...Deconstructing Death, Gender Roles, and Hope: Comparison and Contrast between Pedro Paramo and The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World While countless people seek for a happy ending when encountering a novel, a story might not always end in a happy ending. Though some stories around the world seem to convey similar morals, they still may differ in style and in the means of how they are illustrated. In fact, the elements of a story may display distinct societies depending on the time period or the author’s values and point of view. For instance, in the Korean novels of the 18th century, women are depicted as weak and careless. In contrast, women are illustrated as more scrupulous and sincere in modern stories (“A study on the types of female portraits in modern Korean novels : focusing on 18 Literature textbooks for high school,” 2010). Besides gender roles, the portrayal of death and hope may also be dissimilar between two novels. Pedro Paramo, by Juan Rulfo (1955), and The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1968), are two primary examples. Both authors depict a society in accordance to their cultural traits and experiences, but apparently the two authors possess distinct reflections about death, gender roles, and hope. The following essay will compare and contrast how death is portrayed in the two works, how males and females are discriminated according to their roles, and the hope that the characters in each story share. Unquestionably, settings...
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...Gender Roles, Marriage and Love: A Comparison of I’m Going! A Comedy in One Act vs. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Cindy Stevenson ENG 125: Introduction to Literature Instructor: Kathryn Ness Santana July 30, 2012 Gender Roles, Marriage and Love: A Comparison of I’m Going! A Comedy in One Act vs. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Gender roles and marriage have been stereotyped for thousands of years. The man earned a living while the woman stayed home did the cooking and laundry and raised the children. Today, however, roles have reversed in many households. Men stay home and take care of the children, do the cooking, and run the errands while the wife earns the income. The biggest change over the years is that husband and wife both work to make-endsmeat. In comparing and contrasting James Thurber’s “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” and Tristan Bernard’s “I’m Going! A Comedy in One Act” I will show through differences and similarities in the content, form, and style how these different stories both have the same theme. “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” by James Thurber is a short story that was originally written in 1939. This story revolves around the lives of two characters Mr. and Mrs. Walter Mitty and Mrs. Mitty’s constant henpecking toward Mr. Mitty. Mr. Mitty daydreams to remove himself from his wife’s badgering. He imagines himself in heroic scenes as the center of attention, as US Navy Pilot flying his crew out of a hurricane, then as a...
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...A Gender Comparison of Resiliency among Older African American Katrina Survivors Name Institution Date A Gender Comparison of Resiliency among Older African American Katrina Survivors The hurricane Katrina is rated the fifth most deadly hurricane in the history of the United States. The period of the hurricane witnessed massive destruction of property besides lost of lives. In addition to thee various forms of loss that became manifested in the period of the menace, a number of cases of psychological torture were reported due to the fear of the unknown. The coast regions reported high number of these cases with the coast line extending from central Florida to Texas experiencing the highest cases of destruction and situations of general turmoil. In connection to the harsh situations experience in this period, the reaction strategy among persons affected was different (Lawson, 2010). The manner in which persons reacted to this calamity depended on a number of factors among the ethical group, gender, geographical region besides other aspects that became highly central in the nature of the reactions. In most instances, copying strategies were adopted in order to help persons effectively adapt to the situations that also involved designing possible measures for curbing the adverse effects of the hurricane. Among the group of persons that were highly affected by the calamity was the African American community. A key attribute to this was the large number of the ethnic...
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...recognizable performances of roles and gendered and sexualized performances (Giltrow 276). According to Delph-Janiurek, voices are limited within the confines of certain societal hegemonic norms. He explains that the relationship between voices and bodies is not necessarily physiological; voices are vocal “performances”. There exists a pre-established gender duality within society, in which masculinity and the “male” voice is associated with the male body, and femininity and the “female” voice is associated with the female body. Thus, what is considered to be a “natural” voice is merely a choice made by an individual as to which of the two sides of duality they identify with more (Gamson). This choice is a representation of a gendered and sexualized identity that is influenced by discourse. Gender norms dictate that males identify with the more masculine voice, with a lower pitch and only slight increases in intonation. The stereotypical female voice, on the other hand, is more high pitched, with more variation in intonation (Bonds-Raacke). With this in consideration, Delph Janiurek’s thesis is that voices have a “geography”, and that they can be authored in a certain way within certain societal “spaces” (Giltrow 276). In other words, certain situations demand misperformance of hegemonic gender roles in the form of voice alteration. Delph-Janiurek’s argument is limited in the sense that it does not conduct enough research into different types of social roles in order to properly consider...
