Gender Norms In Kilanga Summary

In “Eleven” by Sandra Cisneros, shows Rachel as a shy person. An example of Rachel being shy is when she says, “I wish I was invisible but I'm not” (pg. 235). The evidence reveals Rachel is shy because she wishes she was invisible. In the middle of the text, Rachel also says, “I put my head down on the desk and bury my face.” (pg. 236).

Kingsolver heavily uses hyperbole when speaking from Rachel’s perspective and includes blame as a theme to add personality to characters throughout the book. It is easy to discern Rachel’s voice from the other sisters due to her voice and the way she processes thoughts and emotions. Rachel overexaggerates nearly everything, causing her to be rarely satisfied and constantly discontent with the world around her but never blaming herself for any misfortunes. By describing Leah as “the cause of all our problems,” (Kingsolver, 335) you can see her need to displace any blame away from herself or a predicament’s true factors and onto one set person in the same dramatic way she does anything. A similar attitude can be seen throughout the Price family,

“But I did become sadder, and sadness gets boring after a while, for the sad person and for everyone around them.” Sadly, this quote exemplifies Rachel's negative feelings towards herself and the people who abandoned her in her time of need. Later in the story, the effects of her depression on her personal relationships can be observed. “Sometimes I catch myself trying to remember the last time I had meaningful physical contact with another person, just a hug or a heartfelt squeeze of my hand, and my heart twitches.” Isolation is a major theme in the novel.

In Eleven Sandra tells us about Rachel‘s eleventh birthday. The day did not go well. She was put in situations that kept causing all of her other ages to return to her. Sandra Cisneros uses repetition, imagery, and Diction to describe who Rachel is. By doing this readers discover a lot about Rachel’s characteristics.

In the short story, “Eleven” by Sandra Cisneros, the narrator struggles with herself and her age. The girl, Rachel, knows the kind of person she wants to be when she grows up through the choices she makes and their outcomes, which overall gives readers a better understanding of the good and bad about choice making. Choices are hard for an eleven-year-old; at least for Rachel. She’s indecisive to the public eye but knows exactly what she wants to say deep down. She’s an introvert which is ok, but not in her perspective.

Dialogue is used in a writing piece in order to move the plot, to develop or define the character, or just to deepen the conflict. All together, dialogue is used to help the reader infer the theme of the text. Sandra Cisneros expresses the theme throughout the novel with the use dialogue to develop the characters in The House on Mango Street which retells her life experiences that made her who she is today in vignettes just like No Speak English. In her other work of literature, Eleven she shows the same theme, with the addition of the theme that there is a certain amount of power held by age. In the texts Eleven and No Speak English by Sandra Cisneros, the use of dialogue helps reveal aspects of the characters in each piece in order to develop the theme of identity and belonging.

Throughout history, the equality of women to men has been regarded as a social taboo. It was a universal understanding that women were always subordinate to their dominant males. Pre Modern Greece expressed these views through their social expectations, hierarchical structures and general lack of acceptance. This ubiquitous truth for this society was challenged in Homer’s The Odyssey, with his strongly developed and diverse female cast.

In simplifying the meaning of culture, we can easily describe it as the way people live their lives. Culture consists of different elements which help to group people into specific cultural groups. These elements include values, beliefs, customs, language, rituals, art and the way people dress. With regards to these elements each culture is different (Malik, 1996). I belong to the Cape Coloured culture and even though the Cape Coloured culture is used to generally classify coloured people, not everyone in the Cape Coloured culture has the same system of values, beliefs, customs, rituals and so forth.

In the nineteenth century, while various parts of the world were progressing be it in the abolishing of slavery and the implementation of democracy, the treatment of women both in reality and in literature remained unchanged. Gender roles in the 19th century were more pronounced than ever, and there was a clear and distinguished line that had been drawn between men and women. This was because of something called separate spheres (Victorian terminology). Separate spheres refers to the natural characteristics of women and men – men were thought to belong to the public sphere because they were “powerful” and “logical” and “independent” while women in comparison belonged to the private sphere because they were considered to be “weak,” and “passive” and “illogical.”

Judy Brady’s “I Want A Wife” is a revolutionary piece that attempted to reveal the unequal roles men and women held in society. She goes through her prose by listing all the responsibilities her wife must have and the ways to make her happy. Brady’s whole article is satirizing these roles and is, in general, very sarcastic in her tone. She mocks a society that has given women an impossible standard and she starts with the deprivation of her education then continues with the role her wife should play in domestic ways, and then finishes with the expectations the sexual aspects of their relationship. I believe that Brady’s underlying message was and still is important for the development of equality in our nation.

‘The Big Sleep’ - Hayden Munro The 1940’s film ‘The Big Sleep’ effectively uses time and place to shape the viewer's understanding of corruption as well as gender roles. Masculinity ,femininity and corruption are demonstrated throughout the film providing an insight into this era of the American underworld setting. Corruption is a central theme in ‘The Big Sleep’ which provides viewers an insight into how the 1940’s American setting affects the viewers understanding. Pathetic fallacy is utilized during the scene where Geiger is seen getting into a car with Carol while it is raining. The rain creates a dark feel linking negative connotations of the underworld and corruption.