In both The Thirteenth Night and Dancing Girl, Higuchi Ichiyo and Mori Ogai deal with the issue of “love” in the context of Meiji Japan. While commonly thought of as something personal, both texts portray “love” as being subjected to social pressures – resulting in a tension between the idealized, exalted concept of “love” and the individual’s actual experience of “love”. This tension is significant in both texts, and we see how individuals (the characters) are influenced by society’s prescriptive ideals of “love” but are often unable to achieve it in reality. It is important, however, to note the difference in viewpoint between The Thirteenth Night and Dancing Girl – the former largely depicts a poor female’s experience of “love” (or the lack thereof) while the latter presents “love” from the perspective of an elite, well-educated man. “Love” is presented in The Thirteenth Night and Dancing Girl as being subjected to social pressures, and is therefore a source of tension for individuals who are unable to reconcile their own experiences with social expectations and ideals. In The Thirteenth Night, “love” is tied to the social institutions of marriage and family. The protagonist Oseki is stuck in a loveless marriage as a divorce would not only result in her losing her son, but her family would lose …show more content…
Higuchi Ichiyo’s own experience allowed her writing to realistically depict the suffering of a lowly woman who is still an ‘object’ owned by men in the realm of “love” governed by patriarchal institutions despite the social changes in Meiji Japan. On the other hand, Mori Ogai’s background as an elite, well-educated man imbues his story with a larger purpose – to construct and promote the “love” for a Japanese identity, as well as to participate in the Meiji national
This book reflects the author’s wish of not only remembering what has happened to the Japanese families living in the United States of America at the time of war but also to show its effects and how families made through that storm of problems and insecurities. The story takes in the first turn when the father of Jeanne gets arrested in the accusation of supplying fuel to Japanese parties and takes it last turn when after the passage of several years, Jeanne (writer) is living a contented life with her family and ponders over her past (Wakatsuki Houston and D. Houston 3-78). As we read along the pages
During the Second World War, many of those who came from Japanese descent were restricted from many freedoms that many others of different races had. Due to such a confinement, many felt conflicting attitudes in relation to such appalling events. Most notably seen in an excerpt from Joy Kogawa’s Obasan, through the author’s use of changes in point of view and figurative language, the complex attitude of pride, yet shame in the Japanese culture is revealed. The first section of this text reveals an interesting perspective through the use of first person plural point of view.
The three stories to be discussed in this essay are “The Bouquet” by Charles W. Chesnutt, “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and “Gimpel the Fool” by Isaac Bashevis Singer. It’s interesting to dissect these pieces of literature to see how they reflect the time period they were written in, by whom they were written, and if the stories they read have any abnormalities outside what is expected. So first up is “The Bouquet”; I sympathized mainly for the young girl named Sophie. Society’s faults stunted her growth as an individual, and kept her from bonding with those she desired relations.
The author, Jeanne Wakatsuki, presents a meaningful story filled with experiences that shaped not only her life, but shaped the lives of thousands of Japanese families living in America. The book’s foreword gives us a starting point in which the reader can start to identify why the book was written. “We a told a New York writer friend about the idea. He said: ‘It’s a dead issue. These days you can hardly get people to read about a live issue.
Power, domination, and gender have all been intertwined for years. Men historically have been in power in most civilizations while also dominating the women in order to keep this power. Women have often been viewed as the more delicate sex and were supposed to not worry their pretty little heads about men’s affairs such as politics, education, employment, estate upkeep, and generally everything that had to do with stepping a foot out the door of a house. In Tanizaki Jun’Ichiro’s piece “The Tattooer” he explores these stereotypes and women’s rise to power in society in a dark piece about a tattoo artist and a geisha, both going through a transformation that changes their very character by the end. By incorporating diction, symbolism, and foreshadowing; Tanizaki Jun’Ichiro paints a story portraying Japanese gender roles, domination, and power.
