Woman At Point Zero Essay

Money— sweeter than honey but oh so destructive. It facilitates a man’s life, while a lack of it imprisons him in the streets of penury. It raises his social status, while an absence of it leaves him unnoticed. It gives him an aura of superiority and importance among others, while a deficiency of it makes him worthless in society’s eyes. Considering these two roads, most do not take more than a second to decide to chase riches.

"Women on the Edge of Time" by Marge Piercy, is a novel that illustrates some problems of today’s society and compares them to a possible future time. The other world that is presented in the book is called Mattapoisett. Mattapoisett is described as an utopian science fiction place because is much different from the place that Connie lived. Even thought Mattapoisett might be the world that Connie’s culture needed it is not a perfect world. Some of the problems that Marge Piercy presents in the book are poverty, women’s role, and problems of government, the environment, and prejudices that our society is facing today. However, how is the society different from the two cultures presented in the book? Connie, the

The title of this book comes from the inspiring words spoken by Sojourner Truth at the 1851, nine years prior to the Civil War at a Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio. In Deborah Grays White, Ar’n’t I a woman her aim was to enrich the knowledge of antebellum black women and culture to show an unwritten side of history of the American black woman. Being an African- American and being a woman, these are the two principle struggles thrown at the black woman during and after slavery in the United States. Efforts were made by White scholars in 1985 to have a focus on the female slave experience. Deborah Gray White explains her view by categorizing the hardships and interactions between the female slave and the environment in which the

You are required to discuss a work by a 20th or 21st century artist, photographer, designer, architect, film-maker, philosopher or writer and show how this work reflects, contradicts or extends theories of and attitudes to visual culture current at the time of its making.

In the Middle Eastern culture, women held relatively no power during the 19th century and were taken advantage of in the Arabic culture. El Saadawi struggles to exert her voice and power in society because she refuses to conform to society’s expectations. Nawal El Saadawi exemplifies the motif of eyes in her novel, Woman at Point Zero. They live in a strictly patriarchal society but Firdaus challenges this belief through her fervent eye contact. El Saadawi shows this through her fictional character, Firdaus, who creates an intimate connection between various characters via the motif of eyes and uncovers the characters’ true intentions.

On May 29, 1851, Sojourner Truth gave her most famous speech at the Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio. Truth, being born a slave and escaping to her freedom, was both a women’s rights activist and abolitionist. In a male-dominated society, Truth wanted to gain awareness for the inequalities of women and African Americans during the time period. She makes several claims how African Americans and women are not inferior to the white male population. By targeting those males, Truth portrays them as antagonists and thus gives the women and the African Americans something to focus their struggles on. Sojourner Truth attempts to persuade her audience to support the women’s rights movement and on subtler terms, to support the need for African

In “On the Want of Money”, a 19th century text, William Hazzlit presents a strong position on the role of currency in society and the ironic relationship between man and his status through use of rhetoric; such as but not limited to syntax, repetition, and imagery. In doing so, Hazzlit strengthens his argument and gives more weight to his claims that support the idea that in possession of money and lack thereof man is miserable in his ways. Ownership leaves man alienated from friends and family, to be commemorated by a lonely, seldom frequented monument of massive proportions. Austerity dictates lives, limiting those in pursuit of wealth to a constant, consuming search. In summation, the concept of money is hopeless

My mother never told me the complications of becoming a woman in this world. Maybe she thought I was strong enough to figure them out on my own. Or quite possibly, she couldn't tell me, because she never really knew how to face the complications herself.

Deborah Gray White’s Ar’n’t I a Woman? details the grueling experiences of the African American female slaves on Southern plantations. White resented the fact that African American women were nearly invisible throughout historical text, because many historians failed to see them as important contributors to America’s social, economic, or political development (3). Despite limited historical sources, she was determined to establish the African American woman as an intricate part of American history, and thus, White first published her novel in 1985. However, the novel has since been revised to include newly revealed sources that have been worked into the novel. Ar’n’t I a Woman? presents African American females’ struggle with race and

The excerpt from “On the Want of Money” by William Hazlitt is an outcry to humanity in response to the realities of a world that revolves around currency. Hazlitt implores his audience through his rhetoric to reflect on what they deem to be important, and to realize that their desires can be the very thing restraining them from attaining their ambitions. Through the use of irony, hypothetical examples, and figurative language William Hazlitt warns of the dangerous paths the pursuit of money can lead to, and the ultimate demise of anyone who takes these paths.

