Women's Roles In 'Marks' By Linda Pastan

One of the most painful emotions a person can experience is the feeling of regret. At any time, regret can can wash over someone, casting them into a vortex of misery that often leads to despondent depression and despair. In the vignette “A Smart Cookie”, Sandra Cisneros flawlessly captures the feeling of remorse that stems from naive and arrogant choices made as an adolescent or young adult, that can haunt our adult life for years on end.

Despite its dull, ordinary setting, “I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen is an extremely deep short story covering complex socio-economic issues spanning over two—very eventful—decades. The story shows how economic hardships could physically alter the stereotypical gender roles, while cultural traditions kept them mentally intact. When these two elements contradicted each other, they left women, like Tillie Olsen’s character, feeling emotionally responsible for the consequences. Although her husband left her and she was forced to assume the role of both the breadwinner and the homemaker at only nineteen years old, she blames herself for neglecting what was thought to be her primary duty as a woman: motherhood. As the reader can tell from

“We live in a world where we rarely speak out and when someone does, often nobody is there to listen,” is a quote by Jaycee Dugard in her memoir A Stolen Life. Authors must be able to appeal to their readers in order for the story to be heard. While writing, they consider using multiple different tones and stylistic choices to entice an audience. In A Stolen Life, Jaycee Dugard utilizes a concerned tone and matter-of-fact style in order to express her emotions, provide readers with ample knowledge of her situation, and reflect on her life experiences.

A mother is a person who loves and cares for their child unconditionally and will put her their needs before her own. When her child is sick, she will stay beside them no matter what. A mother is always there when someone is down and needs someone to talk to. However, in the stories, “The Rocking Horse Winner” and ‘The Yellow Wallpaper,” both authors portray the mothers, Hester and Jane, somewhat similar when describing their relationship with their child. The stories’ definition of “Mother” are described in a negative manner that not many readers can relate to such neglectful behavior.

The nature of womanhood, or what we perceive as the inherent proclivities that govern only those born as a woman, is often the base argument for the unequal treatment of the female sex. Women are weak, natural-born mothers, unfit to do much else beyond simple household chores and rearing children. This portrait of women seems almost comical in its antiquity; however, we cannot disregard the past, as it shapes the present. The question of the nature of womanhood is rarely allowed nuance, which is a shame, because womanhood can be many, often contradictory things. Instead, the traits we often associate with womanhood stem from society’s projection of what women should be, not necessarily what they are. English novelist Marian Evans Lewes exists counter to 1800’s European beliefs of womanhood. Instead of adhering to society’s standards, she adopts the pen name of a man and becomes a successful author, avoiding judgement for her work based solely on her gender. In her letter to Melusina Fay Peirce, however,

The Boat by Alistair MacLeod is about a boy who grew up in a fishing town and wanted to escape it retelling his story. The unmanned narrator starts the story by telling the readers of his first boat ride. We learn from the story that his father is a fisherman and his mother has always known this life of fishing. So the narrators entire life was spend on a boat; from reading thee we will learn that the boat is a reoccurring theme and it is kind of personified. The we learn that the narrator’s father is an avid reader and is always reading. This makes mother angry; she thinks that books are pointless; she even goes as far to say “In the next world God will see to those who waste their lives reading useless books when they should be about work”

In her essay, “The Importance of Work,” from The Feminine Mystique published in 1963, Betty Friedan confronts American women’s search for identity. Throughout the novel, Betty Friedan breaks new ground, concocting the idea that women can discover personal fulfillment by straying away from their original roles. Friedan ponders on the idea that The Feminine Mystique is the cause for a vast majority of women during that time period to feel confined by their occupations around the house; therefore, restricting them from discovering who they are as women. Friedan’s novel is well known for creating a different kind of feminism and rousing various women across the nation.

