A Dolls House | Analysis | Female Gender

A Dolls House | Analysis | Female Gender Henrik Ibsens A Dolls House presents to us Nora, the doll, who is caught up in a constricting marriage to Torvald, who represents the society of 19th century Europe through his narrow mindedness and hard and fast rules. In this society, women are a suppressed bunch and do not have many opportunities to express or be themselves When they are little girls in pigtails, they live by their fathers rules and abide by the law in the house. They get married and go to their nuptial homes .Here they have to live under the thumb of their husbands and meekly take on whatever is thrown at them. On the other hand, we have Mariama BÃ ¢s So long a letter, which is set in Post-colonialist Senegal. Here we have Ramatoulaye, a model housewife living under her husbands roof and putting her family before self. She writes a long letter to her best friend Aissatou which details the events after her husbands death and also provides a flashback of her and her friends lives over the time they have matured from girls to women to mothers. An unmistakable hint of feminism is perhaps what makes the novel a strong megaphone for the oppressed woman in Africa. The African woman is oppressed by her culture and by virtue of her position. Aissatou is however a rebel and goes against the societal norms and Ramatoulaye gradually realizes she cannot look to her culture for much. Throughout both of the works that I have studied, both the characters of Nora and Ramatoulaye are similar in the fact that both their characters develop throughout the novels. This represents the emergence of the feminine in both the works. In this essay, I will be analyzing how the writers present women and the problems that they face in two different societies in two different parts of the world. Ibsen was very concerned a about the position of women in the society that he lived in .he looked at his mother and the other women he was associated with as models to study. He thought that women had a right to amplify their own distinctiveness, but in reality, their function was habitually self-sacrificial. The concept of gender- equality did not exist and women were regarded inferior, either in relation to their husbands or the social order, as is apparent from Torvalds dismay of his employees thinking he has been influenced in a decision about Krogstads job by his wife. It was not tolerable for women to conduct business or control their own capital. It was considered necessary that they had the authorization of the man who owned them husband, brother or father before they engaged in any activity involving money. Furthermore, they were not cultured for responsibility. Nora falls victim to both the injustices, by taking out a loan without the endorsement of her husband or father and by believing, out of unawareness of the world around her, that she could get away with forging a signature. In a way, single or widowed women like Mrs. Linde had more room to breathe than married ones, in that they earned their own money and did not have to hand it over to the alpha male of the family .They also did not have to depend on their husbands for anything. But even so, the careers open to women were constrained and hardly paid enough. They could either become clerks, teach or house-keep. Whats more, womens work was grindingly dreary, and likely to leave an intelligent woman like Mrs. Linde disgruntled. Women often got into another trap: Marriage. Yes, marriage was a snare in itself. They could divorce, but it carried a communal stigma not only for the woman, but also for her spouse and family. Hence, few women even weighed it as an option. Torvald preferred to a certain extent to have a make believe marriage, for the sake of appearances, rather than an annulment or an amicable separation. When he discovers the truth about the money, he tells Nora. It must be hushed up. Whatever it costs. As for you and me, we must go on as if nothing had changed between us. In public. This is clearly demonstrative of the fact that Torvalds regard for his public image is much greater then his regard for Noras happiness, who is clearly in an unhappy alliance. He should let Nora get a divorce from him rather than being in a playhouse marriage. The characters of Nora, Mrs. Linde and the Nurse all have to sacrifice something or the other to be accepted, or even to survive. Nora not only sacrifices herself in borrowing money to save Torvald, but she loses the children she undoubtedly loves when she decides to pursue her own identity. Mrs. Linde loses the true love of her life, Krogstad, and is forced to say I do to a chap she does not love in order to prop up her needy relatives. The Nurse gives up her own child to look after other peoples in order to survive financially. Besides, she sees herself blessed to get her lowly job, given that she has committed the sin of having a child out of wedlock. In the society where Ibsen as raised women who had illegitimate babies were stigmatized, while the men responsible often escaped scorn. Hence, A Dolls house presents a pitiable picture in terms of the treatment and position of women in the European society of the 19th century. On the other end of the line we have So long a letter, which is a novel written in Western Africa, most probably Senegal. This book details the lives of two women, Ramatoulaye and Aissatou, who are moving through life with nothing but each others support. They are both caught in the same situation as they are both victims of their husbands marrying other women and hence engaged in bigamy. This novella shows us two sides of the same society The post/colonialism Senegal is a hugely patriarchal society, where the men are placed at the crux of family life. They are the sole breadwinners in each households. They put the food on the table and are the only source of income in any family. The women however, cut a sorry figure. The only function they seem to perform or the only utility they seem to have is to have babies for their husbands. The only role they play is that of prostituting for their husbands. Pardon my strong language, but it would seem that women were placed in that society only to satisfy the men and have sex with them. The only course that their lives could take was to get married and have children as soon as they finished their school. That is, if they were lucky enough to go to school. Senegal is a chiefly Islamic country and sharia law was followed.Sharia law prohibits girls who have reached maturity to go to school to avoid any contact with the outside world .Basically; they could not go school, as it would mean getting to meet people from the outside and also socialize with men other than their own fathers or brothers. However, Ramatoulaye does have the opportunity to go to school fortunately. This is one of the factors that influenced the way sh e looked at life compared to the older women of her time.. Also the society was in a way hypocritical, because the men could do anything they wanted and go scot- free but the women would be criticized for doing the same. In fact, both the husbands of Aissatou and Ramatoulaye commit bigamy with women half their ages. However, the women were looked down upon if they married a second time unless they were widows. Also, Islam prevents divorce, unless the husband chooses to divorce his wife. The woman has no right to divorce her husband because, according to sharia law, they had the sole role of upbringing the children. The man was only supposed to bring in the money. Hence, the religion of Senegal also played a restricting role and was in a way responsible for the treatment of women as represented in So long a letter. In the above discussion I have analyzed both A Dolls House and So long a letter by looking at instances which look at the way in which women were treated in the respective societies in which the books are set in. It is to be noted that A Dolls House and So long a letter were not only written in different countries, but also during different time spans. However, these two books both paint a gloomy picture of the way in which women were placed in society and treated by the people around them despite being written almost a century apart. Another noticeable attribute of both the works is the fact that the women protagonists rise up through the rubble of their lives somewhat like the mythical Phoenix. This is also relevant in the modern context because nowadays women have risen up to be equals to men in all spheres of life. Aditya Arun

