Our Previous Samples

Table of contents

1. Introduction
2. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
3. Conclusion

Introduction

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou is incredibly unapologetic. From her early childhood to her late teens, Maya already confronted many challenges in her life. These early challenges included moving away from her parents, undergoing self-hate, confronting racism in the south, surviving rape as a youth, and lastly, developing her love for literature. Throughout the novel, you see Maya transforms into one newly developed human being after another.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

In the prologue, Maya is reciting a poem to herself for church and forgets it immediately. For church, she imagines herself wearing a “lavender, taffeta dress.” With this image, she visions herself as a “movie star” and how that contributes to her dream of being a white girl. She states, “Wouldn’t they be surprised when one day I woke out of my black ugly dream, and my real hair, which was long and blond”. She refers to herself as a nuisance to her race, wishing that she was white and saying that she was cursed by a fairy godmother as if this was a fairytale that gone wrong. Afterwards, she trips on the way to the bathroom and pees on herself. This brings great embarrassment to her, adding yet another event to her unfortunate tales of being a southern black girl. Maya was only three years old when she and her brother, Bailey, were sent off to live with their Grandma Annie also known as “Momma” and their Uncle Willie in Stamps, Arkansas. Their parents were newly divorced and this decision made it much easier for the children to live in an environment that was not so broken. Furthermore, their parents sent them there to live in a rural community that could be more fitting for them. However, life in Stamps is not easy for them at all. They witness a many quite sickening incidents that were considered reasonable in the time and place: 1930’s America in the South. For example, Maya and Bailey witness a sheriff talking to Momma. The sheriff warns Momma that she better hide Uncle Willie, since there is suspicion all over town regarding a black man having an intimate relationship with a white woman. The Ku Klux Klan may be coming tonight, so she must hide him very well: “Annie, tell Willie he better lay low tonight. A crazy nigger messes with a white lady today. Some of the boys’ll be coming over later”. Now, this must be traumatizing for Maya and Bailey to watch; just because of their Uncle’s skin color and the “threat” he poses, he could have a good chance of being killed. This moment definitely led Maya to think of Stamps in a whole new different way.

Maya’s time growing up in the South ultimately caused a lot of self-hatred within her. The South is largely known for being conservative and racist, and Maya faced that reality significantly as a child. For example, in Chapter Five, she describes how a few white girls would come into the store to torment Momma and be rowdy and rude. Maya disliked the treatment of black people that she saw throughout Stamps. Stamps really wasn’t the right place for her at all. On the bright side, Maya and her brother did receive a good education from their uncle and Maya fell in love with reading when she read William Shakespeare for the first time. The siblings’ father, Bailey Johnson, re-enters their lives with a bang. He decides to take them to California. Maya and Bailey are so happy to move out of Stamps and astounded that Bailey is their dad since he is tall, sturdy, and has his life together. Instead of bringing them to California he leaves them with their mom in St. Louis. Even with their mother’s good looks, Maya still can’t believe how attractive she was compared to herself. “I was dumbstruck. I knew immediately why she had sent me away. She was too beautiful to have children. I had never seen a woman as pretty as she who was called ‘Mother’”. Maya’s time in St. Louis is drastically better than life in Stamps. St. Louis is more diverse and embracing of her. Maya and Bailey live with their grandparents before moving in with their mother. Maya has a little boost of self- confidence and definitely matures as a result of being one of the smartest students in her class. Most importantly, Maya’s relationship with books grows deeper; she reads a lot and gained knowledge. For a while, Maya and Bailey move in with their mom, Vivian and her boyfriend, Mr. Freeman. St. Louis starts to feel more like a deserted place. Everything starts turning around when she lives in their house. Maya’s relationship with Mr. Freeman worsens. One day, when her mom is gone, she wakes up to find Mr. Freeman holding her inappropriately. Maya doesn’t know how to react at all, having never felt this type of way before. She feels pleasure, but at the same is confused as to if this was right. Not realizing that she was being raped at all, she felt like it was all her fault because Mr. Freeman would not come into contact with her after that. Not long after, it would happen again: “For months he stopped speaking to me again. I was hurt and for a time felt lonelier than ever. But then I forget about him, and even the memory of his holding me precious melted into the general darkness just beyond the great blinkers of childhood”. This moment is where the rising action officially begins.

