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An Analysis Of Oppression In 'Low Visibility'

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Oppression is the inequitable use of authority or physical force to prevent others from being free or equal. It 's hard to tell if a woman is getting beaten up by their spouse, many tend to hide it, so they won 't get hurt. In some psychological views, the oppression of women is an outcome of the nature of men, who are just more aggressive and competitive. Other attribute it to a self-perpetuating cycle, where men compete for power and control. In the short story "Low Visibility", written by Margaret Murphy Laura 's husband is oppressing her and "feeds" on her happiness, while she reacts passively. In this analysis I will examine the characterization of Laura and her marriage, focusing on the structure of the story as well as analyzing the ending and title. Laura lives with her husband who beats her if she is not doing exactly as he wants. She is a puppet in his puppet show, where he changes the rules whenever he wants "She doesn 't know the right thing to say because he changes the rules each time" (ll. 42-43). She once used to be a happy person with lots of humor and an outgoing personality, as the text describes. But somehow, John who was more withdrawn, thought Laura could change him into being more like her, as a result, he managed to turn her likable personality into "… something less distinct, more insubstantial" (p. 8 ll. 30), so it came to be the other way around. In the text, she appears to have no identity and is almost invisible, especially to John, who doesn

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