Indira Gandhi Essay

The period in history usually considered to have begun with the first use of the atomic bomb (1945). It is characterized by nuclear energy as a military, industrial, and sociopolitical factor.Also called atomic age. The Nuclear Age Began When The US Detonated The First Atomic Bomb On June 16, 1945, America detonated the first atomic bomb, starting the atomic age and the biggest arms race in the world. Although the first attempts to make atomic bomb initiated in Nazi Germany they weren’t successful until the US president Franklin D. Roosevelt in cooperation with the British government authorized the â€Å"Manhattan Project† in order to research about production of atomic bomb. A group of top scientists of the time worked for the project with the distinguished physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer being the head of the group. They succeeded to make the first atomic bomb in the US which was detonated in what is now called Trinity in New Mexico. Perhaps at first it was believed that the US would not use that lethal weapon against the mankind but soon people of two big cities in Japan fell victim to America’s atomic bombs. On August 6, 1945, a bomber in US Air Force 509th Bomb Squadron called Enola Gay- which is now kept in a museum in Washington- left a US base in the south of Pacific Ocean and detonated an atomic bomb named â€Å"Little Boy† over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The direct and the indirect death toll caused by this bombardment are estimated to exceed 140,000. This however was not the end as three days after Hiroshima bombing, another atomic bomb, called the â€Å"Fat Man† killed 73,000 and injured 74,000 people in Nagasaki, Japan, not including those who later were found to be the victims of the bombing. Of course there was another bomb made in the Manhattan Project which was never used. Oppenheimer regretted his participation in the Manhattan project after a while and began to speak against nuclear arms, and thus was removed from the project. His regret was of no use though. The Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb on August 29, 1949, with the help of Oppenheime r’s friend, Klaus Fuchs. To keep its superiority in the arms race, the US began the research for making hydrogen bombs and could successfully detonate it in November, 1952. No country has so far used nuclear arms for military purposes except for the US. There is however concerns over some countries possessing nuclear arms, especially as some of them have refused to sign the Non-Proliferation of  Nuclear Weapons Treaty (NPT). â€Å"[Until September 9, 2009] there are over 20,000 nuclear weapons around the world. Many of them are still on hair-trigger alert, threatening our own survival,† said Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, in the Annual DPI/NGO Conference. 18,500 of these bombs were made by the US and Russia. All five permanent members of the UN Security Council –America, France, Russia, China, and Britain- have atomic bombs and have been recognized as nuclear powers in the NPT. The NPT recognizes the countries that owned or detonated nuclear bombs or arms before January 1, 1967 on the condition that they would gradually be disarmed and destroy all their atomic bombs. The museum sketches the history of the nuclear age, which started with the first atomic bomb test in the New Mexico desert in 1945. For a hundred years of war, culminating in the nuclear age, military technology was designed and deployed to inflict casualties on an ever-growing scale.

