The title “Queen of Mold” incorporates two aspects in regard to Reichl’s mother. One, that she did not care for cooking things that were over their expiry date; second, that despite her mother’s poor cooking talent, Reichl still admired her. The title might sound contradicting since one often relates “mold” to something negative, while “queen” is interpreted as something positive. However, the author successfully supports her choice by introducing positive adjectives throughout the text that support her admiration towards her mother. This creates the idea of motherhood often portrayed in real life: children look up to their mothers despite their mistakes. Furthermore, the title suggests that although Reichl’s mother might not be a good cook
In 1854 Fanny Fern published what was to become not only her most successful works, but one of the most popular and enduring works of English literature during the Antebellum period: Ruth Hall; A Domestic Tale of the Present Time. Though the title – especially to a modern reader – does little to convey the level of thoughtful and heady critique that Fern expounds through this book, it is actually is a strong indictment of the feminine position as the subordinate housewife, mother, and societal agent. However, despite this criticism, it does not seem that Fanny Fern is critical of the institutions of marriage or motherhood as a whole. Her critique is based on the limiting effects of the conventional roles into which wives and mothers fall, and the deleterious consequences these roles have on the personal development and self-actualization of the women who enter into them. Therefore, it is not the institution of marriage or motherhood that Fern is critical of, but rather the expectations and limitations that society assigns to the women who assume these roles.
First of all, the mother’s love in Reichl story becomes complex when the guest come over to the house and she cooks them moldy food, Ruth Reichl becomes the guest guardian who protects them from being killed. The mother shows her lover through cooking, she can whip up anything from her week old leftovers. Her mother is not a shame of what she cooks
Connections Essay The Glass Castle is a memoir surrounding the events of Jeannette Walls’ unorthodox childhood. Among the many issues discussed in the novel, the effects of parentification, child abuse, and relocation are some of the most relevant and prominent issues in today’s society. As a result of their father’s regularized absence and their mother’s lack of motivation and responsibility, Jeannette and Lori Walls are forced to take care of the family’s budget, income, upkeep, and health.
The narration of the mother lecturing her daughter with commanding diction leads to the theme of women conforming to domesticity and if they don’t conform then they will lead a life of promiscuity that will affect the way people perceive them. Women in the past believed that a woman’s role was that of a domesticated housewife. The narration of the third point of view in this story and the commanding diction of it places an importance in the reinforcement of this idea, that if a woman doesn’t follow social norms, she will eventually turn to a “slut” one that her family will be ashamed of. She must set the table for lunch and for breakfast that is “how to behave in the presence of men who don’t know [her] very well, and that it the way they won’t recognize immediately the slut that [the mother has] warned her against becoming.”(Kincaid 485) through her commanding diction, the mother is telling her daughter how to set a table, how to cook, she
The memoir took readers through the roller coaster ride Jeannette Walls’ knew as her young life. In The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Rex and Rose Mary Walls’ parenting styles are quite similar to how Walt Disney believed children should be brought up. His belief was that “ Most things are good, and they are the strongest things; but there are evil things too, and you are not doing a child a favor by trying to shield him from reality”. Both the Walls and Disney believe children shouldn’t be sheltered from the harsh realities of the world; they should learn about life the hard way. Nowadays parents shelter their kids, but Jeannette Walls’ parents and Walt Disney believe in an opposite way of parenting.
For centuries, women have had the role of being the perfect and typical house wife; needs to stay home and watch the children, cook for husbands, tend to the laundry and chores around the house. In her short story “Girl”, Jamaica Kincaid provides a long one sentence short story about a mother giving specific instructions to her daughter but with one question towards the end, with the daughter’s mother telling her daughter if she had done all the instructions to become a so called “perfect” woman, every man would want her. Kincaid’s structuring in “Girl,” captures a demanding and commanding tone. This short story relates to feminist perspectives. The mother expects a great deal from her daughter to have a certain potential and she does not hesitate to let her daughter understand that. As a matter of fact, the story is about two pages long, made into one long sentence - almost the whole time the mother is giving her daughter directions to follow - conveys a message to the reader that the mother demands and expects great potential in her daughter. The daughter is forced to listen and learn from what her mother is telling her to do to become the perfect housewife. Throughout the story, Kincaid uses the symbols of the house and clothing, benna and food to represent the meanings of becoming a young girl to a woman and being treated like one in society. Women are portrayed to appeal to a man to become the ideal woman in society, while men can do anything they please.
