The Bride Price By Bunchi Emecheta

When you think of male dominance what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Do you think of a wife obeying her husband, do you think about children obeying their fathers, how about men dominating in sports, society’s, or groups and taking charge of business meetings? When it comes to male dominance several ideas can go through your mind. Would you have thought outside the box and thought about servants or prostitutes? The Amish society and the Medieval Iceland sagas are greatly like the Male domination roles, females submitting to their husbands or masters in this case. Males being the dominate, where the female submits.

It is something you notice everyday, in many forms of media. Commercials, ads, magazines, and the internet all depict this occurrence with female athletes. She is short haired, square framed, dressed in a large loose fitting clothing. She rides along on her skateboard at an empty skate park. She appears to be sweaty and dusty from a day of riding and falling. As she rides along, ahead of her is a ledge. Red faced and tired, she attempts to land a trick over the ledge and succeeds. Her name is Lacey Baker, and is said to be one of the best female skaters in the world. Sound familiar? No, she is not someone the general public would be exposed to day by day. She does not fit into the female athlete stereotype of "The Femininity Game". "The Femininity Game" as told to us by Mariah Burton Nelson, an author, expert speaker, and former professional athlete in her "I Won, I 'm Sorry" piece demonstrates how as female athletes will feel they must follow special role. She noted, "Like men, you 'll have to be smart and industrious, but in addition you 'll have to be like women" (575). Women are to be just as competitive as men but not to the extent to threaten their masculinity. Act lady-like and motherly with no hesitation. Many Female athletes have shown off their hard work though photographs posing in awkward positions or even nude. Caroline Wozniacki the No. 5 female tennis player in the world, and MMA champion Ronda Rouse who posed for the swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated are

Domination and authority over women are reflected by the male characters in Things Fall Apart, specially the protagonist Okonkwo, as he oppresses his wives and overly abuse his power as the male dominator. At the beginning of the novel Okonkwo displayed, this trait as the monarch of the household “He ruled his household with a heavy hand. His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper, and so did his little children” (Acebe, 10). In the Igbo community men were the domineering sex and ruled over their families especially their wives. They treated their wives with disrespect and continuously let women live in fear. As stated above, males being more powerful than women limit woman capabilities and let them fear their husband. Throughout the book the author gives a clear idea that within the Igbo culture they live in a patriarchy society and as proven above the males continuously withhold this dominate role in their household.

In Sister of my Heart, a coming-of-age novel by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, the two main characters, Sudha and Anju, are not aware of the secret that runs within their families. The act of keeping a secret is to purposely keep something hidden. Although telling the truth can help create a stronger and more honest relationship, in some cases, when the secret is revealed, it can have a negative effect. Sudha exemplifies this as the secret she keeps from Anju affects Sudha's life and her relationship with Anju.

The short story “The Love Of My Life” by T.C. Boyle's examines two couples who are imagined to be inseparable and how no love comes closer to theirs. The story follows young high school couples who are in the merge of a bright future. They are always together “wearing each other like a pair socks”. They idolized the love they share is something far from real and it is true love. While Jeremy is set to attend Brown and on the other hand China were in Binghamton things took wrong turn. Over the summer before their going to college they mistakenly conceived a baby while they are at a camping trip. The story was pleasant and everything was green and China and Jeremy went to a trip together and had sex. The couples were so keen to avoid this from

In the novel Things Fall Apart, Nigeria has morals that women are considered nothing compared to men; in Nigerian families when they get a chance to have a child the family is more grateful when it is a boy compared to getting a girl

Gwen Harwood’s work frequently focuses on woman being demoralised by society’s practices that reduce her to a lesser being. A common worldwide value that Harwood rejects as the normality in life with her poems. Harwood battles against the traditions that she believes support this downgrading by continually returning to the issue. Due to Harwood’s existence in a time where women of Australia still fought to vote and for a pay check to match a man’s, Harwood too displays her support. “The Lions Bride” is centred on the subject of marriage and entails the ugliness of the situations that are specific to women. This remains relevant to the modern world because of the ongoing struggle for equality. By using a wedding as a

Weddings are meant to be a time of happiness and joy for both families of the couple who intend on joining their lives together. This cultural normality does not prove true for Frankie Addams, in the novel The Member of the Wedding written by Carson McCullers. Frankie is a young, twelve year old girl full of jealousy towards her older brother who will be wed towards the end of the novel. Despite being a tomboy, Frankie dreamed and eventually became obsessed with her wedding and the thought of getting married. The novel, set in southern United States in 1944, focuses on Frankie’s lack of a crowd to classify with and her desire to change herself to fit in with those around her. The reader learns of Frankie’s plans to run away with her brother because she feels she will fit in with him and his fiancé due to the love she has for the two of them. The author develops this novel by creating a “fascination with the breaking apart of the individual and social body” (Thurschwell 109) and sharing this fascination with the reader. This character analysis will show how the novels plot is guided by the transformations of the protagonist, Frankie, shown primarily through her identity changes which separate the novel into three separate parts in order to develop the main theme of losing innocence.

