Thesis On Nervous Conditions

Good morning/afternoon Mr Leete and class. Today i will be speaking to you about ‘The Ratcatcher’s Daughter’ by Pamela Rushby and the themes included in it. The themes are Death and Burial Customs, Female rights, the Black Death, Wealth, class and education, and racial prejudice. Today though I will speak about Female rights and the Black Death.

During the times of slavery, colored individuals were labeled as “other” in the United States. Black families were categorized as pathological, deviant, and in need of fixing. Black families struggled a lot. Poverty rates were sky high for single women who were the head of their household, especially for Black and Latino women. They were also the face of the homeless community, which was growing rapidly. The government then decided to implement marriage and fatherliness encouragements to ease poverty which resulted in societal problems surrounding the Black and Latino women.

First of all, women don’t have important rights in slavery society. Patriarchal system is operated under the absolute dominance of men, and women have responsibility to fully obey husbands. Women have to serve men and accept their inferiority to men. Husbands possess absolute control over wives and children just as they do over their slaves. White women share common characteristics of patriarchal system. They are not allowed to freely move and always have to ask their husbands’ permissions. White female gentries have so many responsibilities for the family. They were expected to take care of her children, support husbands unconditionally, do the household

Black Woman Studies is an interdisciplinary field of study, that examines gender as a social and cultural construct, the social status and contributions of women, and the relationships between power and gender. Women are held to this standard of being the one to cook, clean, cater to her spouse and care for the children but it should be more than that. When women go above their expectations, they are accused as being wrong and are sometimes told to not pursue their dreams. Women should be held on the same scale as men in society, this method could prevent gender issues.

Although there were many common factors within the institution of slavery for both men and women there were also circumstances that were unique to women. “The first slaves to be brought to the British colonies of North America were disproportionately male. Considered more valuable workers because of their strength, enslaved men performed labors that ranged from building houses to plowing fields. When the Dutch brought African and Creole women into New Amsterdam in the late 1620s, they did so not to supplement their workforce, but to provide company for their black male slaves” (Hallan, 2004). This tells us that from the beginning the African woman was less valuable and her treatment by the slave owners was a direct reflection of this.

The roles for African American women have changed over time from a role of servitude and support to being in a position of power. The first example of servitude is in the book “Their eyes were watching god” by Zora Hurston. The main protagonist’s husband expects her to work, but only within the household.

While white women served an important role of maintaining the appearance of the household, black women were responsible for the actual upkeep and daily functioning of the household. Even during slavery, white women were never required to both mother their children and take care of their household responsibilities. There was always available help with either one or both tasks. Without the black woman’s strength, ability to multitask, intellect, and innate ability to mother, numerous households, both white and black, would have inevitably

Slavery had an immense impact on African American families, as the familial dynamic of the African American family was in many ways responsible for the stereotypes surrounding black families in the present moment. Not only were families the sole property of their slave owner, but there were laws restricting their rights and privileges. However, despite the fact that the African American slave family existed in a perpetually tumultuous state, there were cohesive slave families, but they faced many struggles and challenges. In particular, black women were faced with incredible hardships with regard to sustaining the familial structure. This paper explores aspects of the African American family structure during slavery, considering the effect that slavery had on black women. The legacy of slavery in the present moment is also considered, in addition to whether slavery continues to exist.

The nervous system is responsible for muscle movement. The nervous system consists of central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral nervous system (PNS). The CNS is constitute of the brain and the spinal cord, and PNS is a network of nerves that runs throughout the body. The brain sends electrical signals to the CNS, and they are disbursed the PNS to produce body movement (Acrobatiq, 2014). Then, these signals travel back from the PNS to CNS to coordinate the next course of action of the body (Acrobatiq, 2014). The motor cortex section in the cerebrum sends messages to the muscles to coordinate accurate movement. Also, its control balance posture during the exercise and movement. The muscles instructed by the impulses from the cerebrum move in the given direction. They relax and contract according to the message relayed by the motor neurons.

Slaves were not usually treated with respect in the households they worked in, most of the time, slaves were treated horribly. They would be raped, beaten, teased, whipped, and were victims of many cruel and unusual punishments that are unimaginable to the human race present day. Family was the most important thing to the African culture. Brothers tried their hardest to look over their younger sisters as best as possible. Old women and men with no family members to turn to, looked to the comfort of nieces, nephews, and cousins when they fell ill, and aunts and uncles played a primary part in the family as well. Men were not the only ones that were forced to take part in daily labor and routines but also women and children. Some slaves were assigned outside work in which they would tend the crops and more commonly known work the plantations on their masters estate. Women were more commonly assigned to kitchen work such as cleaning the houses, washing clothes, cooking meals, working as servants, and tending to the masters each and every need. Most women who worked in the houses were brutally raped by their masters whether or not they were married to a man or not. Although most women worked in a home setting, there were some women who did work outside with the men and children. Work was difficult on the slaves and their masters were not empathetic towards them in

Black woman were depicted through this myth as breadwinners, running “female-headed households” because they were forced to join labor forces due to the circumstances of black life, the poor low social class working for white supremacists without any other opportunities (79). The black men fighting to obtain control and power emulated the highest societal symbol of power, white men and white supremacy, and therefore viewed power as the ability to oppress another; black men viewed matriarchal figures as a threat to their position as “the sole boss,” so internalization of this myth lead to black men to consider black females “as a threat to their personal power” leading to black males demanding that black woman assume a “passive subservient role in the home” under their power

The African culture is something to be amazed by. This is knowledge I acquired from personal experience while living in Africa. Sadly, however, it is also home to traditional ways which oppress and discriminate against women. Especially in smaller villages, where the ancient culture is more prevalent, women are classed inferior to men. The character Happy Bapetsi, a bright and young Batswana woman, witnesses gender discrimination everyday in her professional life. This limits her future gravely and allows for injustice to prevail in a modern society.

"Nervous Conditions" is a semi-autobiographical story about Tambu, a young girl growing up in rural Rhodesia in the 1960's, and her search for a way out - for both herself and her family - of the tremendous poverty of homestead life in a colonized African country. Narrated through the eyes of young Tambu, the story is told with child-like simplicity about her and her family fighting to survive in a complex world of Imperialism, racism, and class and gender inequality. In hindsight, Dangarembga allows the protagonist's narrative to slowly unravel the meaning of her and her family's struggle with their assimilation into the strange and powerful culture of their rulers.

Nervous Conditions draws much focus on the lives of women living the impacts of colonialism in a traditional African society in Zimbabwe. These women struggle to assert themselves in a patriarchal society while at the same time it speaks about the history of a country that has been under colonialization. The female characters in the stories struggle in their lives to find ways to deal with their own situation; however, this essay emphasizes African women’s situation in both the colonized and/or patriarchal societies as exemplified by the female characters: Tambu and Nyasha. Tambu leaves her country because of its inequality and male biases so she can seek freedom and gain liberation. Nyasha resisters and defies patriarchy, as manifested by

The identity of African women juxtaposed to the Western women’s identity is a hard concept for one to grasp. The word feminism is merely looked at from one perspective, the western perspective. The reality of feminism is that everywhere in the world has a different idea of what feminism is defined as and what it should look like. However there is one central theme that applies to feminists around the world, which is a feminist is someone who goes against traditional roles of a woman in their society to better their gender as a whole.