In Ihara Saikaku’s Life of a Sensuous Woman, the author illustrates various gender roles in both women and men. In the works Saikaku composed, he also demonstrates some parts of Japan’s developing cultural values with that of the European Enlightenment period. Japanese culture has a lot in common with that of the Enlightenment period because of the way that women are treated and the roles they should play to serve the man in the household. In Saikaku’s Life of a Sensuous Woman, he displays numerous similarities with Voltaire’s Candid and Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women of the values that men share and also what the role women and society have in each of the different stories. Japan’s cultural values has various similarities with the European Enlightenment period.
Like a rat placed inside a maze to be examined by a scientist, the cast members of the reality T.V show “Bad Girls Club” are placed in a house to be examined as a psychological experiment. The popular reality T.V show “Bad Girls Club” is a show that follows the lives of seven self-proclaimed “bad girls” as they live in a house together. The supposed purpose of this show is to not only watch these bad-mannered women fight, bicker, and argue, but it is also to watch these women mature and step away from their “bad girl” personifications. In order to frame the show of its experimental ways, the show even includes a life coach that is supposed to “help” the women grow out of their “bad girl” ways. But what really is the true objective behind the
5. How has Australian Dance Theatre changed as a company since its foundation in 1965? Australian Dance Theatre, established in 1965 by Elizabeth Cameron Dalman, is the longest standing contemporary dance company in Australia, recently celebrating 50 years. Whilst the company has created a remarkable 50 years of innovative and original work, many state that the concepts and ideas have vastly changed from the company Dalman established. Over the last five decades, Australian Dance Theatre has continued to develop, with the evolution of six individual artistic directors, who produced work in their distinct style, developing unique aesthetics.
In the antiquated Japanese culture introduced to us through this story, orchestrated relational unions are done in their general public, to secure family resources and to guarantee family respect. Love is based off the character 's part or employment as a couple, as opposed to its sentiment.
Dirty Dancing is a classic movie from the 1980s that has many sociological factors that may be overlooked. It was a low budget film by a new studio called Vestron Pictures and it became a box office hit. It was directed by Emile Ardolino and starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey as the leads, and featuring Cynthia Rhodes and Jerry Orbach. The movie starts off with narration by the main female character a 17 year old named Frances Houseman but her nickname is Baby which everyone calls her.
“Societies Love” The passage from “The Other Paris” by Mavis Gallant illustrates society’s expectations and what it holds over people in the world. He presents this through the characters Carol and Howard and their engagement and what caused them to become engaged. He writes about the social commentary of love through voice and characterization.
The author, Diane Ackerman, makes the connection of love by connecting that “love is the great intangible” And that “love is throughout history” using descriptive language. Love is the great intangible is what Diane Ackerman said throughout the text. Diane connects the idea of love being an ancient delirium. For example, she says in paragraph 4, In folk stories, unsuspecting lads and lasses ingest love potion and quickly lose their hearts. As with all intoxicants, love comes in many guises and strengths.”
In the play a Twelfth Night Shakespeare writes about a girl who pretends to be a boy after being shipwrecked and thinking her brother was dead. This theme is also apparent in the movie She’s the man. Viola is a girl who pretends to be her brother so that she play soccer for another school. This movie draws in a hilarious comedy as Viola tries to room with a male while being a female.
Throughout time, literature has had the power to connect readers around the world by providing them with insight into different cultures. Readers may come together by analyzing different texts and how they represent different backgrounds and give readers from a different culture a new perspective. Matsuo Bashō, a haikai master, provided readers with an insight into Japanese culture by depicting his travels around Japan in his work “The Narrow Road to the Deep North”. In the text, Bashō depicts his journey with the use of prose and haiku. Most importantly, Bashō educates readers by demonstrating the Japanese culture’s value for impermanence, the idea that time is transient.
Shakespeare’s renowned play Twelfth Night centers around love, both in platonic and romantic instances. Characters display elements of self, brotherly, amorous, and friendly love towards one another; however, of the relationships portrayed, the strongest ones are those between men. In contrast, relationships between men and women lack depth and sincerity due to the lapse of communication between the opposing genders. Men are able to express their feelings to one another more freely, which gives their bonds strength that heterosexual relationships fail to display.