This time with Mr. Freeman’s actions, Maya realizes that she’s being violated inappropriately: “ I hesitated for two reasons: he was holding me too tight to move, and I was sure that any minute my mother or Bailey or the Green Hornet would bust in the door and save me”. She continues, “Then there was the pain. A breaking and entering when even the senses are torn apart. The act of tape on an eight-year-old body is a matter of the needle giving because the camel can’t. The child gives, because the body can, and the mind of the violator cannot”. This incident in Maya’s early stages of her life is where she starts to understand herself and how she is placed in this world. Maya wants to tell someone the incident between her and Mr. Freeman, but she can’t because he threatens that if she tells anyone he’ll kill her brother. Maya, having great admiration for her brother, does not want to put him in any danger, but he still encourages her to tell the truth. After this incident, Mr. Freeman is arrested. Maya spoke against him, having a platform for focusing on she vocalizes her opinion. He is convicted, but is sentenced for just a year in jail. Surprisingly, he gets an early release, but is murdered by someone kicking him to death. Shortly after his death, Maya gets herself into a deep depression because she believes that her interactions with him lead to his death. She stops talking, sinking into a depressed state. She even stops thinking clearly, thinking that there is something wrong with her: “Just my breath, carrying my words out, might poison people and they’d curl up and die like the black fat slugs that only pretended. I had to stop talking”. Unfortunately, she moves back to Stamps to restart her life again, and her brother is not in a good place emotionally as well.

Coping with her depression, Maya mopes around for a long period of time, until she meets her true companion, Ms. Bertha Flowers. Bertha Flowers is an old woman who isn’t quite like anyone else in town at all. She’s quite unique, like an educated renaissance woman, and she reads English novels. Bertha helps Maya a lot with her self-esteem and helps fuel her interest in reading and literature. Bertha really believes in Maya and wants the best for her, offering her much encouragement: “She said she was going to give me some books and that I not only must read them, I must read them aloud. She suggested that I try to make a sentence sound in as many different ways as possible”. Maya adds, “All I cared about was that she made tea cookies for me and read to me from her favorite book.”

Pretty odd events happen to Maya when she is in her early teenage years. She becomes maid, only to help finish her schooling. She works for Mrs. Viola Cullinan, a rich white woman who doesn’t have the best personality. She keeps calling Maya “Mary” which causes the gig not to work out so well. Additionally, she and the family lost Bailey for a few weeks. Eventually, things start to bright up for Maya in her time in Stamps: she makes a friend at last. Her name is Louise. Maya and Louise share secrets together and truly held a favorable friendship.

Maya, now approaches graduation, only eighth grade graduation, but it's a big deal. The ceremony had its ups and downs, but in the end. Maya ended it with her own self-note, you could shape her as a person once she gets older. Shee praises black poets and black people as a whole, how we changed the spectrum of ourselves from learning from one of other through literature. This shows Maya being more proud of her blackness completely, especially recognizing it at a young age.

Maya moves back to Los Angeles. She is extremely happy that she is in sunny California and back with her mom. She’s doesn’t want any incident like last time to get in her way of her being united with her mom. While living with Vivian, it was quite chaotic like last time. She got heavily involved with partying and violence, as well got married. His name is Daddy Clidell and he’s the first father figure Maya has ever looked up to. He treated her like not even her biological father bothered to. “Unexpectedly, I resembled him, and when he, Mother and I, walked down the street his friends often said, “Clidell that’s sure your daughter. Ain’t no way you can deny her.”

She moves to San Francisco and accepts a scholarship to a rich predominately white school called the California Labor School. She did experience racism once again, one of the only three black students at school. During her time there she was fully supported by Miss Kirwin, who taught her she shouldn’t be ashamed of the color of her skin in whatever environment she’s in. Shortly after, Maya is invited by her father, Daddy Bailey to spend some time with him in Southern California. She is introduced to his girlfriend, Dolores, who doesn’t like her at all. She goes on a trip with them to Mexico and it ends up in a whole fiasco. Once they got back the relationship between all three worsen. Dolores and Daddy Bailey began to argue, and Dolores ends up insulting Vivian, Maya’s mother. Maya reacted to slapping her and Dolores attacked her.

