affected women, and how women affected the war. It looks at various aspects of society, patriot and loyalist points of view, and the impact on slaves and Native Americans.

E.L. Doctorow’s novel Ragtime is a story involving certain characters, each trying to find his or her place in America. Doctorow focus’s on many themes throughout the novel, however, one theme that he gives to the reader from the very beginning of the novel is the American dream. Many characters throughout the novel individually take diverse journeys in order to fulfill what they might describe as “The American Dream.” Throughout Ragtime several characters venture upon momentous journeys whether they be sensible or unwise, in order to try and achieve their personal pursuit of the American dream.

Anthony Storr says that, “Originality implies being bold enough to go beyond accepted norms “ Social norms imply that everyone is the same or does something the same way, to break that you need to go out of your comfort zone and be bold enough to break those norms. Although it is very common for there to be social norms in society, when someone breaks one it can be the very first step to making the world a better place.

At the time this novel was published, women did as they were expected to by society.

It is important to put yourself in one’s shoes. By doing so, you can understand that person’s situation better. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Aunt Alexandra is prejudiced towards social classes, and Bob Ewell is prejudiced towards people whose skin color is different than his.

In the early 1900s, women were just beginning to live as they wanted. Being able to have a paying job and women being able to vote for certain things was a huge change. What did not change as much, however, was society as a whole. Many men and some women did not like the idea of women being able to do these things. Two books that show the struggles of women in that time are The Great Gatsby and Their Eyes Were Watching God. In The Great Gatsby, a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, it follows Nick Carraway as he goes through life in New York during the 1920s. During his time there, Nick reconnects with his cousin Daisy and sets her up with Jay Gatsby, who she was in a past relationship with. Eventually she breaks things off with Gatsby and leaves New York with her husband and daughter, leaving Gatsby to take the blame for a crime he did not commit. On the other hand, in Their Eyes are Watching God, a novel by Zora Neale Hurston, it follows Janie Crawford, a woman living in Florida in the early 1900s, as she goes through life trying to find her true love. Her quest for love began when she was a young girl, her Nanny forcing her into a loveless marriage at the age of sixteen. Throughout both books, the vast majority of female characters have been judged by others for going against societal norms by doing what they want, not what their husband or significant other told them to do. In both of these books’ time periods, women were expected to do whatever men said or told them to do,

The oppression of women has occurred all throughout history across the world in the thousands of years that patriarchy has existed. During recent times as social standards have progressed, the voices of women are heard more often than long ago. Nonetheless, it is often overlooked that women of decades before used their voices in other ways in order to speak out against oppression. One of the ways these women did this was in their literary writing. Despite the progress made today to stand up against oppression of women, there is much that can be learned by looking back at problematic situations portrayed by women writers of the 19th and 20th centuries. Out of all of the texts written by women only three will be discussed; Rebecca Harding Davis’s Life in the Iron-Mills, Susan Glaspell’s A Jury of Her Peers and Flannery O’Connor’s Good Country People, in which specific symbols are used as representations of the ways in which women were oppressed and how important it is to study these texts today. By narrowing down the number of literary texts to three as well as discussing only one literary device from each, one can begin to understand the importance of learning about the American women’s literary tradition.

The author talks about how women made the men legitimized the male ego by making the man feel powerful to his wife, and if a wife did not go along with these ideals she would just have to deal with it. Why some southern women let the role of the husband get to this point Anne Scott a well renowned author and history professor at Duke University said, “Husbands were frequently referred to in words used for God: Lord and Master.” Which helped women to have a growing sense of self awareness. Anne Scott also wrote saying that many women supported slavery and others believing it to be cruel and unjust saying it was possible to draw a subconscious feeling of their own unequal status. There were two sisters Sarah and Angelina Grimke from South Carolina, that wanted to break free from a southern women’s role and change the way they saw slavery and how women were

Social norms are apart of every society in some way, shape, or form. Issues occur off these social norms when there are outcasters who don’t exactly fit in with society's expectations. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Scout was pressured by many relatives and neighbors to “act like a girl”. Accept, Scout wants to be her own person. She wants to play in the dirt and have fun. Although, one particular person keeps putting her down, and that is Auntie Alexandra. Alexandra tries to play a female role for Scout and tells Scout how she is suppose to act. Scout however is very similar to Juliet capulet in this way. In Romeo and Juliet, Juliet was pressured by her mother to be more like other girls and to get married. Scout and Juliet,

Women haven’t always had the freedom that they have today. Women were supposed to live a certain life even though sometimes they didn’t want to. They had to tend to their husbands at all time, stay home and do housework while still taking care of their children or being pregnant. Women were abused physically, emotionally, and psychologically. Although women were perceived to act and present themselves in a certain way, some young women went against the cult of the true woman hood not only to be different, but to escape he physical, emotional, and psychological abuse that they will or have encountered. In novels, The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Path and Lucy, by Jamaica Kincaid both young women have the similarity to rebel against the cult of true

How far do you think Harper Lee has effectively shown social class and family groups to be important at that time? The rigid class structure and social stratification of Maycomb County had a profound effect on the events in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The impact of this class structure was especially evident in the trial of Tom Robins on, a Maycomb Negro. The extreme prejudice of the town eventually led to the unjust conviction of Robinson for a crime he did not commit.

Women roles have drastically changed since the late 18th and early 19th century. During this time, women did not have the freedom to voice their opinions and be themselves. Today women don’t even have to worry about the rules and limitations like the women had to in this era. Edna in “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin and Nora in “A Doll House” by Henrik Ibsen were analogous protagonists. The trials they faced were also very similar. Edna and Nora were both faced with the fact that they face a repressive husband whom they both find and exit strategy for. For Nora this involved abandoning her family and running away, while Edna takes the option that Nora could not do-committing suicide. These distinct texts both show how women were forced to

Up until the late 1900?s, the American populace on the whole had assumed a very optimistic view of American history. Glossing over disgraceful events, emphasizing the brighter points in our history, our culture has attempted to ignore the obvious fact that we have had, and still have, our fair share of problems. In Ragtime, E.L. Doctorow unabashedly exposes some of the worst aspects of American life in our more recent history. Doctorow doesn?t hold back anything, providing detailed examples of human cruelty and sacrifice, and the evolution of American society. While critiquing American society was not the sole purpose of his novel, Doctorow does expose and examine many issues that people tended to ignore like

Louisa May Alcott, best known as the author of Little Women, was an advocate of women’s rights and temperance. Published in 1868, Little Women follows the lives, loves and tribulations of three sisters growing up during American civil war. The independence of women is a major theme in Little Women. Since its publication the novel has constantly been read and remembered for its feminist spirit. Little Women examines the place of women in society by presenting the portraits of several very different but equally praiseworthy women. We experience their multifarious interpretations of femininity and we see a range of diverse possibilities for integrating women into the society.