Comparing Women In 'Everyday Use And Persepolis'

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While Miss Brill in “Miss Brill”, Mama in “Everyday Use”, and Marji in “Persepolis,” are women of different cultures and ethnicities, their roles as women is faced with similar gender inequalities. Some might argue that women are treated as an equal gender with the same amount of opportunity as men. However, Miss Brill, Dee, Mama and Marji share in common psychological, social, and economic issues that women face not only exist today in America, but also Worldwide. Mansfield’s work in “Miss Brill”, is mainly about a lonely school teacher that creates a false reality for herself. Miss Brill finds herself at the Public Gardens every Sunday afternoon in her certain spot to eavesdrop into others conversations. Miss Brill over hears a young couple …show more content…

These psychological issues faced by the characters in these stories relate to psychological issues still going on today. In “Miss Brill” for example, is a lonely woman that creates the image of her own ideal reality in her mind to make peace with herself. Brill is a single older woman in her time, makes her feel as if she had failed her duties as a woman. Feeling unequal to married women, makes her question her life purpose and psychological needs. According to Psychology today, women get too comfortable with themselves being alone. During this alone period, too much anxiety builds up causing them to stay in their shell instead of coming out. Like other women, Miss Brill’s isolation and routine affect her mental state causing her loneliness. Therefore, a woman’s mind, builds up a defensive mechanism for coping with loneliness. Mental health in women are more likely to happen than men. Due to lower serotonin levels in women, serotonin acts as a mood stabilizer. Furthermore proving that there is biological evidence that women are more susceptible to obtain a mental …show more content…

Economically, women are made out to be caretakers and objects. On the other hand, Momma from “Everyday Use” who claims to be a “big-boned woman with rough, man working hands” can just as easily kill and gut a hog as any man could(paragraph 4). This clearly proves that women are capable of doing the same job physically as men. More importantly, women get payed less than men on average. According to Catherine Hill, Ph.D. women were paid 78 percent of what men made in the year 2013 in the U.S. For colored women, their salaries stand at 64 percent of white men’s earnings. Therefore, a single mother has a much harder time providing for their families because of unequal pay. Moreover, education can help increase your yearly earnings, but in Mama’s case she was only able to get to second grade education. Mama could be symbolized as one of the few women who played a vital role in advancing women and agriculture. If there are more women like this, agriculture could in the future would be far more

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