Maya is injured, she feel like she might die. After that traumatic night, she decides to run away and become homeless. This is where the climax happens. She is now living independently, sadly homeless for a long period of time. With that comes a great outcome, Maya starts to feel more confident and being exposed to the great diversity around her. “There was so much curiosity evident in their features that I knew they wouldn’t just go away before they knew who I was, so I opened the door, prepared to give them any story (even the truth) that would buy my peace.”

Maya ends up going back to living with her mother, Vivian and she does not question a thing. Since her life is back to being basic, she decides to look for a job. She is committed to becoming a train conductorette and nothing was going to stop her at all. Finally, she lives the dream of a lifetime becoming the first black woman to be a conductorette in all of San Francisco. “I would have the job. I would be a conductorette and sling a full money changer from my belt. I would.” She goes back to school, but still faces the same prejudice and sexism from her classmates forcing her to skip classes and having no motivation to learn.

During this time in Maya’s life, she’s in her late teens discovering her sexuality. She feels as if she’s lesbian due to the late puberty growth of her body. She couldn’t imagine being a lesbian, so solving that she decides to finds a boyfriend. She makes the plan to have sexual intercourse with a guy from her neighborhood and it was a success. Unfortunately, for her young self she finds out she is pregnant. Maya hides the pregnancy for months, until the end of the year when she graduates high school. She left with only a note to her parents who were okay with the whole thing. Maya gives birth to a baby boy now is involved in the next chapter of her life, adulthood. At the end, she cuddles with her child in a gentle quiet manner falling asleep together.

The theme behind I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is identity. Maya undergoes a lot of change from start to finish, ranging from good to bad to right back to good. Maya struggles with her appearance (Black identity and how it affects her living in than Modern America) and her rape as a child (how it stuck with her and how she could never get over it, even when it comes to her interest in sex/sexuality). Maya is like any other human being, even if she went through traumatic events in such a short period of time, she didn’t know who she was at one point. What is the meaning of Maya Angelou? What’s her purpose it confused her to question herself on the daily.

Keep in mind:
This is only a sample.

Get a custom paper now from our expert writers.

Conclusion

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings has caused great impact to African-American Literature and how it relentlessly shows the struggle of black women in marginalized community. The book presents like any human goes through, women of color go through too. Caged Bird greatly influenced Maya’s colleagues such as, James Baldwin and Oprah Winfrey. Even influencing pop culture as well, Alicia Keys released a song called “Caged Bird” off her 2001 album Songs in A Minor. Keys stayed true to the essence of Angelou’s theme. I would gratefully recommend this book to anyone my own age wanting to learn more the issues of race, identity, and trauma.

I prefer to be true to myself, even at the endangerment of finding the ridicule of others, rather than to be false and finding my own detestationWhile the idea behind this statement is admirable, the language used to express it is overly dramatic and confusing. Instead, the writer could rephrase it as, "I value being true to myself over conforming to societal expectations, even if it means being ridiculed by others.". Why should I worry about what others think of meThe sentence is a common rhetorical question. However, the use of the phrase "I don't give a shit" is unnecessarily vulgar and unprofessional. Instead, the writer could use a more diplomatic language, such as "I am not concerned about others' opinions of me."? I don’t give a shit about how others perceive my personality because, to begin with, I know myself and I also know my own demons - which, at the outset, are just conventional behaviors of an ordinary human being. As an individual, at all times, I think of my own benefits and gains - doing things for my own advancement and bettermentThe sentence is grammatically correct, but the writer could improve it by using more concise language, such as "I prioritize my personal growth and development.". And at the time, I am self-seeking and egocentric. What is your true self? In my essay I'm going to answer this question.

I only care for myselfThis statement sounds selfish and lacks nuance. The writer could rephrase it as, "While I prioritize my own needs, I also strive to be considerate of others.". The more introverted, the more ignored: and the more unsustained I am, the more I will value myself. I make mistake. I am who I am. Nevertheless, I believe that I am good and I also believe that I am capable of being better. I don’t want everyone to like me- I should think less of myself if some people didThe phrase is self-deprecating and sends the wrong message. Instead, the writer could say, "I do not seek validation from others and am comfortable with who I am.". Everything that happens to me is a reflection of what I believe about myselfThe sentence is an overgeneralization and lacks context. Instead, the writer could say, "My self-perception influences how I interpret events in my life.". for me, there is no actual rule in this word but only personal norms of how we limit ourselves. I don’t have any terrific self-esteem issues but I do sometimes comprehend that I’ve been too lucky in my life and that I’m over-praised by some people at the rarest of moments. I respect myself, and I only respect those people who respect themselves.