In the short poem “Marks” my Linda Pastan, you are given an insight on the life of a wife who is also a mother of two. The setting of the story takes place in a standard family home, but instead of feeling like you were home it felt more like school. This poem is an extended metaphor; the author uses grades a student would normally get in school to compare to how her family measures to being a mother as well as a wife. Now through dialogue you can tell that she is not actually receiving grades for the required chores she has to do but it helps communicate the message to the audience. Due to the fact that it’s easy for just about any one reading this to relate to a grading system cause we all have received an amount of schooling before. The

Both Toni Morrison’s “Sweetness” and Edward P. Jones’ “The First Day” are short stories written by African American individuals. Other than this very basic similarity, these stories and their authors bear resemblance to each other. Both of the authors lived in a time before the internet, cell phones and probably more importantly the rise of an equal rights for all races movement. Given these facts and their shared African heritage, it is understandable both of the stories have at least an undertone of racial issues. On the more superficial level both “Sweetness” and “The First Day” feature a mother-daughter relationship. Even if this relationship is present in both stories, the qualities of this mother-daughter relationship and the tone of

For centuries, women were portrayed as objects and property that could be disrespected for no reasonable explanation, but today that has changed. Many bright and exceptional women have been acknowledged and brought to attention to inspire many other women to be brave enough to show how unique they are. This has occurred because other brave women like Lyddie, have helped fight for women’s respect and rights. Lyddie is a historical fiction book created by Katherine Patterson. This intriguing book includes struggles a teen in the 1840’s encounters like being treated similar to how a slave would be. This is what many women in real life have faced and fought for during this time period. Lyddie Worthen was a simple farm girl living with her loving

The authors Paul Langan and Ben Alirez use characterization to show the theme how innocent people are victims of gang violence. Lagan and Alirez use the mom and Martin to show how innocent victims suffer. On page 14, the authors depict the mom with misery on her face through Martin eyes, “Even when she managed to stop, there were quiet tears rolling from her eyes, sparkling on her face like tiny shards of broken glass.” This shows that innocent people can also affect by violence. The mom with the big wound in her heart, and that wound even worse than physical wound, will last the rest of her life: The mom lost her little son without official reason. Not only she lost her little son but also her big son: Martin. When Martin sunk hader into the

I 'm surprised that as much work that is put into the family inside and outside of the home, women still were not seen as good enough. " 'In fact sometimes as soon as I would get home, he would go out... to hang out with his friends and, I found out later, he had other women" ' (Collins 27). It actually broke my heart to read about this sentence. The woman, Gloria Vaz, was an African-American mother with four children, lived in Brooklyn and yeah from nine to five. On top of that work schedule her husband still expected to come home and do the chores that were expected of someone who did not work. It was very shocking to read that her husband would just leave; whereas most husbands would want to see their wives after working all day.

Rainer Maria Rilke, author of “From Childhood,” and Alden Nowlan, author of “Mother and Son,” are both understanding of the fact that everyone has a mother—a woman from which each individual in existence was brought onto the earth. Through their literary works of art, their knowledge that the biological tie between mother and child is something that all human beings possess is evident, as well as their understanding that any further relationship past this biological connection is in the hands of each individual mother. “From Childhood” is an account of a mother and son rapport in which the mother is the driving force that stifles and smolders her child’s flame. “Mother and Son” delves into another relationship between mother and son, yet this

The lack of a father-figure for the Tull family forces them, especially Pear and Jennyl, to become independent and resilient. Although Pearl is often characterized as demanding and aggressive by Cody and Jenny, this is her way of sustaining a strong front in order to maintain what it is that remains in their family. In this essay, I will examine the impact of family dynamics to the female characters involved. I will further scrutinize how the development of these female characters advocate different aspects of the Feminist Theory. The particular aspects of the Feminist Theory that will be explored in this research are In the novels, Ladder of Years and Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, Anne Tyler promotes different aspects of the Feminist Theory by establishing independent and strong female

“Oh, I Long to See My Mother in the Doorway” (Paley 82). The short story Mother written by the American writer Grace Paley starts with these lyrics. In this story, the author depicts a daughter recollected her mother and missed her very much after her death. After reading this story, I found an interesting fact about the relationship between parents and their children. In my opinion, the children often misunderstand their parents while their parents keep worrying about them. However, when the children get older, they always regret what they thought about their parents when they were young.