Alice Walker Gender Roles

The play “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell is largely based on stereotypes. The most prevalent one explores the difference between gender roles. Glaspell exerts the repression of women in the 1900s. During that time, women were highly looked down upon by men, and were only seen as the housekeepers and child bearers. This example is displayed throughout the play with the men, however, the women in this play prove that the stereotypes of gender roles held against them are completely wrong, which is shown through the characters, set design, and symbolism.

Thirdly, the classification of women into different classes prevents them from identifying their upmost enemy: masculine power. The relationship between the different groups of women creates a powerful atmosphere of suppression. In fact, Gilead promotes the act of woman against woman. Wives and Aunts controls and enforces the disciplines of the patriarchal society to other women, so one can clearly see that even women takes advantage of power. For example, Serena Joy, the Commander’s Wife who lives in vain hope for traditional womanhood, is the true traitor against women.

This photograph depicts a housewife serving her working husband’s meal. This is a representation of gender roles because it is traditional, as well as expected, for the woman to stay home and work in the house or cook while the man will go to work and come home to his dinner. Similar gender roles are observed by Marjane throughout Persepolis. The first suggestion of gender roles shown in Persepolis is when Marjane’s school separates the boys from the girls. “We found ourselves veiled and separated from our friends” (Satrapi 4).

The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields is the story of Daisy Goodwill Hoad Flett.The story begins in Tyndall, Manitoba with Daisy’s mother Mercy Stone Goodwill preparing dinner on an extremely hot summer day. On the same day about an hour later her mother has died giving birth to her. Also mixed into chapter one are the stories of Mercy and Cuyler, Daisy’s parents, meeting and falling in love. Daisy is taken in by her neighbor Clarentine Flett. Who takes her with her when she leaves her husband to go to Winnipeg.

Jean Toomer’s “Georgia Dusk” reveals the remaining influence of slavery on a newly freed African American society. The title is especially relevant within Toomer’s poem, as it signifies a motif that exhibits lightness and darkness within the poem. “Georgia Dusk” signifies this fusion through the word “dusk”, or the time when day transforms into night. This has a possible relation to Toomer’s identity as a mixed-race person, in that he has several racial identities. Thus, the title could signify Toomer’s relations to both African American and white society.

His fear of weakness and failure is derived from his father, Unoka’s failures, which ignite Okonkwo’s misogynistic views. Throughout his lifetime, Okonkwo associates femininity with weakness because of Unoka, who was called an “agbala” or woman by the people of Umuofia. Since women have this reputation for weakness, Okonkwo lives with constant fear that he will be given the same title as his father. Okonkwo’s first son, Nwoye’s effeminacy reminds Okonkwo of his own father. He says, "I have done my best to make Nwoye grow into a man, but there is much of his mother in him .

The story, “A Patchwork Fever”, by Charlotte Mary Yonge, is the story of a young girl, Frances, who must uphold the responsibilities of the house and family while her mother goes on a trip to visit her ill mother. During her mother’s absence, she should clean, cook, wash, etc. as all women are expected to do these duties at that time. However, she is an educated girl and builds

Throughout Lee’s passage, the image of his mother is almost always painted in the kitchen as she cooks. He stated, “When I was six or seven years old, I used to watch my mother as she prepared our favorite meals. It was one of my daily pleasures” (303), going further and painting a detailed picture of how his mother would move as she cooked. Focusing so closely on the details just like she would focus on each ingredient to each meal. The connection between his mother and food was further strengthen as she was diagnosed with stomach cancer, which eventually lead to her inability to eat.

As a child living along the Delaware River in New Hope, Pennsylvania, Hamilton’s parents divorced when she was eleven years old and abandoned her. This forced her to grow up quickly and learn how to live an independent life. In order to survive, Hamilton cooked with any ingredients she could find and landed a job washing dishes in a restaurant. Eventually, she went to college to become a writer, but returned to the kitchen shortly after graduating. Once she met her husband, she instantly fell in love with his big, Italian family—something she longed for during the entirety of her childhood.

The chorus says, “You are right Medea” (L 266). She voices women’s loss of power over their bodies and economies. And how they became trapped in the their own household. Medea explains, “With an excess of wealth it is required/ For us to buy a husband” and notes to not take a “master” is worse (L 232-234). Here she passionately speaks out against the injustices she faces as a women.