For me, self-awareness is having a clear perception of your personality, including your thoughts, beliefs, motivation, and emotions- it allows me to understand other people, how they perceive me, my attitude, and my responses to them at the moment. I could say that I am aware of my own weaknesses and strengths. I know my own capacities- my potentials and assets that make me stand out from others. I also know my disadvantages - my negativities that make up my flaws and weak spots. Evidently, as a person, I also have the inclination not to distinguish my own traits and behaviorsThe sentence is confusing and unclear. The writer could rephrase it as, "Sometimes, I struggle to recognize my own strengths and weaknesses.". My friends tell me that I have this inadequate attitude of not caring or not being aware of the occurrences in my surroundingsThe sentence is awkwardly worded. The writer could say, "My friends have pointed out that I sometimes appear indifferent to my surroundings.". I have the tendency not to care too much about the things happening within my environment. However, I am managing to let loose of my hidden self and mend my self-disclosure facility. My self-awareness is quite high because I always ask people around me about their perception of me and how they see me as a friend or companionThe sentence is a good example of seeking feedback. However, the writer could add that they also engage in self-reflection to enhance their self-awareness..

I am free-spoken to myselfThe phrase "free-spoken" is not a standard usage in English. Instead, the writer could say, "I am honest with myself.". I accept criticisms. I believe that accepting criticisms could actually develop my personality - that to any further extent, it would build up my personal appeal and would make me a better person. Having a clear understanding of my thought and behavior patterns would help me understand other people as well. All of my life, I want to be so brave to say and do what I want. I have heard people say that self-esteem is very important to my interpersonal communication and I must have high confidence or self-esteemThe sentence is a bit confusing. The writer could say, "I recognize that having self-esteem can improve my communication skills.".

I don’t really have a high sense of worth. I just do things for a purpose, for intention. My self-esteem depends on situations. If I am prepared enough to do a particular task, my self-esteem is imminent. If I am not, then my self-esteem is low. But since I was a kid, I’ve developed skills in facing different kinds of people. I believe I am important and I believe that the word is better because I am in it. I have confidence in myself and my abilities, and that I am able to ask for help. I trust my decisions and at times, I believe that I am my own best resource. I feel confident about my appearance and abilitiesThe sentence is a positive statement. However, the writer could add that they do not base their self-worth solely on their appearance and abilities.. From that, I form a good self-image about myself.

Self-awareness is something so crucial which an individual can’t live or survive and without itWhile the content of this paragraph is relevant, the writer could benefit from providing specific examples or anecdotes to support their argument., a person will become incompetent, impassionate, weak, and overall is not in control of oneself. It is extremely vital in a career, especially for leaders, since they should be able to decide immediately, they should not hesitate or doubt their decisions, and they must think objectively for the betterment of their members.

Knowing what I really am, what I like and dislike, and what I excel at or not helps me see the clearer picture as to where I want to end up in my career. It is especially challenging if I won’t be in an environment that I personally enjoy or prefer. Self-awareness can help me in my future career by determining what’s best for my physical, emotional, and mental wellbeing so that I can settle at my future job with ease and with no regrets. It is essential to become self-aware since not understanding and seeing what’s inside you could cause complications, such as existential or identity crisis, having a complex personality, and overall not being certain about the choices for yourself, the people around you, and especially your future career.

My easiest and personal way of cultivating self-awareness, firstly, is to take down notes on the simplest things about myself- i.e., what food do I like? what are my pet peeves? what are my favorite songs? how can I focus on studying? and so much more. Secondly, find or make time for leisure or recreational activities since I didn’t have any talents growing up, I delve into some activities or hobbies to spare time and simply relax by enjoying these pastimes such as, calligraphy, graphic design, painting, playing video games, reading books, watching movies and etc. Lastly, is to talk to someone you are close to and comfortable to vent or rant about what is inside your head because bottling up one’s emotions can lead to mental illnesses and it would be difficult to overcome once it already has started so, therefore, talking to someone and sharing your feelings can make you stay sane and feel that you are not alone battling and tormented by life’s hindrances and obstacles because everyone has their own struggles and understanding and knowing what they are also going through makes you empathize someone’s life.

