The author of “The Lessons for Woman” was Ban Zhao. From what I have read in this writing, it is telling us that she is a mother and she is concerned about humility in women. The way she is influences the story by the fact that she cares about humility in herself and the others in the story. She was writing as Ban Zhao as a Chinese scholar during the time of A.D. 45-120. The author was writing this piece under history and classical writing. The author’s purpose of this writing was to inform the women to better prepare them for the things that they may experience in Chinese culture. The reason that she wanted to inform them was so that she could make their husbands happy and please them. She wanted people to read her writing to take all the …show more content…
Womanly virtue is chastity. This means wearing clothes that cover the body and acting in a modest way. Womanly words means speaking appropriately in every situation. For example, a woman should not speak in social situations when her husband is present. Womanly bearing means washing and cleaning. This includes keeping herself clean for her husband. Last, womanly work means all of a woman’s time should be filled with productive activities. Ban suggests a woman should go to bed late and rise early in the morning. She reaches out to women who are about to be married to teach them the things they should know to please their husbands. Ban explains how society expects women to behave, both in public and at home. She begins by talking about her humility and that humility is a good characteristic for women to cultivate. She tells us that a baby girl, from the time of birth, should be trained to be humble. For example, the baby is given a broken shard with which to play and is placed under the bed to teach her to accept her lot in life. Many people would find Ban Zhao’s ideas very out-dated today. Many women would be angry with her suggestion that women are second-class citizens and should accept their lot in life. In addition, most women today to do not see themselves as an extension of their husbands.
At first she is amazed by the knowledge of her students, but while she starts to know more about them, she realizes that their only goal is to find a man to marry and have children with instead of becoming career professionals. Gradually, she decides to try to make them see that they are worth much more and that being a woman doesn’t mean giving up their dreams and ambitions.
The real question is not whether life exists after death. The real question is whether you are alive before death” (Rajneesh, n.d.). This short story narrates about a woman named Martha Bes that apparently died. The main character is debating whether or not she is alive or dead. Also she goes about asking what God wanted her to do. “The book of Martha” written by Octavia Butler uses literary elements to present the overall message what is God’s purpose in life.
As I explained, there is more going on here than just harmless guidance in "Lessons for Women". Ban Zhao was a woman who embraced the sexism and strict gender roles in ancient China, she wrote for and taught women how to be like her in this way, her style and perspective were proved this, and so was her word choice, intent, and audience. In conclusion, sexism from before still leaks into today, and prejudice can come from anyone, no matter who they are, and this is clear in "Lessons for Women" by Ban
She objected that many families taught their sons to read, but not their daughters and would go on to become an advocate of the education of women. The Admonitions for Women became one of the most commonly used texts for the education of Chinese women (McKay et al, p. 166).
Like the Analects, Ban Zhao's writings do not attempt to address what is right or wrong about society and the role of women within it (Ban Zhao, Lessons for a Woman, 1). Instead, she blames the lack of female education on the ignorance of men, and maintains that although men understand their own place in the society, they fail to realize that the complementary role of women is one that must also be taught (Ban Zhao, Lessons for a Woman, 3). Her writings serve to rectify this
Men have a historical reputation of treating females poorly and thinking they are above them. Men have also been known to create generalizations and stereotypes towards females that limit them in society. In the short story “The Women's Open” by David Sedaris, Lou is taking two of his children, David and Lisa, for a ride in his second-hand Porsche. Lou is shown to be a golf enthusiast, trying to spend as much as he can on the golf course, whether that’s playing or watching golf. He constantly tries to trick and force his children to be more involved in golf which is evident by the quote, “Once again we’d been duped. There was nothing worse than spending an afternoon on a golf course.” The male nature mentioned is evident in Lou because he is accepting the female stereotypes by treating females disrespectfully throughout the text.
Based on Lessons for Women, women in the China were taught that they were unworthy, unsophisticated, unenlightened and by nature unintelligent. (Strayer
The text Lessons for Women by Ban Zhao “served as an advice manual for women in China until the twentieth century.” This text was meant to give advice to young women, specifically her daughters, and guide them through life and marriage. She wrote it upon her deathbed at a time when her daughters were ready to be married. Lessons for Women is a text that conforms to the strict gender roles of Confucian society, within those roles it works as a tool to position women in the best place possible and subtlety provides meaningful advice to allow women to thrive as best they can under the gender roles of society.
Rebecca Gilman’s The Glory of Living is an ambitious piece of writing. The playwright takes on the challenge of exploring how an eighteen-year-old girl has ended up on death row, convicted of multiple murders. The play’s opening scene is exciting and engaging, and Gilman has a strong grasp of the characters she has created, but as the action progresses, it becomes evident that the play is missing something. The Glory of Living’s shortcomings exemplify the need for playwrights to focus on developing a Major Dramatic Question, and a protagonist with a strong want.
An example of gender inequality is shown in Document 5.1. It states that Confucius rarely talks about women and the reason being that he, Confucius, believes women have limited importance in Chinese society. Document 5.1 also talks about the work of Ban Zhou, a Chinese woman born into an elite family (which shows that China is a very patriarchal society in which Confucianism was abundant through China), and she was given a fine literary education. One of her works, Lessons for Women, talks about how the Chinese society was unfair to women and how the principles of Confucianism affects women's lives and their behavior. She refers to the marriage of man and woman to the Yin and Yang: Yin being the feminine side showing emotion, softness, and weakness and Yang being the masculine side showing power and rationality. She also writes about how childbirth for women was treated poorly. The child would be placed under the bed and given a potsherd, piece of a broken pot, to play with. The placing of the baby girl under the bed indicated that she was lowly and weak and the giving of the potsherd signified house labor and that house labor would be her first duty in the household.
In the ancient Chinese culture, the role of women was very restricted. They were raised by their parents until the age of marriage to be given away to another family. When living under their father’s roof he was the one they had to obey to, once married they then had to obey to their husband. Women were restricted to the walls of their home, which is no longer the case nowadays.
In China, women were put in subservient positions to society. They were quiet, obedient creatures who "gathered patience". Song speaks of how women learned to provide for their families, as they were "learning to stretch the family rice". Women were expected to serve a purpose and be seen and not heard.
The reason why mothers trained girls at young age is because they believed the better housewife a woman becomes, the better a successful man will choose you. Additionally, women were not allowed to make their own decision on who to marry and when to marry. All of those things were decided by their parents for them. It did not matter if a man was old and wrinkly, as long as the man had money and successful career you will devote your life to him. This was the only thing a woman needed to know. So, she was taught constantly, non-stop by her mother until she was wedded, but the education was far from being over.
“Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel, they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do, they suffer from a too rigid restraint. Too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer, and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged creatures to say that they ought to confine
The story "A Respectable Woman" by Kate Chopin’s explore the live of Mrs. Mrs. Baroda, a lady from a high class and her husband Gaston who lived in a sugar plantation in Louisiana. The story hinges upon defining what a respectable woman is and should be. She captures in details the role of a traditional woman towards the creation of a modern women behavior and the challenges they face as they transition into modernity.