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...access of higher education and becoming economically independent of men, breaking the need for women to depend on a man as the breadwinner of the household. With women becoming financially independent, they are no longer limited to being a homemaker and can pursue the same opportunities that are offered to men. Thus, under the social exchange theory, men are no longer able to offer financial stability to women as a reward to offset the costs such as childbearing associated with marriage. As a result, women seek other benefits that fulfill their individual happiness and only when there are enough rewards for women will they agree to a marriage proposal. Due to their new financial independence, women also have the option of divorce if the comparison level of the marital...
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...Running Head: COMPARISON Comparison of Gender Roles Ben Boice Marion Technical College October 31, 2013 Gender Studies Stay at home mom, career woman, stay at home dad, and bread winner are all titles that are used in both the United States and Japan. In both society’s the gender roles are established at a very young age and continue through adulthood. Although both society’s use some of the same titles there are some differences with in the gender roles. In Japan the term house wife is not associated as being negative where as some in the United States link it with a negative stereotype. In both societies the gender roles were passed down from generation to generation. Both societies have gender roles that are rigid and gender roles that are open. Both types of roles have some resistance from people in the societies. House person would be an example for both societies. In the United States some people titled house wife or house dad are met with a negative connotation while in Japan the title is associated with power. In the Japanese culture a house wife is the one with the power of the house. She is responsible for the budget, taking care of the children and other family members, giving the husband an allowance, and overall decisions of the home. In the United States the house wife r house dad has the stereotype of lazy, submissive, and not sharing the responsibility of the house hold. Within both societies there is resistance to this role. Women in Japan are frowned...
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...What is gender? There really is no concise or definitive definition for it, since it will differ from person to person depending on who you ask. The dictionary and medical definition states it as being male or female. The sociology textbook definition refers to it as the physical, behavioral, and personality traits that a group considers to be normal, natural, right and good for its male and female members. Regardless of what view you take gender as, it ultimately leads to relations in the male and female category. One major subject of gender is gender roles, which basically means how males and females should speak, think, dress and act within the context of society and can be linked to gender stereotyping (also a topic of discussion). It is apparent in most if not all cultures, but the “role” itself varies from one culture to another. A major gateway for this is through the media. In the United States, children’s cartoons are a prime example. Of the plethora of cartoons available for discussion, four highly popular ones, current and old, will take priority: Dora the Explorer, Spongebob Squarepants, Rugrats, and the Scooby Doo series. First to be discussed is the extremely popular, Dora the Explorer. The show can be considered a global phenomenon being dubbed in over twenty different languages, so it has a large fan base amongst the varying cultures around the world. Now, on to the topic of gender in regards to the show, the show itself is not necessarily targeted solely towards...
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...In today’s day and age, the fact that gender roles exist is undeniably true. Throughout history, women’s roles in society seem to be secondary to men. It is socially common to see a women’s job as completing household duties, in comparison to a male’s breadwinning role. Culture forms what some consider as masculine and feminine social norms of behavior, and differ in physical and emotional differences. Whether through family or the work place, females are more constricted by conventional gender roles. The existence of conventional gender roles between men and women, have changed over time, however, a level of social expectations to conform to the limitations of gender roles remain, which guide the idea of what some may believe to be a...
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...expressive of their emotions as opposed to men (Karaffa, 2012; Sanchez, Bocklandt & Vilain, 2013). This belief has been supported by numerous gender studies. According to Nina Vaswani (2011), gender role are behaviours and attitudes that men and women acquire from culture in which they influence how men and women should act. Gender role theorist, posit that male gender socialization affects men’s willingness and/or ability to seek help for problem. Four main components of gender role conflict have been identified by research (Mansfield et al, 2005 as cited by Vaswani, 2011) that describes the barrier to help seeking. The researchers identified: an orientation to success, power and competition, restrictive emotionality...
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...During stages in which individuals are strongly influenced by their environments, such as during puberty, two factors in the community play an important role in this influence: “...(1) competitive norms within the community and (2) achievement pressures...” (Lund). In affluent communities, very high competitive norms are present, such as the norm to be a part of elite schools and sports teams, and to maintain high social standings. These competitive norms put pressure on students growing up in such communities during puberty. If students do not meet these criterion, rather than putting it behind them, students feel pressured by social comparison. For that reason, stress builds up and manifests the idea of not being good enough inside the student’s head. This manifestation eventually leads to social anxiety disorder later in life, because of the person’s history of social...
