The Life of Mulan Essay

She died while giving birth. She was the youngest of her sisters and was also very harshly treated. Her sisters always rubbed ashes into her face and called her Sootface. One day, there was a mighty warrior that was invisible. Anyone that could see him, he would marry that girl.

This became one of the boldest acts of defiance during this time. Yet, she didn't stop there. There is much more to her journey. This book illustrates her life like none other from the beginning to the end.

“Look at us! We’re just like everyone else. We’ve bought into the same ridiculous delusion; this idea that you have to settle down and resign from life.” (April Wheeler, Revolutionary Road). It has become a society norm that women are meant to serve housewives; to cook, clean, garden, and nurture children, even though they are much more capable of other things. The role of women is greatly overseen, as they are not perceived to be of their full potential, rather than as societies idealistic expectation. This is because men and those who are wealthy are unable to look past gender and accept women as of equal significance.

While social change has brought on more changes than what women are a custom too, at one point in history women actually felt a form of importance in fulfilling their roles not only in the home; but outside as well. “These demographic shifts account for many new or altered roles, such as increased number of duel-earner families, later and fewer marriages, fewer children, increased life expectancy, and the massive migration shifting employees across a nation and across the globe” (Lindsey, 2011, pg. 275).

She stood up to her family and gave them a strong person they could believe and rely on; she organized her family back into their normal actions. Her father then started to rally the Tutsi people who gathered for his guidance to fight against the people who attacked them, whether it is the government or the Interahamwe, which was a Hutu militia.

She disguised herself as a man called Robert Shurtliff and acted as if she was 17 but she was really 21. Deborah had to sleep in a tent with six other men on bed that were made of hay and burlap. While with a group of soldiers

That next summer Deborah became a school teacher. She had never been to school before ,but since all of the men were at war they needed another teacher. She loved her teaching job because she got to teach other girls how to read and write. Deborah had wanted to travel all of her life, and the only way to do that was to be in the war. That next winter after teaching she became a weaver. She made men's clothes for herself and would act like a man around the town to see if anyone noticed her. Deborah then realized that no one knew that she was a woman, so that next spring she would go to war acting like a man. One night at midnight, Deborah woke up, put her men's clothes on and started walking towards Boston. She arrived in Boston and on May 20, 1782 ,she joined the army as Robert Shurtliff. One day Deborah and some of her friends went on horseback ride to take a break from the war, but they were found by the Tories. Deborah got shot in the neck and on her leg. At the hospital she lied about her leg to keep herself undercover, and she got the bullet out of her leg by herself. After Deborah was feeling better, General Paterson called her to his personal order. This was a promotion from the job she had before. In June she went to Philadelphia with General Paterson. Philadelphia was a very sick city then because there was a severe fever going around. Deborah got the fever and suffered a coma, and the doctor that was

Deborah Sampson was born on December of 1760, in Plymton, Massachusetts. Deborah’s father did not return from a sea voyage and her mother was unable to provide for seven children, so she placed them in various households. When she was 18 her time as an indentured servant ended, and she made a living by teaching school during summer sessions and by weaving in the winter. She slowly came up with the idea of dressing as a man and joining the army. She enlisted in the spring of 1781. During her time she was injured twice and refused to be treated by a doctor. She was forced to see a doctor and he noticed she was not a man, but did not tell anyone. She was named the “Official Heroine of the State of Massachusetts.” This shows a lot for us women, especially courage because she had the guts to even enlist in the first place and the strength to go through what they had

The women of the tribe argued that she should not take up bow and arrows because “the girl performing men’s deeds would set a bad example which might lead other girls to give up their household ways”. When her mother grew sick, she had to put down her warrior ways to take up the household which she worked hard on avoiding. After her parents passed away, she took in a widow to look after the household so she could “devote herself to her dream power giving her directions to follow men’s ways. Though the men did think that she would be of no use. Before her first war adventure, the leader of the party “told her to go back, threatened her, and finally told her he would take the whole party back if she didn’t leave them”. But she proved her worth by saving the party’s horses and killing an enemy and taking his gun. Many people still thought that she should stop following the men’s ways but all of that conflict ended when elders advised her to fast and seek a vision which “the Spirits rewarded her with a vision that gave her the power that men consider necessary for leading a successful warrior’s life”. She had been honored by the Head Chief in a way never done to a woman, she was re-named. Running Eagle was recognized for her bravery, independence, skill, and strong

It is recounted in the memoir of women overcoming great obstacles and doing tedious work. The obstacles and tedious work recorded included dragging boats, treading through tundra, eating rotten break, drinking salty water, and washing linens (p.49). Anna was never resilient or

Hadji Murat, Tolstoy's second book with the Caucasus as its setting can be considered a work of historical fiction that is a beautiful tale of resistance, and a window into not only the Caucasian War of the mid-nineteenth century, but also the culture of the Russian Empire during this period. As a work of fiction the reader must be wary of depictions of actual persons such as Tsar Nicholas I, whom Tolstoy was not enamored with, to say the least, but many insights about the period and its people can be gleaned from the story. The novel is one of great contrasts between Chechens and Russians and also of what life was like during this time.

Long gone are the days when women were expected to stay at home and play “housewife”, cooking, cleaning, and making sure the kids got off to school, while their husbands worked a 9 to 5 in order to make ends meet. Today, women are no longer viewed as weak and incapable. A “superwoman” is the new woman. Men as the “breadwinners” have been replaced by “Ms. Independent.” The traditional male role has diminished as women fulfill bigger roles in society and exceed the expectations of their male counterparts in the household, workforce, and within social settings. We have abandoned old rules; no longer is it a “man’s world,” we now live in a shared world.

The second story, “White Tigers”, is a mythical tale of a female warrior who disguises herself as a male and fights in the place of the father. The story completely contradicts the conventional role of woman in Chinese society. It places a woman in a position of bravery and heroism, which are traditionally reserved for men.

Women and men have had certain roles in society that were understood amongst them to be specified for their particular gender. Males were known to have the leading role as head of the house hold and the bread winner while the woman’s duty was to stay at home and take care of the house and children. While many people years ago deemed this way of life and practice to be the right and ethical thing to do, times have changed and so this kind of treatment towards a woman’s equality must be questioned. Even though times have changed, this mindset of a woman’s ability to be as good as a man has not completely gone away. In today’s society a woman contributes to the economy and her family as equally as that of a man. Therefore, women should share equal rights and opportunities as their gender counterparts.

An animated Disney movie called "Mulan," was directed by Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook in 1998. The moral of the story is that women can be just the same as men can. I support the general meaning of the movie. I believe men that and women should be treated equally and that women should not be seen as weak or frail. Women are more than just wives or slaves and can-do jobs that have traditionally been set-aside for men. They can be successful and bring honor to their families in other ways.