Keep in mind:
This is only a sample.

Get a custom paper now from our expert writers.

In conclusion upon what I’ve read and understood is that you shouldn’t question your worth, your capability in performing something because maybe, it isn’t just for you. Don’t blame yourself for not becoming what you want, you are just in the wrong place and you won’t develop your character and become self-aware if you are in the wrong environment. Just like what the article said, “Self-awareness isn’t one truth. It’s a delicate balance of two distinct, even competing, viewpoints”, you can’t always blame yourself for everything because sometimes what is around you can be the cause or solution to the problem, it isn’t always about yourself. One should start asking themselves “what” instead of “why” to understand and learn who they really are and what can we acquire more about ourselves.

"But you knowed he was running for his freedom, and you could a paddled ashore and told somebody" (Twain 95). As is epitomized by the preceding quote, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain one of the central conflicts is that of the character of Huck's battle with his conscience in regard to the question of slavery. Throughout the novel the author slowly changes Huck's mind about the ethics of slavery by introducing him into situations where black people are taken out of their stereotypical roles. To a great extent, Huck's revelations about slavery are due to his friendship with Jim, a runaway slave who used to belong to Miss Watson, the Widow Douglas' sister. As a young boy, Huck does not have all the prejudices of the older members of the Southern community, yet he does know that aiding a runaway slave is legally wrong. Thus, it is a pivotal moment indeed when Huck first discovers Jim on Jackson Island, as his decision to "spare" Jim drastically changes the direction in which the novel is proceeding and sets the stage for much of Huck's maturation and development as a character.

After having staged his own death Huck goes to Jackson Island to lie low for a while. When he stumbles upon a smoking campfire he is afraid, but the next day he goes to find out whom his mysterious neighbor is, and encounters Jim. Admitting to be a runaway after having been reassured that Huck was not a ghost, Jim recounts the tale of how he had to flee to escape being sold down South by Miss Watson. It is at this point when the reader first sees Jim as more of a three-dimensional character, rather than the big black buck who thought he had been ridden around the world by witches when Tom Sawyer played a prank on him. This is because one can empathize with the fact that Jim does not want to split his family up, although at the same time he take pride in the fact that he is worth $800.

Upon his discovery of Jim, Huck is immediately faced with the responsibility of protecting Jim. As he is a runaway himself, it could be argued that Huck could not turn Jim in without risk of exposing himself. However, it is more logical to argue that the main reason Huck "spares" Jim when he first comes across him is that he hungers for human companionship. Throughout the first few chapters the reader's impression of Huck is as an extremely self-reliant character. Yet, he often complains that he is "lonesome," as well a young boy left to his own devices would be. Jim is a part of his old, safe home with the Widow Douglas, one that Huck can bring with him as he embarks upon his adventures. Although Jim is extremely superstitious and illogical, he also has some practical skills. For example, when Jim sees some young birds flying strangely he warns that there will be rain, and lo and behold, a torrential downpour which would have soaked them to the skin if they had not taken shelter in a cave arrives. In this way Jim starts to become somewhat of a father figure; definitely a better father for Huck than that embodied by Pap.

The strength of character that allows Huck to harbor Jim is tested continually during the course of their travels. At first Huck acts as master and Jim as servant in their relationship, as they have apparently continued their societal roles even in isolation from society. This probably makes Huck feel important, as he has never had a slave of his own. At this juncture in the novel Huck is not yet willing to make big sacrifices for Jim as is shown later on in the Walter Scott incident as well as when they are lost in the fog. As the story progresses though, Jim and Huck face many conflicts together and so the gap between them grows narrower. However, even as friends, it is clear that Huck's relationship with Jim is very different from the one he has with Tom Sawyer. While Tom is a playmate and Huck allows himself to become a follower and to participate in wild fantasies, Jim is a person who will actually take care of him. Jim's steadfast loyalty to Huck at first could be interpreted as mainly for protection, but in the end a bond of love has grown between them. This bond is what convinces Huck to say, "all right, I'll go to Hell," when he tears up the letter that he has written to Miss Watson. Thus, as a result of his first decision to make a companion of Jim in chapter seven, a paradigm shift of moral values from what society deems is correct to what Huck in his heart knows is the right path has been effected.

