Ursula Le Guin's 'Nine Lives' as a Feminist Statement

Not only does Le Guin apply rhetorical appeals in her speech, but she also incorporates a multitude of rhetorical devices, such as sententia and antithesis. Le Guin utilizes sententia when she states, “Because you are human beings you are going to meet failure” (Le Guin line 30). Le Guin attempts to tear down separation by gender and bring people together on common ground by concluding that males and females are both bound to face failure because everyone is simply human. To this end, she aims to halt comparison between genders as well as the notion that women are always secondary to men. In effect, Le Guin follows up with the rhetorical device antithesis to build upon her use of sententia. Le Guin uses antithesis in this section to help her emphasize the point: “You will find you’re weak where you thought yourself strong” (Le Guin lines 31-32). Her illustration of antithesis further exemplifies the notion that gender does not matter when it comes to the struggles and failures of life, which all humans, regardless of gender, indisputably face. Le Guin ultimately deploys the rhetorical devices sententia and antithesis in unison to end contrast and conflict between genders and unite men and women alike.

Since she is speaking on abstract thoughts, such as equality and success, symbolism is a crucial tool in this speech. One of Le Guin's most prominent symbols is “Machoman”. Ursula makes reference in her speech to “Machoman” three times. The use of this symbol is important because it helps to give a name to an abstract concept, inequality. Le Guin uses this concrete form of an non concrete idea to connect with the graduates a feeling of a common enemy. Another example of the way Ursula uses symbolism is to show how challenging attempting to blend in with the male culture can be. She creates this symbolic analogy by comparing adaptation to masculine society with the need to put on a mask in order to breath the air, “We can’t even breathe the air there without masks,” Le Guin then goes on to mention, “And if you put the mask on you’ll have a hard time getting it off,” This implies her opinion that once you have joined the male culture, as women you will lose your sense of

In “Lieutenant Nun: Memoir of a Transvestite in the New World” by Catalina de Erauso, a female-born transvestite conquers the Spanish World on her journey to disguise herself as a man and inflicts violence both on and off the battlefield. Catalina discovers her hidden role in society as she compares herself to her brothers advantage in life, as they are granted money and freedom in living their own lives. Erauso decides to take action of this act of inequality by forming a rebellion, as she pledges to threaten the social order.The gender roles allotted to both men and women in the Spanish world represent the significance of societal expectations in order to identify the importance of gender in determining one’s position in the social order in the Spanish World.

In analyzing portrayals of women, it is appropriate to begin with the character of Margarita. For, within the text, she embodies the traditionally masculine traits of bravery, resilience, and violence as a means of liberating herself from an existence of abuse and victimhood. Even more, the woman plays upon stereotypes of femininity in order to mask her true nature. The reader witnesses this clever deception in a scene where the character endures a “wholesome thrashing” from her huge, violent, and grizzly bear-like husband, Guerra (81). Although Margarita “[submits] to the infliction with great apparent humility,” her husband is found “stone-dead” the next morning (81). Here, diction such as “submits” and “humility” relate to the traits of weakness, subservience and inferiority that are so commonly expected of women, especially in their relationships with men. Yet, when one

American Literature has always been about men and for men. In this essay, we are going to analyze the women’s role in the book, as inferior and weaker gender.

All of the women in the novel share one thing that all of them are independent and they don’t let the men take control over them. That life is more important than class and social status. In going against the patriarchy of the society and defying the men in their lives shows that there is a really strong bond between the women in the novel. Clara is a good example to show how independent and strong the women in the story are. She’s always mistreated by her husband Esteban.

In the films, Tristana and El espiritu de la colmena, the leading women serve as symbolic representations of what is wanted, needed, what is going on in society, and the directors and writers representations of oppression and how they view opposition to oppression and it’s impact on society as a whole. Tristana, the leading woman, is an incredible symbol of opposition of Christianity and the church, patriarchy, marriage, politics, and most importantly, male power and privilege. Tristana serves both as an individual opposing the control of Don Lope in her youth, much like the “youth” of a Spain under Franco’s control yet ultimately sucumming to the ways of a masculine dominant society and becomes a bitter and cynical woman in the end. However, in El espiritu de la colmena, the main

Ursula Le Guin composes a feminist way of building a society where each individual is equally as suited and adept as the next. Each character acquires the same capability, which results in an equal portrayal of male and female genders. Le Guin’s primary focus in The Left Hand of Darkness is to represent genderless characters in order for her audience to scrutinize the roles that each gender has unfortunately been given. Le Guin’s compelling reconstruction of

In this essay, female oppression in La Casa de Bernarda Alba will be discussed and analyzed. However, in order to be able to understand the importance of this theme and the impact it has had on the play, one must first understand the role of female oppression in the Spanish society in the 1930s.

The Portrayal of the Plight of Women by the Author, In Their Particular Period of Time

The notion that women belong to men, is a statement indicative of a female’s vulnerability. At many times within the novel, the idea that women are weak and feeble creatures is portrayed,

A difficult choice such as life and death is not an easy decision to make. In “Woman’s Hollering Creek” by Sandra Cisneros, there is an important passage that through its language and structure provides the protagonist with a strong internal conflict. The passage comes with strange words and sentence structures which lead the reader to question why Sandra Cisneros would do that. The short sentences and the strange fitting words provide a reason why Cleofilas is different from the legend of “La Llorona”. “La Llorona” represents the women who committed suicide while suffering as victims of abuse. Through the lens of Gender Trouble by Judith Butler, about categorizing women into a general scope based on their common experiences is not correct

Therefore, it is evident that literary techniques are utilised to exploit the Beauvoirian idea of women “denying [their] feminine weakness” in order to justify their strength, while the “militant male... she wish[es] to be” however, Marlene accepts femininity and only wears a skirt to work.

With each letter in Les Liaisons dangereuses, Choderlos de Laclos advances a great many games of chess being played simultaneously. In each, the pieces—women of the eighteenth-century Parisian aristocracy—are tossed about mercilessly but with great precision on the part of the author. One is a pawn: a convent girl pulled out of a world of simplicity and offered as an entree to a public impossible to sate; another is a queen: a calculating monument to debauchery with fissures from a struggle with true love. By examining their similarities and differences, Laclos explores women’s constitutions in a world that promises ruin for even the most formidable among them. Presenting the reader glimpses of femininity from a young innocent’s daunting debut to a faithful woman’s conflicted quest for heavenly virtue to another’s ruthless pursuit of vengeance and earthly pleasures, he insinuates the harrowing journey undertaken by every girl as she is forced to make a name for herself as a woman amongst the tumult of a community that machinates at every turn her downfall at the hands of the opposite sex. In his careful presentation of the novel’s female characters, Laclos condemns this unrelenting subjugation of women by making clear that every woman’s fate in such a society is a definitive and resounding checkmate.

Estrella Alfon’s “Magnificence” and Nick Joaquin’s “The Summer Solstice” are stories heavily focused on women going against the social roles and norms which in turn challenge patriarchy; thus, it is appropriate and fitting to use a feminist approach to analyze the said stories. Moreover, using a feminist criticism is more fitting since the female protagonists of the stories defy the socially constructed view of femininity and masculinity. In both stories, oppression or objectification of women is greatly exhibited. In order to unravel and comprehend the two stories, three questions will be tackled: (a) How is the relationship between