Gender Unit 4

My Misstress' Eyes
William Shakespeare

In My Mistress' Eyes, Shakespeare negates the idea of having a mistress whom one can truly love. The way in which the speaker describes the mistress suggests that he does not think highly of her. The speaker is using the mistress solely for personal pleasure. He says that his "mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun"(Shakespeare, 885). This shows that the speaker does not think highly of his mistress at all. In fact, he looks down at her. When he describes desriable qualities of his mistress as undesirable. He criticizes her eyes, lips, and hair. All of the qualities that make women particularly unique are not seen as significant or speical to the speaker. Perhaps the speaker views the mistress negatively because she is willing to be viewed easily as an object to men. He ultimately says that the way in which his mistress carries herself is not becoming of a proper lady.

Gender Unit 3

Barbie Doll
Marge Piercy

In Barbie Doll, Piercy illustrates how easily a woman's self-esteem can be destroyed. In the beginning of this poem, girl was described as a typical girl who carried herself confidently. "She was healthy, tested intelligent, possessed strong arms and back..."(Piercy, 836). However, when other people began to point out the girl's flaws, these comments became more biting. At first, the girl was not bothered by these comments, but in time, "her good nature wore out"(Piercy, 837). She was becoming more angry with the comments made by her peers. This confident, young girl was becoming more upset because society was trying to conform her into something other than her normal self. In today's society, girls tend to have lower self-esteem levels than men. Like everyone in this world, people strive for the approval of others. When people do not belong, they tend to try to conform to something that is viewed as more acceptable. The girl in this poem decides that it is better to belong to something uncomfortably than to be outcasted comfotably.

Gender Unit 2

A Jury of Her Peers
Susan Glaspell

In A Jury of Her Peers, Glaspell shows how the stereotype of women can be proven wrong. Typically, women are not viewed as intimidating or threatening in any way. Men typically do not believe that women can be capable of harming other people in the way that a man can harm people. However, in A Jury of Her Peers, Minnie Foster is proven to be capable of the heinous crime of killing her husband. She proves to be very intelligent in tricking the police that she could never be capable of harming another human being. Most women are viewed as belonging in the kitchen and tending to household duties. As Minnie is accused of this crime, one of the police officers says that "women are used to worrying over trifles"(Glaspell, 412). This shows that the police officers do not view women as complex people who can be capable of worrying for anything other than their cooking. This assumption is ironic because in this story, the women prove to have more control over the men. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are the ones who find the evidence of the dead bird. They are clever enough to hide this fact from their husbands; consequently, the husbands continue to search for the needed evidence throughout the house. Minnie Foster appears to be the stereotypical housewife, but even her neighbors say that even though they all "live close together", they all "live far apart"(Glaspell, 424).

Gender Unit 1

Hunters in the Snow
Tobias Wolff

In Hunters in the Snow, Wolff uses the literary element of conflict as he goes about describing the friendship between Kenny, Tub, and Frank. He makes note of their crude humor toward each other which is an indication that their friendship is rather light-hearted. At the beginning of the story, I thought that these men were only friends with each other so that the men would have friends to hunt with. However, as the story continued, conflict began to rise among the friends. Kenny becomes rather upset when the men are hunting and he angrily begins to shoot at things.  Whenever he would come across something he did not like, he would shoot it. Some of these including posts, trees, and an old dog. However, Tub knew that Kenny needed to be stopped. "Tub shot from the waist. Kenny jerked backward against the fence and buckled to his knees"(Wolff, 193). Even though this was a drastic way to go about stopping Kenny's rampage, Tub knew that it needed to done in order to spare the lives of other living creatures that did not deserve to die. Wolff showed that conflict proved to test the friendship of these men.

