... Ways of Seeing," he discusses the mystification of art. Art tends to be a pleasure that one must interpret for themselves by getting the art to speak. Art is mystified, meaning that it is impossible to understand art and know its history without also understanding the present, and that ... claims that the way to demystify and make these paintings speak is to learn to ask "the right questions of the past" (167). To experience this demystification for myself, I faced hundreds of paintings and began this process by choosing a painting by Edward Richard Miller, titled Sunbath. Sunbath shows a...

• Word Count: 1624
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography

... questioned in the text are, nationalism, femininity, sexual morality and social standing. In the beginning of the book, we see that the women feel bonded by nationalism. This nationalism has brought them to the front line as ambulance drivers during World War I. Nellie "Smithy " Smith, the main character of this ... is sending the younger generation to war, due to what she feels is pride-lead stupidity. World War I was a severe and terrible war, marked by young men dying in some of the most horrible conditions ever possibly imagined. These women, being ambulance drivers, saw this on a re...

• Word Count: 1640
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... of Roderigo's urgent persuasions, Violenta claims to be "a maidwho knows the the true estimation of virtue" and counters his dramatic claims of death by simply stating, "You very eloquently tell me you shall die if I continue unkind; but I very plainly tell your Lordship, that I must perish ... not a measure of how truly virtuous a woman is, but rather was an important negotiation tool in securing a husband, getting paid off in a sense by said husband's wealth, and cementing a woman's societal status as a "proper" woman. The follow through of this exchange was considered to be ... the v...

• Word Count: 1986
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: Graduate

... The Crying Game" femininity and the gender of characters play a large part when analysing the narrative. The quote originates from "Cloud Nine", which is said by the character Betty. The female gendered characters relate to this quote at the start of the storyline of both pieces and at the closing of the narrative ... restricted Victorian society Betty is shown to have little power compared to the dominant male figure, Clive. Betty represses her wants and sexuality, which is shown by her lack of ability to express her sexual desires directly. She is only able to express herself indirectl...

• Word Count: 1265
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

The Boor by Anton Chekhov has many themes in it pertaining faithfulness and emotions, because of this it relates to real life and how this could actually happen in a more modern setting. The ... 't pay him. He then continues saying, "Woman's logic! That's why I never liked to talk to women, and why I dislike doing it now" (1945). He continues with his misogyny by basically saying that women are illogical. He'd rather converse with men than women because women don't make sense. He then speaks about how women love; he angrily says, "May ... learn to like them despite the fact that they aren't ...

• Word Count: 1349
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... face. In order to challenge the oppression in her life, Ramatoulaye must first reflect on and understand her own experiences and choices. However, she is only able to do so by confiding in her female friend, showing that romantic relationships fail to provide a space in which women's problems can be understood. Not only does the strong female friendship and love between ... , sisters, can actually make the relationship stronger and help to build new identities with positive changes. At the end of the book, Kainene goes missing, and Olanna ends the novel by saying "Uwa m, uwa ozo. When I ...

• Word Count: 1849
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... betrayals he spewed out of his mouth slowly caused more and more anger in me. He pushed me over the limit. I couldn't handle being lied to and hurt by him. It caused me to push him out of my life and basically "take a break" from him, My own brother. For almost a year i ... She puts herself in a position of power through her words. She shows that she is a strong women who worked for everything she has and is showing she doesn't feel controlled by anybody. In her song she says, "I see it, i want itI dream it, i work hard, I grind till I own it." These lyrics show that she ... that it ...

• Word Count: 1879
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

... to eat like a lady- have manners and maybe not eat too quickly or spill on herself- instead of perhaps eating like a barbarian with no table etiquette. Also, by telling her daughter to not eat fruit on the streets because flies will follow, it's reasonable to presume that she wants to let her daughter know that trailing flies will ... that she is a so called "slut". It seems as though the mother is scolding the daughter, and making it clear that her value in society is determined by her sexual chasteness and modest behaviors. After teaching her daughter how to be a domestic housewife, to...

• Word Count: 1435
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography

... unable to touch and/or be intimate with one another, which completely changed their relationship as they were always "passionate" and cultivated their love by showing affection. Duffy uses language features to evoke sympathy and sadness from readers felt for Mrs Midas and her loss of a lover, and their hopes for ... the spare room into the tomb of Tutankhamun". This metaphor visually powerful, for it creates an image of Midas and his piles of useless metal. By comparing Midas to an Egyptian pharaoh who died very young, hinting that he too will die young and surrounded with go...