Table of contents

1. Introduction
2. Discussion
3. Works Cited

Introduction

‘‘I Want a Wife’’ written by Judy Brady, in 1971, after the Women’s Rights Movement began in the USA, is an important feminist statement that makes readers think and question the place of women in society. Brady tries to emphasize that women are not seen as equal to men and there are always invisible barriers (glass ceiling) around women in society by turning the topic into a satire and criticizing gender stereotypes. Brady empowers women to understand that in order to create equality and break the glass ceiling, perspectives should be changed and one should understand that being a woman should not only be limited to do domestic duties.

Discussion

On 26th August 1970, New York City’s Fifth Avenue was blocked during a rush hour by 50,000 feminists who paraded down with linked arms to celebrate the 50th anniversary of American women’s suffrage and 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote in the USA. On the same day, Syfers’ article, ‘I Want a Wife’ was delivered as part of a rally in San Francisco with the same aim of the parade in Fifth Avenue.

The 1960s-1980s feminist movement, also known as second-wave feminism, inspired Syfers, since this movement was mostly tackling issues of discrimination and inequality and aiming to raise awareness for women’s rights. This feminist movement started as a response to barriers against women’s life after the Second World War since ‘‘baby-boomers’’ who born after the war seriously changed the place of women in American society by classifying women as mothers mostly. Syfers rephrased this understanding with the following sentence ‘‘I belong to that classification of people known as wives.

I am a wife and not altogether, incidentally, I am a mother.’’ Syfers starts her article with this sentence, as she wanted to create a common understanding between herself and her audience and to make herself approachable as a writer who had similar disappointments and experiences with her audience on the topic of marriage and its inevitable inequalities. Using repetitions and aposiopesis (unfinished sentences) made her arguments stronger and showed her audience how tired she felt about being in the background of her marriage. Through these links and following paragraphs, Syfers tried to reach to her audience to ask ‘’why?’’ and lead them to find the core problem in their lives.

Syfers, in her article ‘’I Want a Wife’’, satirizes the views of the American society about the position of women and demonstrates a significant problem called ‘gender inequality’, which is more evident in marriages since women and men are not trained to do same tasks and not expected to take same responsibilities. She explains that the American society accepts that a woman has a number of duties that should be solely done by a woman as a mother and/or a wife whilst the same society does not oblige men to do these duties as a father and/or husband.

A wife is expected to arrange her husband’s and her life, to take care of their children, to take the children to the school and the park, to help them with their homework, to cook, to wash clothes, to keep the house and dishes clean. Moreover, as a wife is also expected to be responsible for being sensitive to her husband’s sexual needs and being able to satisfy and meet her husband’s needs whenever her husband wants as Pavlik says ‘‘Men are achievers because of the compliant slavery of their wives...’’. She should not clutter up her husband’s life with jealousies and she must be careful about birth control, if her husband does not want more children. Men do not care about these and they are usually disrespectful and neglectful.

In this regards, Syfers gives an example from her own life in her article through speaking about one of her male friends who had divorced recently and has been looking for a new wife since then. As he is free from his parental and housewife obligations, it is not a problem for this male friend to look for a new wife and leave his child with his ex-wife therefore Syfers sarcastically says that ‘‘I, too, would like to have a wife’’. Considering all these tasks and responsibilities left on women’s shoulder, she repeats her wishes with following statement ‘my God, who would not want a wife’?

Syfers’ article and the second wave feminism lead a change in the role of women in American society while helping women to break both visible and invisible barriers around them. As their lives began to change with the impact of this article and the movement, American women were empowered to become more conscious about their rights. They established significant organisations such as National Organisation for Woman (NOW) and they were gathered in ‘‘Women’s Liberation Groups’’ and ‘‘Consciousness-Raising Groups’’ which eventually allow them to march together and protest in the streets of the United States of America.

These gave them their opportunity to make sure that their voices are heard in public through word of mouth, speeches, journals et cetera. Through these reaching outs, women were able to achieve major achievements in which they were deprived from. Such rights include being able to access jobs in several areas including politics and business, and influencing changes in law such as the Equal Pay Act.

It is clear that women’s place in America has changed over the last decades. With the impact of Syfer’s article and second feminist movement, women have more rights today than they had in the past. Today women have chances to study and work as they are not just seen as housewives. Due to increasing number of single mothers, women are now considered as ‘‘breadwinners’’ of their families as statistics shows that nearly half of the workers in the United States of America are women.