Finding Peace and Letting Go

Chapters 13&14

Term: didactic

In the last two chapters of When Heaven and Earth Changed Places, Le Ly is still troubled by her family's separation after the years that she lived in America. Le Ly would like for her family to resolve their differences. On April 10, 1986, Le Ly and Tinh were preparing a farewell dinner for Le Ly. At this farewell dinner, Le Ly's family gathers to wish her luck on her journey back to America. As everyone in Le Ly's family is talking casually, one of Tinh's children comes up to Le Ly and says that Auntie Ba has come to eat supper with them. At first, Le Ly is in disbelief because Ba and Mama Du do not get along well at all. Le Ly ran over to where Mama Du was sitting and had thanked her for what she had done. Mama Du had told Le Ly, "It seemed like the right thing to do, Bay Ly. I got to thinnking about it last night. I asked myself, 'What good does it do to teach Bay Ly about charity and forgiveness if you've forgotten those things yourself?' What an old hen I've become, feuding with my number-two daughter while my own life dribbles away--water from a leaky cold jug! And what was I teaching Ba in the process, eh? How to hold a grudge? 'No,' I decided, 'that simply won't do.' So here we are..." Mama Du had taught Le Ly a valuable lesson. She told Le Ly that all she had done was feud with her daughter, and she lost years with her that could have been spent forming a beautiful relationship. Mama Du's response to Le Ly was didactic in the sense that it taught Le Ly a lesson. It taught her how to live with love instead of hate, courage instead of fear, and hope instead of despondency. All of these lessons were applied in Le Ly's life, and because of these lessons, Le Ly was a remarkable woman. 

Finding a Family

Chapter 12

Term: dilemma

Since Le Ly was without a job, she had been offered a job as a waitress. It was through this job that she had met a man named Jim. She showed him where she worked and Jim had come to watch her work and she had said this, "I told him I had learned, if nothing else, that a "regular life"-one with work and wages and self-respect-if not very glamorous, was for me." After talking to Le Ly, Jim had said that he was looking in Danang for a woman who would take care of him, and that woman was Le Ly. She was hesitant at first because of how fast things were moving, like in the war. Also, Le Ly was still hurt by her experience with Red. However, Le Ly and Jim lived happily together, but Le Ly kept having a recurring dream that haunted each time she dreamt it. The dream involved Jim driving a jeep, but he would not slow down no matter how loudly Le Ly cried. After these dreams is when Jim started to exhibit alarming behavior. Jim had been out drinking quite a bit with his friends and one night he had come home and was choking Le Ly. She was struggling for air and trying to break free from Jim's grip. The next day Le Ly had told a man in a jeep what happened to her that night and he drove her to a station. Jim was then relocated and had to move away from Le Ly. Once again, someone in Le Ly's life disappointed her and left her lonely. Throughout the past few chapters, Le Ly has had a recurring dilemma. She is left alone and without a man for her son to look up to. Le Ly has struggled with finding someone who can care for her and her son. However, whenever someone else comes into her life, she tries to be as open as she can. Le Ly is trying very hard to create a better life for her son and herself.

Almost in Paradise

Chapter 11

Term: argument

Le Ly begins working at the hospital in Danang in chapter eleven. She is thrilled to be working here because the staff at the hospital is very kind and she has a sense of self satisfaction in the work she is doing. " As good as I felt about being able to support my mother and son through honest wages, I felt even better about doing so in a way that helped other people and hurt no one in the process." Le Ly had said these words after she had been working in the hospital for only a day. However, after a few more days Le Ly had noticed that one of the Vietnamese administrator's was showing an interest in Le Ly, and she was not interested in him at all. Thankfully, one of her colleagues, Red, was able to get her moved to a different part of the hospital. Red began to show an interest in Le Ly also, and Le Ly was a little bit unsure of Red at first, but she began to have feelings for him. After seeing Red for awhile, he had gotten Le Ly to quit her job at the hospital and get a job as a dancer for a night club. Le Ly did not want to do this job and she left Red. Now Le Ly was unemployed and lonely. When Le Ly trusted Red the way that she did, she was doing something that would have normally been outside of her comfort zone; consequently, she was hurt when her relationship with Red ended. In fact, their relationship ended with an argument. This argument involved Red calling Le Ly names and this particularly hurt Le Ly, but she was glad to be out of Red's control and back into a world where she was comfortable. 

Getting in an argument is something that everyone has done. Sometimes relationships are broken because of arguments. When I read this chapter, I thought of how some people hold grudges after arguments, and they should not do that if they ever want to mend broken relationships. However, people need to know the kind of relationships that could get them in trouble later. Le Ly knew that Red was trouble so she abandoned the relationship.