• Word Count: 1489
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... status unless a woman is married. The poem states, "God sends us women- When you-hold-Garnet to Garnet- Gold to Gold" (Dickinson 7-9) By using the word "God", the narrator makes it obvious that the poem alludes to religion. The narrator does not differentiate between a woman who is ... Tri Victory Is this-the way?" (Dickinson 13-15). The narrator questions if the only way to be victorious in life is to be a bride. By saying ""Born-Bridalled-Shrouded- In a Day-" she is showing that the three significant parts of a woman's short life on earth are to ... and if she does not get married, sh...

• Word Count: 1480
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... sure of: "he had done something...I had him at my back" (165), their relationship comes to an end when the he dies. Marlow is saddened by his death but also pities him: "Poor fool! If only he had left that shutter alone. He had no restraint" (165). Here, restraint is something ... tree swayed in the wind" signifies the consequences of having no self-restraint for each of the individuals. Compared to Helmsman, Marlow is very impressed by the restraint shown by the cannibals. He thinks about the time when the Cannibals' hippo meat rots. He then asks himself: "Why in the name of all the ......

• Word Count: 1601
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

After reading "Oranges," a poem by Gary Soto, the only words that run through my head are "how cute." This poem is something a girl would call "the perfect date." There are many details throughout this poem, ... these details, the reader does not know how the girl looks or what the boy sees in this girl. If the poem is read just like it is written, line-by-line, then the poem makes very little sense. If one were to interpret this poem like most other poems it would cause a lot of confusion. "Oranges" reads more like a story ... proceeds to pay for the chocolate. At this point, thoughts of h...

• Word Count: 1527
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... what their gender is. What makes them seem to have different abilities is the social construction itself. "Primate Studies and Sex Differences", an essay by Sally Linton, tells about her disagreement of the experience done on primates, the "animals that are most like human beings", to reveal the truth ... that some behaviors reflects innate differences between genders. She defends her opinion by giving the fact that "the female primates who did not receive the proper socialization make very poor mothers." This alone can already tell the fact ... "It is not natural (instinctive) for [the...

• Word Count: 1274
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... and physically dominant. He has very big arms, hands larger than the wives whole head, and "powerful knuckles and the veins engorged by the pressure on his arm" (Meyer 164). By describing him such as big and powerful with hair on his hands and arms, the author portrays him as an animal of sorts ... hand is described "offended, reared back and tensed up in the shape of a crab and waited, ready for battle" (Meyer 164). When she is disgusted by this behavior, the hand becomes defensive. This behavior of the hand is a metaphor for the roles in relationships. The male is often abusive or contr...

• Word Count: 1593
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... whom I would cast in the different roles, I think someone like Kathy Bates or Frances McDormand would make a good Mrs. Hale. Mrs. Peters could be played by someone like Frances Conroy, the actress who plays the mother on HBO's "Six Feet Under." She is a slim, nervous looking woman, as the stage directions describe ... of a change, but Mrs. Peters does. All throughout the play, she is defending her husband, and the legal process against Mrs. Hale's criticism. By the end, however, she feels so strongly in favor of Mrs. Wright that she knowingly lies to her husband to hide the discovery the...

• Word Count: 2006
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

... Madrid, Spain. The novel follows an idolized monk, Ambrosio, who struggles between maintaining his monastic vows and fulfilling personal ambitions after he is tempted by a young woman. The characters must navigate through black magic, incest, rape, and the supernatural as they fall from grace and are faced with ... still dear to [her] and [she] dreads to lose it" so she hangs onto her will power and survives until she is rescued by Don Lorenzo (319). This strength and power Agnes has come from the empowerment that obtaining and realizing her sexuality has given her. Although Agnes has ....

• Word Count: 1567
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... a second time. With Senegal moving into a time of modernization, woman begun to have a new outlook on their rights after they became enlighten by education and the outside world. From the opening pages of So Long a Letter, the book revolved around a complex theme of abandonment in two ... abandonment of certain ideas, beliefs and tradition that dominated Senegal culture. During this time period in Senegal, Senegal was undergoing a culture reform by the introduction of new laws an policies, which gave more rights to woman. Many people where giving up their traditional trades and attendin...

