The Interview By Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

Mahasweta Devi’s short story, “Giribala,” is about the life of Giribala, a girl of Talsana village located in India. Born into a caste in a time when it was still customary to pay a bride-price, Giri is sold to Aulchand by her father. From this point on, we see a series of unfortunate, tragic events that take place in Giri’s life as a result of the circumstances surrounding Giri’s life. There are many issues in Giri’s life in India that Devi highlights to readers. First, the economic instability of the village leads to an extremely poor quality of life for the lower, working classes. Next, the cruel role of women determined by men in society is to either satisfy the sexual desires of men or to reproduce offspring who can work or be sold off to marriages. There are also other social norms and beliefs which discriminate against women that will be discussed.

Indian men celebrated women’s roles in food providing and child bearing in religious ceremonies (64). Indian women unlike the English women of the seventeenth century had a voice. She was treated more as an equal. Even though there was still gender separation between Indian men and Indian women, in the responsibilities they share, the women were more respected. Indian women still didn’t have easy lives.

The person I interviewed was my mother, Holly Parker, her job currently is working at a pizza shop known as Little Caesar's, Holly was born in 1976 on January 27th. Holly’s parent's names are George and Carol McGee, and one of her siblings is named Nathan. Holly has lived in Ohio but is mostly in Bowling Green, she has moved to Sandusky once then moved back to Bowling Green. A school Holly attended was Crim Elementary School. Holly is 5 feet tall (Yes, literally), has brown hair, hazel eyes, and usually wears a yellow or pink hoodie (unless it’s in the summertime, then she will wear a T-Shirt.).

In the typical Indian family, gender construction manifests itself especially in the roles of men and women in the household. As Judith Lorber so aptly put, “gender is a process of creating distinguishable social statuses for the assignment of rights and responsibilities” which in turn, creates the social differences that define a “man” and “woman” (Lorber). It is these differences that are used to construct and maintain an established gender order within the family. In the conventional Indian family, the order is such that the roles of the women in the household revolve around the roles of the men. This structure was something that I saw from an early age in my parents’ marriage. Though my parents defied the Indian norm of the arranged marriage, they still represented the quintessential model of an Indian couple in many other ways. My mother left her job to become a stay-at-home mom when I was about six years old. However, even before she left her job, she was implicitly expected by my father to shoulder most of the housework including cooking, cleaning, and caring for my older brother

Throughout the history, in all cultures the roles of males and females are different. Relating to the piece of literature “Girl” written by Jamaica Kincaid for the time, when women’s roles were to work in the home. By examining

I spent a lot of time with Julia's interview. She completely detests campus food, and appreciates the fact that she lives off campus this year and no longer has to depend on campus dining, as evidenced by her quote, "I don't eat on campus at all anymore because I live off campus and don't want to spend my money on overpriced food that is subpar..."

Devor’s essay explains how society influences the stereotypes when it comes to gender and he also explores the gender roles casted by our society.

On May 16, 2017 I interviewed Jaimie Resendiz about what it means to be American to her. Jaimie is 29 years old, shes been living most of her life here in Orange County. She recently moved to a different county, which is, Riverside County. She has her own house with three children, and two small dogs. Although, Jaimie has kids she isn’t so sure if she wants to get married.

After analyzing the novel “Sold” and discussing for the first novel study, some topics exhibited were the unfair treatment of Lakshmi and women in general, how poverty and the environment severely affect people’s lives, and also how unfortunate many people’s lives are. Furthermore, a significant key point that is continuously expressed throughout the book is how men and society would treat and perceive women differently, and how men held a higher form of power and status because of their gender. Throughout the book, we see the complicated relationship between Ama, Lakshmi, and the stepfather. To further explain, a question from the discussion, asked by Alessia “Do you think Lakshmi’s stepfather will stop gambling and change his ways?” A further

In spite of the fact that the story is particularly about a West Indian mother's "sex preparing" her youthful little girl for her approaching female household part, it could be about any family, about any culture, and about any pre-adult girl's association with her mom. Its objectives, restrictions, mandates, cross examination, "how to's" and allegation propose the all inclusiveness of mother-little girl connections and the certainty

This joint family, like any social organization, must face problems such as acceptable division of work, relationships and specific family roles. These familial relationships are managed on the basis of a secular hierarchical principle. In fact, all Indians owe respect and obedience to the head of the family, who usually is the father or the oldest man of the family community. In The Gift of a Bride: A Tale of Anthropology, Matrimony and Murder by Nanda and Gregg, it is explained that, “females [are] placed under the perpetual guardianship of first their fathers and elder brothers, then their husbands.” (Nanda & Gregg 22) Thus, all the spending decisions, studies and profession, or marriage, are exclusively the responsibility of the father after the possible discussions with the other men of the family. Age and sex are the basic principles of this hierarchical system. The eldest sons enjoy greater unchallenged authority than their cadets. Of course men have more authority than women, but older married women have an important role within the family. In fact, the authority of a woman depends on the rank of her husband inside the group. Traditionally, the wife of the patriarch rules over domestic affairs and has considerable power over the other women in the community, especially her daughters- in-law.

We live in a society where the similarities between female and males are seen at birth. It begins innocently with the toddlers; girls get pink while boys get blue. The gap between boys and girls develops with time and becomes increasingly apparent. There are still gender stereotypes today, but it is not as bad as it was in the past. Jamaica Kincaid’s short story “Girl” perfectly portrays gender stereotypes. It represents gender concepts as cultural constructs in the period it was written. These conceptions are comparable to current stereotypes about gender. The book gives us a list of commands from a mother to a daughter. Men in the society are dominant to the women, and the set of rules is a product of patriarchy whereby the mother and daughter appear as subordinates to the men in their lives. The article makes one aware of the prevailing masculine hierarchy that exists in a family, and how it creates firm gender roles for females in the society.

Traditionally, an Indian woman had only four roles and those were; Her role as a daughter, wife, sister, and lastly, a mother. The women in today’s time however are experiencing far reaching changes and are entering into new fields that were unknown to them. They are actively participating in social, economic and political activities. Unlike the older times, women today have received higher education.

The social values and customs of nations throughout the world differ greatly from one another. When a fictional young women named Uma left America and traveled to India for a family member’s wedding, she discovered these differing customs first hand of America versus India. As she spent time exploring India, she learned more about her true roots and how they differ from her current life in America. Along the way, she developed strong opinions about the differing values of the Indian people and how they compared to those back at home. The main character, Uma, in the short story “Devadasi” by Rishi Redd, experiences examples of gender roles and cultural norms that are unexpected and seem unfair to her throughout her

A drama as part of literature is admittedly a convenient way for showing social problems of society in which story is told to the audience through the performance on the stage by the actors. The present paper aims to study the Vijay Tendulkar’s ideas about marriage at family in his play Kamala. The play based on a real life incident. Kamala is a play that elucidates the predicament of women. The play explores show women have been treated by male counterparts. Women are oppressed, misused, exploited, and enslaved. Kamala shows how women are used as a mean for fulfillment of men's lust, ambition, fame, and money. The paper presents the horrible exploitation of women in the rural area of India where women can be bought from a flesh market .It aims to show the reality of life of women in modern India especially the concept of marriage and family. This paper will focus in the theme of exploitation which is found in the marital relationship in this play.