The girl distrusts her mother and believes her to be out of touch, while helping her father in "his real work" (468). Surprisingly, the girl's desire to avoid the manifestation of her femininity in womanly tasks, such as cooking and cleaning, influences her into feeling that her mother is "plotting now to get [her] to stay in the house [. . ]. and keep [her] from working for [her] father" (469). The girl chooses to dismiss her mother, thereby dismissing her own future role as a housewife.
Do men and women fully understand each other or do their generalizations prevent them from really understanding what the other is like? In “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” Geoffrey Chaucer conveys that it is hard for people to understand the opposite sex. The tendency of being bias towards a specific gender makes it difficult to reach an understanding. The struggle of trying to understand each other is also seen in “News Coverage of a Woman’s Rights Campaign” and “The Men we Carry in Our Minds.”
In the nineteenth century, the female daughter is seen as a critical supporting element of the family. She was expected to keep her aspirations and motivations rooted in maintaining and upholding the family and its name, from within the household. The way Madeline was buried, "half smothered in its oppressive atmosphere”, reflects the way she was smothered in Victorian society.
I have read the two plays, "The Glass Menagerie" by Tennessee Williams and "A Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry, both of have a big impact on me. The two plays circle around the family values that convey the character of motherhood where mothers have to have a responsibility to raise, to provide their best and to sacrifice for their children. In these two plays, even expressing differently, mothers all show love to their children; they all want their children to have a happy life. Somehow, each mother treats their children different way, but they have only one purpose: to show love to their children. As I experience throughout the two plays: Amanda, Tom and Laura in "The
An expression commonly used by high school students around the age of fourteen to seventeen is “JESSICA! I AM HUNGRY, MAKE ME A SANDWICH.” This can be related to other countries in the present day as well as in the past. The play Antigone written by Sophocles, a young girl decides to follow the rules of the Gods rather than the rules of man, especially when it came to the proper burial of her brother Polynices. Antigone decides to bury her brother even though it was against the civil laws to even mourn him. This action is pertinent to the feminists of the day because Creon treats Antigone with absolutely no respect and acts as if she is ignorant. Likewise in the play A Dolls House written by Ibsen, Nora, the main character, takes out a
"The Wife of Bath", in the collection of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, illustrates the stereotypical image of a women in medieval times ("The Portrayal of Gender in The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale.") The tale characterizes women as lustful and greedy burdens on men. However, to readers today, "The Wife of Bath" represents a strong minded feminist woman who is confident and open about her sexuality. Narrated by a character called Alisoun, "The Wife of Bath" reveals an insight to a woman’s point of view in medieval times. Alisoun begins her long prologue by declaring that she follows the rule of experience; announcing that she’s a self–proclaimed women. Throughout the her tale Alisoun questions and challenges the idea of power and authority in medieval society. Through Alisoun, Chaucer gives women a voice to express their call for equality and their need for power. By using description and characterization, Chaucer gives readers an insight to a society in which women are starting to express their desire to have power ultimately arguing that in order for men to be happy women need to have sovereignty in medieval times.
The 19th century essayist and literary critic William Hazlitt wrote of Cleopatra, "She is voluptuous, ostentatious, conscious, boastful of her charms, haughty, tyrannical, [and] fickle," which are "great and unpardonable faults" (Hazlitt 2-3). Much of the criticism of Antony and Cleopatra has recycled this judgement, depicting Cleopatra as a villainess uses her eroticism and sexuality to motivate Antony to seek power. Cleopatra is memorable for her propensity for violence as well. While Antony and Cleopatra was written after the death of a violent English queen, Elizabeth I, Shakespeare may have been faced with a dramatic dilemma: how to make a woman
Many families were broken apart during the civil war, where the father had to leave his spouse and children behind; forcing them to take care of themselves in his absence. In the novel Little Women, Marmee is the ideal representative of a motherly role model in a transcendentalist family during the eighteen hundreds. She continually guided her daughters to find joy in the most menial tasks. She stood strong in the presence of her daughters, although she had to raise them alone in the absence of their father, who has left to volunteer as a Chaplin during the Civil War. Her girls made it clear how they aspired to be as good hearted as she was. A mother’s hard work is seen through her children’s actions.
Despite its first performance being in 1608 where women were not allowed to take part in theatre, William Shakespeare’s King Lear is arguably dominated by the female characters. The story focuses on a king who is driven into madness and decides to handover his power to his two eldest daughters, Regan and Goneril. These two daughters are exceptionally important to the development of the play since it can be argued that they are the ones commanding a fair share of the events that take place. This can also be said about Cordelia. According to Kate Downey Hickey and Catherine S. Cox, Cordelia is the essence of the play as she offers truth and evasiveness. In the following, the role of women will be discussed in King Lear. How are the female characters