Individuals are consistently pressured by gender expectations within societies, predominantly in rural towns during the 1960’s. Silvey’s utilisation of characterisation and point of view of Charlie Bucktin presents the traditional gender roles in Jasper Jones, set in Australia during the 1960’s. As Charlie prepares himself to set foot on a journey with Jasper Jones, he noted his appearances and display of femininity: “…the application of pansy footwear, is my first display of girlishness… I jog back with as much masculinity as I can muster, which even in the moonlight must resemble something of an arthritic chicken.” This excerpt shows that Charlie is challenged by Corrigan’s gender expectation of masculinity.
In the film “Stagecoach,” there are a wide range of characters: Mrs. Mallory, high class army wife; Hatfield, a shady Southern gentleman; Curly, the marshall; Gatewood, an embezzling banker; Doc, the town drunk; Dallas, a whore; and Ringo, an outlaw who just wants to live the American Dream. They are representative of the diverse society that occupied the American West in the late 1800’s. Through these characters’ interactions, and specifically through the relationship between Mrs. Mallory and Dallas, Ford explores class relations and how appearance often dictates our perception of a person’s character From these initial descriptions, one would assume that the two women are going to be at odds with one another, and they are for a large portion
Curley’s wife has always been taught to sell her-self, whether it was to a road show or into the hands of a husband. Richard Hart recognizes that Curley’s wife is more like a store bought good, rather than an actual wife and writes, “Curley’s wife views herself as a commodity, and an object of sensuality” (36). Curley’s wife’s dream was to be an actress on a traveling road show, but she is too ignorant to realize that that dream is long gone and selling herself is not in the least bit attractive or becoming of a young woman. Stein-beck characterizes the men on the ranch as male chauvinists who cannot fathom a woman ever being half as important as themselves. “Curley’s wife stands as a glaringly bitter and ironic illus-tration of the immorality of narrow minds and the social conditions that produce them” (Hart 39).
In Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses the ruthless, hypermasculine frontiersman of Blood Meridian has evolved over a period of one hundred years (1849- 1949) into the restless, domesticated cowboy ignorantly nostalgic for the days before barbed wire industrialization and suspicious of the social and political gains of women. John Grady Cole, the sixteen-year-old protagonist in All the Pretty Horses, aspires to embody a cowboy code of behavior, stemming from a strict tough-guy rural hypermasculinity defined by intense self-reliance and recklessness. Ultimately, his failure to do so renders him ironically heroic since success would perpetuate the reckless myth of the hypermasculine cowboy hero. In large part, John Grady’s notion of cowboy hypermasculinity rests in fiction and cinema, where Western writers like Owen Wister and directors like George Stevens created the popular culture Hollywood cowboy, itself based mostly on an abstract notion of the frontiersman. All the Pretty Horses simultaneously affirms and
In Victorian society, women had the choice between two roles: the pure woman or the fallen woman. Bram Stoker plays with these anxieties revolving around female sexuality – he follows the gothic tradition of innocent damsel in distress against looming evil. The narrative structure Stoker imploys to the text through intertextuality reveals multiple point of view distinguishing a duality in Lucy - her true self and 'thing'. In order to cope with Lucy’s worsening condition, the male authoritative figures of the text assign a duality present in Lucy to make sense of her shifting from “pure woman” to “fallen woman”. Stoker exhibits in the structure of the multi-faceted narrative how certain characters are unable to cope with the duality present
The portrayal of women in American society in the early 1900s was misogynistic. This viewpoint is illustrated in John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men set in the early 20th century in the west where women are illustrated as catastrophic and sexual objects by the ranch hands. These ranch hands believe that women are either simply for “cracks”, paid sessions for sex, or to seduce and lure men into trouble as depicted with the character of Curley’s wife. She is described as a “tart”, malicious, and has a supposed “eye” for other men. In addition, she is personified as a possession because she is only ever referred to as Curley’s wife and never her own name.
Her unsuppressed sexuality produces the appearance of a wild and uncontrolled woman, but in her relations with men she proves to be tamed and submissive. She is used, and often abused, by her powerful lovers, firstly, the colonial representative, the Englishman who fathered her child, and, secondly, the new neocolonial delegates: the General and the tycoon. For the renowned movie star, these men were “all the same… Carrying around her used panties as if they were a fetish, like a piece of her they had carved off, like her skin” (Hagedorn,226). Sex, for her, is the means of support, it provides her with luxury and she willingly accepts the price she has to pay in return.