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...Gender Socialization through Toys and Sports In today’s society, there are many guidelines of how one should act and be. Gender socialization is the process where people take on notions of gender roles, gender ideas and gender behaviours. At an early age, boys and girls are told how to behave and act according to societal norms of gender behaviours and roles. The comparison of Jane Smiley’s article “You Can Never Have too Many” and John McMurty’s , “Kill ‘Em! Crush ‘Em! Eat ‘Em Raw!” provides an insight about how gender socialization is conditioned through toys and sports at an early age. Also teaching and reinforcing stereotypical gender roles through traits, appearances and occupation. (this is an incomplete sentence and it doesn’t flow very well with the previous sentence) Specific toys and sports are associated with certain genders and generalizes the role that boys and girls should uphold. Male characteristics are thought to be strong, tough and are unable to show weakness whereas female roles are to be nurturing, supportive and caring. In Jane Smiley’s article, the author focuses on how Barbie plays a positive role model in her daughter’s childhood. Barbie is portrayed as beautiful woman who posses feminine qualities. Young girls who tend to play with Barbie dolls have a mind set that they should grow up to be like Barbie. “Lucy could apply lipstick with her eyes closed by the time she was five.” (Smiley 238) This quote shows that children are easily influenced by the...
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...Social Comparison Lamer (2012) titled ‘’within Gender and Between Gender Upward Social Comparison” in her article argues that issues related to an individual’s body image and self-esteem are related irrespective of one’s age, ethnicity, and gender. Her vindications are reinforced by the press report of 2010 by National Organization of Women which highlights that 49% of girls between 3 to 6 years are worried of being fat. There are numerous campaigns against insecurities emanating from body images. For an instant, campaigns such as Operation Beautiful advocates for positive talk on women with the aim of counteracting trends related to body insecurity (Boyle, 2010). Social Comparison Theory provides the platform for individuals to maintain...
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...Describe and evaluate the evolutionary explanation of gender roles (8+16) One way in which the evolutionary theory can explain how gender roles differ can be explained by mate choice. Men tend to look for women with small waists and bigger hips as it shows fertility. They also look for signs of healthiness such as smooth skin, glossy hair, and red lips. Women also seek signs of healthiness and youth but are more concerned in looking for a male that is able to provide resources for them. This can explain why women take care of themselves more and try to make themselves look as youthful as possible, whereas men promote themselves as successful and hardworking. By both genders adopting these roles, individuals are attracting partners that will increase the survival of their offspring and increase reproductive success. A study to support this idea of mate choice being related to evolutionary advantages was carried out by Singh (1993). In a series of studies done by Singh, men used waist to hip ratio (WHR) and fat distribution to determine a woman’s attractiveness. In his first study, men were shown a series of 12 drawings of women with various WHR’s and body fat distribution. Drawings with normal body fat distribution and a moderate WHR were associated with the most positive traits (i.e. attractive, sexy, intelligent and healthy). The drawings with the low WHR were not associated with any positive traits except youthfulness. Singh found that men have a preference for women with...
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...in establishing social norms and behaviors. It is extremely evident that media outlets have the power to create meaning. Image advertisements in particular have the power to create a set of frames that perpetuate ideological hegemony. Ideology is a culmination of social beliefs and values that are upheld by members of society. Hegemony is the power or dominance that one social group holds over others (Lull, 1995). Ideological hegemony is a concept that describes an intertwined system of everyday realities that are created by dominant individuals. As a result, ideological hegemony can often go undetected by common members of society. For example, ideological hegemony can be detected in image advertisements. Gender stereotypes and dominant norms are often perpetuated in daily advertisements. Clothing advertisers often feature young women and men and exaggerate potential sexual relationships. This could indicate the importance of heterosexuality, and the importance of beauty in our society. Due to the amount of messages an individual sees on a daily basis, these common stereotypes are not as obvious to the American consumer. As active consumers, it is our responsibility to challenge the existing...
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...over the past twenty years, a significant gender gap in achievement has developed. Girls now outperform boys in most subjects and at most levels of education. This is especially true of pupils at GCSE where 10% more girls than boys achieve five or more A* – C grades. Some sociologists claim that gender differences in achievement are the result of changes in wider society, such as the impact of feminist ideas and changing employment opportunities for both girls and boys. However, others argue that the education system has become ‘feminised’, for example through an emphasis on coursework in assessment, which may favour girls. Furthermore, a lack of male primary school teachers means that many boys do not have an adult male role model in their early experiences of school. Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess the claim that gender differences in educational achievement are primarily the ‘result of changes in wider society’ (20 marks) Gender differences in educational achievement have changed drastically over the past twenty years due to many various factors including alterations in wider society and the reshaping of the education system itself. Girls are now outperforming boys in the majority of subjects at all levels of education prompting an ongoing argument between sociologists on the reasons behind this change. Some sociologists claim that the reason for such a difference in the level of achievement between genders is a result of changes in wider society...
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