• Word Count: 1737
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... many events of nearly every character in this story. This period in history was indeed marked with a peculiar fascination for the opposite sex. By briefly examining the role of women during the Victorian Era when these historical events take place, we can better understand how it's importance ties in ... , the term nymphomania was applied to degrees of sexual expression which would be considered quite normal today" (Rosenberg 10). It was believed that sex by nature, was not very natural at all, and that lower-class servants were the only ones to break norms. "Servants represented an intr...

• Word Count: 1494
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... women. Kapshaw himself had addressed Wishkob as grandmother" (64). There was the bwaanug who raced the Frenchman who was "a woman-man called a winkte by the Bwaanag" (153). The Ojibwe saw masculinity in a woman as desirable. Mashkiigikwe was one of Kapshaw's wives, and is hunting when Father Damien ... makes the reader uncomfortable. We do not often think of having a sexual relationship with God, but Agnes does. This border is also blurred by her relationship with Father Wekkle. Father Damien/ Agnes's relationship with Father Wekkle was that of colleagues at first, but then turned sexu...

• Word Count: 1448
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... era's attempt to control the representation of women's nature" (5). In the 1880's, this "angel in the house" (5), this "ideal woman", was challenged by what was called the "Novissima", "The New Woman" who rejected marriage and motherhood and contested the boundaries of those separate entities. Edna Pontelleir in Kate Chopin ... Mademoiselle Reisz states to Edna that in order to be considered an artist, "one must possess many gifts-absolute gifts-which have not been acquired by one's own effort. And, moreover, to succeed, the artist must possess the courageous soul" (63). Although Edna and...

• Word Count: 1597
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... , Rose and her boyfriend get married and they eventually have a daughter. However, Rose's freedom did not come without a price; she is plagued by hideous dreams and visions of what will happen if she does not remember the pomegranate tree. The plot in Rose Madder twists and turns and switches ... The thoughts and actions of both main characters are shown through the different points in the story. In the Beginning of Angel Fire East, by Terry Brooks, the author uses the first couple of chapters to introduce the main characters. Nest Freemark is a young woman who possesses magic ... little...

• Word Count: 2201
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

... to her husband John's rules, do her house chores and have children and care for them. These rules, or expected guidelines, are set forth and enforced by the society the narrator is a part of. In this passage the narrator's attitude towards the wallpaper represents how she feels about the society she lives in. ... in as parasitic. Most likely the narrators "sickness" is due to the way society's rules have broken down or decomposed her health. Also, fungus is considered to survive by a symbiotic existence, which means to live off of a host organism. The male's role in the narrator's socie...

• Word Count: 1342
• Approx Pages: 5

... though Jo, as a woman, has talents and abilities and is more than a person that must be trained to be a wife and mother, she is convinced (by society) that only men have the freedom to decide what they become in their adulthood. Jo believes this because throughout much of the history of Western civilization, deep- ... , but who is provided for at the same price. She wants to prove herself that she does not depend on a man and that is why she refused to marry Laurie, the young, wealthy, talented, and loving neighbor and friend "Nothing more, except that I don't believe I shall ever marry. ...

• Word Count: 1323
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... It's not good, nor is it bad. It just is. In his story "Death in the Woods," Sherwood Anderson demonstrates mankind's ability to take for granted the gifts received through our Mother Earth, aptly symbolized by an old woman with no name. He also reveals to his reader the beauty that lies within the ceremonies of ... of our nourishment, she continues to provide for those that give so little back. After we are introduced to her husband, in paragraphs nine through fourteen Anderson flashes back to her youth in an abusive foster home, as well as her short courtship and abrupt marriage to an...

• Word Count: 1944
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

... also gave birth to the tradition of putting women on an inaccessible pedestal that they would perch on, unable to move, for centuries to come. Anderson and Zinsser see the positive and negative aspects of courtly love and much information can be drawn from them as well as troubadours of the time. ... saying, "no one who looked at her was not warmed with joy,"" and, " her eyes bright, her face white, a beautiful mouth, a well-set nose ,"" (Anderson and Zinsser, 311). For one of the first times in this period women were worthy of something "love. A woman's beauty and virtue combined made he...

• Word Count: 1444
• Approx Pages: 6