Europe at this time was experiencing industrialization, world exploration, and civil wars, and these activities were associated with men, forming :”the basis for modern masculinity” (p. 163). In 1976, Robert Brannon described four themes of a concept he titled ‘the Male Sex Role’. The first of these themes is ‘No Sissy Stuff’, which is based on the rejection of all things feminine. ‘The Big Wheel’ is the second theme and is used the describe men’s quest for success and status, as well as their desire to be looked up to. ‘The Sturdy Oak’ is based on men’s air of toughness, confidence, and self-reliance.
These cowboys would be the ones that would get rich and would have the business out west for a long time. They were the ones that you would want to be like if you were going to the west to be successful. For the women out near Durant, Wyoming, it was to protect a little girl from something she was sure to experience after getting raped. The woman had gone through a similar situation when she was younger and she didn’t want the young girl to go through it to. She was, however, murdering the boys who did the raping
Frontiersmen When settlers first came to America because it is “the land of opportunities” and they want to escape from the control of their government. The east coast was the beginning of the frontier experience when the first settlers came there and when the last western land settled that was the end of the frontier. Because of the harsh life in the frontier, the people who lived there had to do everything by themselves, so they had to be self-reliant. The American male hero had always been the self-reliant frontiersman; this kind of male hero had a strong body and had been rugged because of the condition of the frontier life. Frontiersman were skilled with guns, didn’t need any help from others, they can deal with the dangers in the frontier
If you could close your eyes and create an image of what comes to your mind when you hear the words “Cowboys” and “American Indians”. The most common image that individuals create in their minds of a “cowboy” is one who wears a hat to cover the sun’s heat, wears chaps and rides his horse, carries a gun, and around his waist carries the ammunition he uses to kill the “bad” enemies. While on the other hand, a standard image of “American Indian” is probably one wearing a headdress full of colorful feathers, and his skin is painted with bright colors as he gallops on a horse shooting bows and arrows, and while the rest of the tribe rests in teepees. These and many more standard images of “cowboys” and “American Indians” is what has become to be accepted as one of the many myths of the Wild West. The Wild West is America’s myth.
Frontiersmen People first came to America because it is “the land of opportunities” and they want to escape from the control of their government. The east coast was the beginning of the frontier experience when the first settlers came there and when the last western land settled that was the end of the frontier. Because of the harsh life in the frontier and the people who lived there had to do everything by themselves, so they have to be self-reliant. The self-reliant frontiersman who Americans made them the American male hero; this kind of male hero had a strong body and rugged because of the condition of the frontier life. They have skilled with guns and other weapons, also they don’t need any help from others and they often be alone in
Tobias Wolff’s memoir, ‘This Boy’s life’ explores his record of growing up in 1950s post-war America, frequented with tropes surrounding masculinity, identity, and relationships between individuals. Throughout the text Jack frequently attempts to ‘run away’ and escape from his past identity in the literal sense in hopes that it will allow a change of character. Jack also takes on facades dissimilar to his own in an attempt to adapt to an identity. Moreover, the reason Jack attempts to assume different identities is due to the ‘social norm’ and masculine expectations of that time period.
When you begin thinking about the events leading up to 19th century in Western America, what do you think of? Maybe the importance of Wild West Shows in Western America, or Reckoning with violence: W.E.B Du Bois and the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot? As the publication Western Historical Quarterly stated, “The Cody’s Last Stand: Masculine Anxiety, the Custer Myth, and the Frontier of Domesticity in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West. Being able to give the viewers a sense of life in the West, Wild West shows played a huge role in American history. Wild West shows helped emerged the modern era in Western America.
In the novel we follow the protagonist, a young Victorian woman who struggles to overcome the oppressive patriarchal society in which she is entrapped. It is a story of enclosure and escape, from the imprisonment of her childhood to the possible entrapment of her daunting marriage. Throughout the novel Jane must fight against her inevitable future that society has already chosen for her. We see her attempt to overcome the confinements of her given gender, background and status. She must prove her worth against the men she encounters throughout her life, showing her equality in intelligence and strength.