The Portrayal Of Men In Female Authored free essay sample

Text By Maxine Hong Kingston, And Zora Neale Hurston Essay, Research Paper The novels, Their Eyess Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, and The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston are two plants by female writers which celebrate the individualism and strength of adult females. In both instances, the characters portrayed in the novels are blunt contrasts to both the typical females and males depicted in both early and modern-day plants by many male writers. In the two pieces of literature, adult females struggle to stay steadfast in their impressions of dignity, and can go independent if the demand or chance arises. What makes this inner-strength so astonishing is that the adult females in the novels are populating in societies which characterize their full sex as simply otiose components-a impression that is compounded by the beliefs of their several African American and Chinese cultural communities. However, merely as female characters in books written by male writers are normally illustrations of suppressing and destructive forces to the independent , yet responsible male, in these two books written by female writers, the work forces are conversely portrayed as the constraining, if non catastrophic forces for the female. We will write a custom essay sample on The Portrayal Of Men In Female Authored or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page In Their Eyess Were Watching God three work forces try to restrain and finally destroy Janie through both their actions and the infliction of their male chauvinist, yet socially-accepted positions. However, Hurston # 8217 ; s alone portraiture of this independent black adult female will non let her to yield to their prohibitory force per unit area. Janie # 8217 ; s first hubby, Logan is the typically idealised mate of most male- , and even some female-created literature. He is the protagonist of the household and with him Janie will desire for nil, including a life of her ain. Logan expects a married woman who will love, award, and obey. Without to the full cognizing her or what she can offer, he expects her to appreciate him for carry throughing what he saw as his responsibility # 8220 ; tuh work and feed yah # 8221 ; ( 29 ) . While this oft excepted impression of a # 8216 ; good adult male # 8217 ; -and a adult female whose merely # 8220 ; topographic point # 8221 ; is # 8 220 ; wherever Ah need yuh # 8221 ; ( 30 ) -is characteristic of male-written literature, it has rather a different turn in Hurston # 8217 ; s book. Alternatively of Janie giving in to his suppressive ideals, she rather easy leaves him for another whom she believes to be less constricting and more willing to seek new things, and possesses what she believes is a new position. Possibly the most lurid contrast of Hurston # 8217 ; s portraiture of the one time typical and idealised provider-husband to that of other authors is Logan # 8217 ; s evident deficiency of strength. While Logan # 8217 ; s character, if written by a male, might hold said and done the same things as Hurtson # 8217 ; s Logan, his fright of losing Janie, symbolized in his half-sob/half-cry disapprobation of her ( 30 ) shows that all of the relationship # 8217 ; s power did non lie with him, as male authors might hold us believe. Alternatively, much like Thomas Hardy # 8217 ; s Henchard in The Mayor of Caster bridge believed that he could make much better without the hinderance of a married woman and kid, so did Hurston # 8217 ; s Janie believe that she could make better without her # 8216 ; perfect # 8217 ; hubby to restrain her. In both instances, one with a male supporter written by a male, and the other with a female supporter and female author, the chief character proved to be right in their premise. Janie # 8217 ; s 2nd hubby Jody turned out to be out of the blue much like the first, but even more suppressive in some ways. While Logan chiefly wanted Janie to plight to him her deathless gratitude for his proposal, Jody expected Janie # 8217 ; s grasp in add-on to her conformance to a position quo that was set by Jody himself. As city manager of the town in which they resided, Jody required that his married woman maintain a certain high quality and withdrawal from the general residence. This edict, combined with certain criterions for her day-to-day visual aspect, sufficiently alienated Janie from the general populace, and attempted to farther smother her as an person. Although Janie herself believed that her old ages with Jody had caused all the battle to be # 8220 ; gone from her psyche # 8221 ; ( 72 ) one time he was gone, her ain personality and desires rapidly resurfaced. Jody, merely like Logan, was the traditional # 8216 ; good adult male # 8217 ; . He saw that Janie was taken attention of, and even took away her demand to show herself in day-to-day interactions by ordering her needed actions. He allowed Janie to populate the perfect life her grandma had envisioned for her-to get # 8220 ; up on uh high chair and sit dere # 8221 ; ( 109 ) . This was the life that society believes most adult females merely dream approximately. This superficial end mirrors Charles Perrault and his Sleeping Beauty who wishes one twenty-four hours for her prince to come. While this impression that a adult male is necessary to finish a adult female, Hurston, portrays Jody, merely like Logan to be a confining influence on Janie. The extent of her freedom and felicity after Jody is no longer able to command her, is apparent through her actions instantly following his decease. She took down her hair, and gazed at the adult female she had become-finally free of male influences in her life to order her actions and her desires. Once once more, this adult male that would t raditionally be a symbol of strength and success was brought down by Hurtson # 8217 ; s portraiture of his minutes of failing. Because Janie absorbed all of Jody # 8217 ; s mental and physical blows and went on with her life while Jody # 8217 ; s wellness declined after Janie # 8217 ; s one onslaught on his manhood, Hurston successfully paints Janie as the stronger individual. Through Janie # 8217 ; s foremost two hubbies, the contrast in the image of the traditional, strong male supplier to their existent failings and dependance on Janie for her support greatly contradicts the more positive male icon in plants by male writers. Janie # 8217 ; s concluding hubby, Tea Cake, proves to be really different from the first two and a much more positive influence on Janie, but however, has the possible to be the most destructive force in her life. Tea Cake grants her freedom to prosecute all of the recreational activities that life with Jody prohibited, such as fishing and hunting. Because Tea Cake grants her the freedom to make what she wishes and does non demand her grasp in return, Janie feels as though she has eventually had the opportunity to happen # 8220 ; out about livin # 8217 ; fuh [ herself ] # 8221 ; ( 183 ) . What Hurston, through Janie # 8217 ; s penchants, portrays as the ideal adult male is antithetical to that created by the society both in her novel and in existent life. While Tea Cake does non suit society # 8217 ; s impression of a # 8216 ; good adult male # 8217 ; or the cast set Forth by earlier authors because he can non supply for a adult female every bit readily as Jody and Logan, he still remains the strongest of her three hubbies. While he admits to Janie that he believes she is a adult female fantastic plenty to # 8220 ; do uh adult male forgit tuh git old and forgit tuh dice # 8221 ; ( 132 ) , her disapproval of one thing or another does non do him to interrupt into cryings or allow his organic structure succumb to a disease. Although while he is alive, Tea Cake appears to back up her more than hinder her growing as a individual, at least in the eyes of Janie, his effort to kill her is another representation by Hurston of the destructive influence of even the apparently best of work forces. Because Janie was able to protect herself, and unluckily was forced to kill him as a consequence, the writer showed one time once more that adult females are able to last on their ain, and should non necessitate to give of themselves merely to pacify their male opposite number. All throughout Their Eyess Were Watching God, Janie, and all of her hubbies seem to withstand the traditional functions set for them-the work forces, strong yet inhibited by a married woman who needs changeless protection and support, and the adult female, content with a faithful adult male who sees that all of her secular demands are met. While this portraiture of work forces contrasts greatly with that in earlier books by male writers, it has unluckily become the paradigm of most males in positively female-centered plants. Although representative of society at the clip of the writer, and even slightly representative of the present twenty-four hours, work forces in female-written plants appear to acquire as unfavourable word pictures as most adult females in plants written by work forces. In Maxine Hong Kingston # 8217 ; s The Woman Warrior, the demanding and tyrannizing male characters are merely every bit prevailing as in Hurston # 8217 ; s piece, as are adult females characters who break the casts set for them in a assortment of state of affairss. In her novel, the male characters invariably undermine the worth of the adult females, but the adult females must make up ones mind either to accept and internalise their belittlement, or withstand their preset criterions and excel. While the adult females portrayed vary from a self-destructive colza victim to a war hero, the work forces in each of the narratives remain the most influential factor in the adult females # 8217 ; s lives. The No Name Woman # 8217 ; s determination to perpetrate self-destruction, for illustration, is the direct consequence of the mistreatment and expatriate by the community, precipitated by the original male culprit who did non value the life or felicity of the adult female he violated. M u Lan, is an illustration of a adult female who, out of filial love, chose to be strong and lead to victory work forces who would kill her if they discovered that she was non one of them. In Kingston # 8217 ; s novel, the attitudes of the work forces involved were much more rough than those of Hurtson # 8217 ; s adversaries. Although they are portrayed in really different ways, the constraining and destructive forces that work forces exert on adult females are merely every bit obvious in The Woman Warrior as Their Eyes Were Watching God. In both novels, the reader learns the most about male characters through their interactions with the females-characters whose inmost thoughts we are allowed to read. Because of this narrow position of work forces in the two plants, we are more likely to comprehend the work forces every bit unfavourably as do the female characters who feel victimized by their suppressive intervention. While the perceptual experience of the work forces through this nonreversible position may be every bit accurate as any that we would make as a consequence of more in-depth exposure, we must maintain in head that in many ways the portraiture of work forces in books by female writers is really similar to that of adult females in books written by work forces. In both instances one gender is portrayed as an noticeable force hindering some facet of the other # 8217 ; s personal development, economic success, or felicity in general. In Hurston and Kingston # 8217 ; s novels, work forces are portrayed as a more negative than positive force on the females they interact with, nevertheless, their intervention of the adult females and attitudes toward them however help the adult females define themselves. In the two plants, this definition seems to come approximately in two ways-either through conforming to the male # 8217 ; s positions and thereby going a merchandise of their sentiments, or through the rebellion against a negative stereotype in which the adult female can go the antithesis of the original male position. In Kingston # 8217 ; s novel, the strong male forces at work on the different adult females through the episodes of the # 8220 ; No Name Woman # 8221 ; , # 8220 ; Shaman # 8221 ; , and even # 8220 ; White Tigers # 8221 ; and the storyteller # 8217 ; s ain life serve chiefly to do the adult females to value themselves more as a retainer to the work forces they encounter than as a valuable ani mal themselves. In Hurston # 8217 ; s novel, Janie finds herself continually withstanding the predetermined criterion for her life and gets closest to # 8216 ; happening herself # 8217 ; when she is with a less-domineering, and therefore less-traditional male figure. While the drastically differing cultural contexts contribute to the differences in the adult females # 8217 ; s reactions, the function of the male as an highly influential factor seems to epitomize the engagement of males in both books, every bit good as others by female authors. Through the portraiture of male characters in The Woman Warrior and Their Eyes Were Watching God the writers open a new position on the function of males in the lives of adult females. The typical word picture of work forces in novels related to adult females is that of the strong, nurturing supplier, who is non without mistake, but nevertheless towers above his female opposite numbers for his independency and willingness to back up the adult females in his life. The plants by these two female writers challenge this idealised perceptual experience. Hurston attacks the undermining of female efficaciousness as invalid and unneeded, while Kingston portrays adult females and misss who could be strong in themselves, but however adhere to the unyielding and unsafe counsel of world. Although both writers shine a well more negative visible radiation on the influence of males in the lives of adult females, they do win in opening the door for a more critical, and possibly even more accurate re presentation of males in modern-day literature.