Sex At Dawn by Chrstopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha, describes our current society as a sexual hypocrisy where monogamy is the norm and everything else falls under taboo. Based on prehistoric facts, they argue that we derive from a sexually free and promiscuous culture, and were never meant to be in lifelong monogamous unions. In Paleofantasy by Martha Zuk, looks at evolutionary theorists, like Ryan and Jetha, who use the Paleolithic Age for guidance on how our current society should live. Zuk’s argument is that people want to make our nature into one-form, but humans are not designed for one-way/form of life. As for our sexual system it too can not be put into one-form. Zuk shows various points on popular assertions, creating uncertainty to the reader. This therefore shows how difficult it is to determine a precise natural sexual practice from our past, and debunking Ryan and Jetha. For this reason, Zuk provides a better argument regarding how we should use prehistoric history in present day.

“Marriage: any of the diverse forms of interpersonal union established in various parts of the world to form a familial bond that is recognized legally, religiously, or socially, granting the participating partners mutual conjugal rights and responsibilities… (CITATION)” In the definition of marriage there is no mention of love, yet in western civilization, love is considered the deciding factor in taking that leap. Anne Bradstreet wrote in her poem To My Dear and Loving Husband “If ever two were one, then surely we. If ever man were loved by wife, then thee; if ever wife was happy in a man, Compare with me ye women if you can (CITATION).” Even though she lived in a Puritan home, Bradshaw freely expressed her love for her husband. This expression could have been viewed as just as radical as homosexual marriage is today. One of the biggest phrases people supporting the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, LGBT, movement use is, “Love is love.” People associated with this movement also ask heterosexuals what they would do if marriage was not allowed to them. Yet the Hindi philosophy says that one marries, and then falls in love. Is the reason America is in such turmoil over the various types of marriage in comparison to other countries because this country loves first, and marries second? If love were taken out of the business deal that marriage essentially is, would America be in less turmoil? America as a country would be better economically and socially if marriage was not

Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick provides insight into the lives of North Korean defectors while in North Korea. Their accounts give inside information about the North Korean regime which makes it possible to analyze to what extent society was an egalitarian utopia. The interview reveals that people were discriminated by social class as evident by those who were richer, and thus in a higher social strata, having more opportunities for success. There was also economic inequity which was apparent by people having different degrees of struggle. However, the problems North Koreans faced was similar, which showed there was some equality from their struggles. Overall, the interviewees give accounts which contradict the idea that the North Korean regime was promoting egalitarianism through their accounts which give counterexamples regarding social class and economic status, so their claim of egalitarianism is mostly false.

“An Unknown Girl” by Moniza Alvi is a free verse poem about the author’s experience getting her hand hennaed in an Indian bazaar. Throughout the poem, Alvi makes use of structure techniques like end-stopped lines, occasional rhymes, language, imagery, and changes in tone to explore different aspects of the concept of identity.

Within Top Girls, Caryl Churchill explores a range of ideas that can be analysed through lenses to reveal different critical interpretations. Beauvoirian ideas from The Second Sex and Marxist ideas from The Communist Manifesto are used to compare and contrast these ideas, further supporting this an assortment of literary techniques.

In Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe portrayed men as the dominant sex in Igbo culture; however women were as dominant or potentially more dominant than men in their own ways. He

The Bride Price by Buchi Emecheta follows the story of Aku-nna, a young girl from the Ibo people of Nigeria, who reaches the marrying age after her father’s death. While anticipated to bring in a large sum of money from marriage, she refuses to date any of the suitors presented to her, instead choosing her lover, a descendant of slaves, and bringing dishonor upon her family. A suitor then kidnaps her, but she manages to escape him and elope with her lover; she eventually dies in childbirth with their conceived daughter. In the novel, Nigerian culture, specifically of the Ibo people, establishes a patriarchal society. Because of this, women are treated as inferior, as evident by expectations and marriage/dating customs that infringe upon their freedom and dignity. The role of women in Ibo society is demonstrated in The Bride Price by the expectations to be obedient under the ownership of older males, to fulfil motherhood as early and fruitfully as possible, to abide by menstrual hygiene rules, to be pure through chastity, and to follow such standards or else bring shame upon their family.