Cultures can shape the identities of individuals. Kingston identity was shape by Chinese and Chinese American culture. "No Name Woman," begins with a talk-story, about Kingston’ aunt she never knew. The aunt had brought disgrace upon her family by having an illegitimate child. In paragraph three, “she could not have been pregnant, you see, because her husband had been gone for years” (621). This shows that Kingston’s aunt had an affair with someone and the result was her pregnancy. She ended up killing herself and her baby by jumping into the family well in China. After hearing the story, Kingston is not allowed to mention her aunt again. The ideas of gender role-play an important role in both cultures. Kingston in her story “No Name

On describing her captivity in marriage Firdaus also states 'A virtuous woman was not supposed to complain about her husband, her duty was perfect obedience.', thus, in order to be 'good' one must be totally submissive. This description of a virtuous woman shows how ingrained social expectations were in the society of 1970's , if one must be perfectly obedient to one other person at all times, then obviously they are captive in both expectations and duty, a duty that was for Firdaus, forced upon her. The captivity is not physical, but rather mental and inflicted onto Firdaus from societal expectations. Firdaus later reflects upon the captivity she felt in her marriage stating “I would rather be a free prostitute than an enslaved wife.” The adjective 'enslaved' shows that Firdaus believes wives to be, literal slaves, captive in their marriage. Stating she would prefer to be a prostitute instead of a wife is shocking to a western reader, as generally being a wife is thought to be freer and safer than having to sell your body. Al Sadawi in this phrase not only shocks the reader, but further introduces the reader to the foreign paradigm of a middle-eastern wife and the sheer desperation due to captivity experienced.

In the Joseph Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness, Marlow, the main character, shows his opinion of women in a well masked, descriptive manner. Although women are not given a large speaking role ,the readers still feel their presence throughout the novel. In the scene at the Central Station, the description of the symbols in the painting,the blindfold, the torch, and the darkness, allow the readers to see the darkness in the world and the thought that women should not be exposed to that darkness. Marlow believe that women are too fragile to know the truth and should instead be left in their beautiful, untouched world.

The woman occupies a unique role in the process of exchange. She has a “dual-relation” to capitalist culture as she both consumes it herself, but is physically used as a commodity in it as well (Roberts 88). Due to this “dual-relation”, she is able to move through the classes in a manner similar to a commodity. Her mobility is performative and relies on surface appearances. In Woman at Point Zero, Firdaus explains to the woman interviewing her that because of the wealth she earned in prostitution she purchased expensive beauty products that allowed her to play the part of an upper-class woman despite her middle-class education and lower class background (Sadaawi “Point Zero” 14). As an object, a simple manipulation of her appearance can alter her value. However her position is twofold. Not only is she a commodity, but she is a laborer as well, performing a service for the acquisition of money. Firdaus equates all female workers to prostitutes (Sadaawi “Point Zero” 124). In the eyes of the patriarchy women are “instruments of pleasure, passion, and sexual satisfaction, or receptacles for bearing children, or commodities to be bought and sold in the marriage market” (Sadaawi “Hidden Face” 77). A woman worked is still under the patriarchal control of the management and due to the oversexed culture, her body is still abused. The female employee offers up her body to men above her within the company for job security or a minimal pay raise. Firdaus resists objectifying herself in

Betty Friedan wrote that "the only way for a woman, as for a man, to find herself, to know herself as a person, is by creative work of her own." The message here is that women need more than just a husband, children, and a home to feel fulfilled; women need independence and creative outlets, unrestrained by the pressures of society. Throughout much of history, women have struggled with the limited roles society imposed on them. The belief that women were intellectually inferior, physically weaker, and overemotional has reinforced stereotypes throughout history. In the 1960s, however, women challenged their roles as "the happy little homemakers." Their story is the story of the Women's Liberation