African American Experience Essay

African Americans lived differently than white men did during the turn of the century. They faced many problems within the society. Some of the issues they faced were out of their hands. Although things were not the greatest all the time, there were supporters and organizations that they could turn to. Along with these organizations they had leaders that tried to help the race. Many African Americans became successful in the late 1920’s, and still to this day there are many African Americans that are successful. During the time period around the late 1870’s through the 1920’s many African Americans did not have good jobs. The majority of African Americans lived in the southern states. Many were sharecroppers who worked the land and gave the land owners part of the profit from the crops. African Americans were cheated out of money through this process most of the time. The African Americans did receive the right to vote before white women. African Americans faced many issues throughout these years. A series of laws were passed in the South to keep the African Americans at the lowest point possible in society. These laws were known as the Jim Crow Laws. Shortly after these laws were established segregation became legalized, and black codes that were abolished during the Reconstruction resurfaced and were supported in Plessy vs. Ferguson. This lead to African Americans being looked down on and equality far from reach. African Americans were not allowed to go to the same schools or drink out of the same water fountains as whites; they were even told where they could and could not live. This put a strain on the race and the way they had to live. Many African Americans were also stripped of their voting rights. In 1890 a poll tax was enforced. This meant that poor people, of both races, were not able to vote simply because they could not afford to. They also instituted a literacy test where you had to show that you were able to read and write. Many times African American college graduates failed the test, yet illiterate whites were some how able to pass. The responses to these issues were not good. They did not understand why they should be treated any differently from the whites. This led to riots and outburst throughout the country. After this, African Americans became the center of violent and cruel attacks. Lynchings were on an all time high in the late 1800s with more than a hundred African Americans being lynched per year. Law enforcement usually did nothing to stop these terrible acts and sometimes even participated. African Americans fled to the North during this time in search of better jobs and home lives for their families. Many organizations were formed during this time in hopes of ceasing the violence and bringing America to equality. Two of the largest influences were Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois. Both of these men had separate approaches with the end result being the same. Washington thought that equality would be achieved, but it would be a very slow and ongoing process. He wanted to concentrate on getting African Americans better paying jobs and a greater education. Du Bois believed that you should demand equality and stop at nothing to get it. He wanted better education, equal rights, and suffrage. Another well known advocate for African Americans was Ida B. Wells. She founded the anti-lynching movement that came into existence in the 1880s. This group set out to stop the violent acts aimed at African Americans. Wells’ goal was to make lynching a federal crime and keep the local law agencies from allowing and participating in hate crimes. White women from the North and some others supported this movement, but it wasn’t until the 1930’s that lynching became a federal crime. For a time, Wells published a newspaper, Free Speech. An angry mob of people burned down her office in Memphis, Tennessee and forced her to leave town. In 1891, Wells supported the strike of black cotton pickers. She was dismayed when fifteen of the cotton pickers were lynched. The whites sent a strong message that they were not going to conform to her desires and accept the equality of the African Americans for some time. With the end of the Civil War, the African Americans received freedom from slavery and gains some rights but lost many of those same rights a mere twenty years later . They had sacrificed much and did not give them up easily. Even though they were often defeated in court and often threatened with violence, a visionary group of leaders laid the foundation for the future successes of the civil rights movement. They founded important educational institutions and organizations to fight for civil rights and cultivated both a new generation of leaders and a growing number of writers, artists, and professionals who embodied Du Bois’s idea of a ‘talented tenth’ and who became increasingly active and effective in the 1920s. Almost a century later, African Americans are better accepted in society than ever before. There is less of a double standard and more equality thanks to the brave men and women who came before and strove to encourage, nurture, and raise their children to grow up in a more civil environment.

Haiku Condensing Experience to 3 Brief Lines

Haiku is an unrhymed, syllabic literary form adapted from the Japanese: three lines of five, seven and five syllables. Because it is so brief, a haiku is necessarily imagistic, concrete and pithy, juxtaposing two images in very few words to create a single crystalline idea. The juxtaposed elements are linked in Japanese by a kireji, or â€Å"cutting word† — poets writing haiku in English or other Western languages often use a dash or an ellipsis to indicate the break or cut between the linked imagery. The roots of haiku stretch back to seventh-century Japan, but it found its modern form in the 17th century when Matsuo Basho took up the form. By the end of his life, Basho had created more than 1,000 haiku poems. The form did not migrate into Western poetry until the 19th century after Japan’s harbors were opened to European and American trade and travel when several anthologies of haiku were translated into English and French. In the early years of the 20th century, the imagist poets adopted the form as an ideal poem, writing what they called â€Å"hokku† in the three-line, five-seven-five pattern. Midcentury Beat poets like Jack Kerouac and Gary Snyder were also enamored of the haiku form, and it has flourished in contemporary poetry, particularly American poetry. The American writer  Richard Wright, most known for the novel Native Son, riffed on traditional haiku subject matter and used the form in themes that included surrealism and politics. Wright died in 1960, but in 1998 Haiku: This Other World was published, and it contained 817 haiku poems that were written during the last year and a half of his life. The Beat poet Allen Ginsberg did not write haiku, but he created his own variation of it, called American Sentences, which are one sentence, 17 syllables, brief but evocative. These American Sentences are collected in a book, Cosmopolitan Greetings (1994). Because the form has been brought into English from Japanese, a language written in characters, in which a haiku appears on a single line, many poets writing haiku in English are flexible about the syllable and line counts, focusing more on the brevity, condensed form and Zen attitude of haiku. Traditional Japanese haiku requires a seasonal reference, or kigo, drawn from a defined list of words pertaining to the natural world. The related short form of senryu is distinguished from haiku as being concerned with human nature or social and personal relationships.