Despite all the achievements of feminist movement and Syfer’s efforts, gender inequality in the United States remains, maybe not as much as 1970s and how Syfers satire but still remains. For instance, for the same job title and workload, Equal Pay Act indicates that women and men shall earn same amount of money whereas in reality women workers are earning less money than men workers are earning. Another example is that women should make progress in politics, however only 25 percent of all national parliamentarians are women.

To put it briefly, Syfers’ article, inspired by the second wave feminism, affected feminist literature via further elaborating the glass ceiling in front of female emancipation and showing how it could only be lifted if women can see their true power and act accordingly. ‘I Want a Wife’ is a satiric way to explain how women can do and achieve anything and yet how part of the American men is still not willing to accept this. Syfers’ essay is an important literary work that reflects the understanding of its era and should be further studied to understand present day.

Works Cited

1. Syfers, Judy. ‘‘I Want a Wife: Literature for Composition.’’, HarperCollins Custom Books. Sylvan Barnet, Morton Berman and William Burto. New York. 1993, 775-776. Print.
2. Love, Barbara and Nancy F. Cott. ‘‘Feminists who changed America 1963-1975.’’ University of Illinois Press. 22 September 2006, 56. 7. Print.
3. Pavlik, Katherine B. ‘‘Contemporary Feminist Literature: Satire or Polemic?’’ American Humor 7. 1. (1980). 10-16. JSTOR. Web. 23 March 2019.

“Regardless of what we might think of our gender, we can only live that gender through the body we have.”

Get original essay

Throughout Sharon Pollock’s play Blood Relations, the plotline focuses on the life of Lizzie Borden and her day-to-day experience as a woman who does not conform to feminine expectations. The play is set in the late nineteenth century, a time when women were viewed as a subordinate group within society. The bodies that people were born into determined the gender roles they were supposed to fulfill. Those gender roles, however, were created by the men of the society. In Blood Relations, Lizzie is pressured to conform to the feminine gender role simply because she has the body of a woman. The play chronicles Lizzie’s resentment of and rebellion against the male-structured ideology in an attempt to change what it means to be a woman in her society.

As the protagonist of the play, Lizzie Borden is faced with the stereotypes of women during her era. She was born and raised in the nineteenth century, when women were expected to be complacent daughters and obedient wives and homemakers. Lizzie, however, refuses to conform to those societal conventions despite the body she was born into. She is very headstrong throughout the play; her constant battle against societal norms constricts her life and ultimately leads to the murder of her parents. Throughout the play, the convention of “being a lady” causes conflicts between Lizzie and those around her, especially Mrs. Borden: “She’s incapable of disciplining herself like a lady and we all know it” (Pollock, 22). Mrs. Borden constantly badgers Lizzie throughout the play because Lizzie does not conform to feminine gender roles. From the beginning of the play, it is evident that women faced well-defined boundaries that they were unable to cross. Mr. Borden, Lizzie’s father, refers to keeping women in line as a task like “training horses”:

Now Andrew, I’ve spent my life raisin’ horses and I’m gonna tell you somethin’ -- a woman is just like a horse! You keep her on a tight rein, or she’ll take the bit in her teeth and next thing you know, road, destination and purpose is all behind you, and you’ll be lucky if she don’t pitch you right in a sewer ditch.

Mr. Borden believes that men ought to keep their women in line in order to stop them from interfering with their “man’s world.” Being born into a woman’s body during the nineteenth century limited the options available to an individual -- women were not allowed to do what men could. Lizzie, however, often refuses to do what the men around her tell her to do.

The constant discord between Lizzie and her father makes it evident that she refuses to adhere to societal conventions. Lizzie is constantly forced to listen to her father bring up the idea of marriage: “Just listen to me, Lizzie... I’m choosing my words, and I want you to listen. Now... in most circumstances... a woman of your age would be married, eh? Having children, running her own house. That’s the natural thing, eh? [Pause.] Eh, Lizzie?”. Because Lizzie is a woman, it is only “natural” for her to conform to the convention of marriage even if she is not interested in the suitor, such as Johnny MacLeod, an old widowed man. That convention appears to be quite one-sided: Harry, Mrs. Borden’s brother, does not seem to be married, nor is he pressured into getting married. Instead, he is commended for not having to bear any children: “You’re lucky you never brought any children into the world” (32). Because Lizzie was born female, though, she is considered a failure for the very thing Harry is being praised for. Lizzie, however, refuses to marry someone just for the sake of doing so. It is not something she naturally feels, and ultimately will not do despite wanting to please her father. “Papa? ... Papa, I love you. I try to be what you want, really I do, I try... but... I don’t want to get married. I wouldn’t be a good mother, I--”. The idea of being forced into motherhood is not something which comes naturally for Lizzie; she does not have the nurturing maternal instinct that she believes women meant to be mothers should have. When Mr. Borden speaks to Lizzie about marrying Johnny MacLeod, Lizzie refuses the idea and says that she does not want to be married or assume the role of a “housekeeper”. Lizzie’s natural instinct blocks her from “performing” what everyone else expects of her.

Lizzie recognizes that something is different in herself compared to the other females around her. She sees that she is nothing like her sister Emily, who is completely complacent and often adheres to the social norms of what it means to be a woman. Because of the contrast between Lizzie, Emily, and even Mrs. Borden, Lizzie questions herself and wonders if something could possibly be wrong with her:

Do you suppose there’s a formula, a magic formula for being a “woman”? Do you suppose every baby girl receives it at birth, it’s the last thing that happens just before birth, the magic formula is stamped indelibly on the brain Ka Thud!! [...] and through some terrible oversight... perhaps the death of my mother... I didn’t get that Ka Thud!! I was born... defective.

This quote perfectly describes Lizzie throughout the play. She was born into a body and given a socially constructed role for which she is not suited. All of the women around her have a certain perception of what it means to be a woman. Lizzie, however, defies all of these social conventions -- not out of spite, but because it does not come naturally for her to act the way society expects her to. Even if she tries to make her father happy, the part of her that rejects these social norms leads her to believe that she must be defective -- that she can only be considered normal by adapting to the gender role she was assigned when born a girl. That quote leads the audience to believe that if those who do not fit into the neat categories of entirely male or entirely female are “different” and should be considered as “outsiders.” Lizzie is segregated throughout the play to the point where she is made to feel alienated by even the closest members of her family.

This segregation by Lizzie’s family leaves her with more resentment and only pushes her further away from her assigned gender role. Naturally, during the late nineteenth century, women could not work, nor did they have the option to live on their own away from their families. In contrast, that is all Lizzie desires:

Lizzie: I want out of all this... I hate this house, I hate... I want out. Try to understand how I feel. Why can’t I do something... Eh? I mean... I could... I could go into your office... I could... learn how to keep books?

Mr. Borden: For god’s sake, talk sensible.

Lizzie strongly dislikes living at home around the very people who stop her from being herself; she is desperate to break free from the world in which she is confined. While Lizzie does appreciate the material comforts that her family provides to her, she ultimately craves the acceptance and encouragement to live her life freely. Instead, Mr. Borden constantly tells Lizzie to smarten up and “think sensibly,” as though what she is saying is completely ludicrous. At the time, however, Lizzie’s dreams were slightly farfetched. As a woman, she only had what her father or husband provided to her. Lizzie’s nonconformity hinders her ability to have what her father would naturally have given to her. She loses her property rights to Harry, and her inheritance slowly diminishes as she refuses the idea of marriage. It is as though Lizzie’s refusal of gender roles creates the necessity of punishment by her father as a way to shock her into conformity. Even Mrs. Borden, the woman who constantly quarrels with Lizzie, is aware of the inequalities between men and women: “You know, Lizzie, your father keeps you. You know you got nothing but what he gives you. And that’s a fact of life. You got to come to deal with facts. I did” (40). By saying “I did,” Mrs. Borden admits to having, at one point or another, questioned the gendered norms of what it means to be inside of a woman’s body; over time she inevitably learned to settle and conform to the societal conventions around her. The men surrounding Lizzie and Mrs. Borden are the ones who create meaning for the female gender. Therefore, Lizzie ought to listen to what her father tells her because, ultimately, he provides for her and financially supports all that she does, something she could not do on her own.

It is evident from the play’s use of symbolism that the female body is controlled by the men around them. Lizzie’s freedom to be who she wants to be is constricted by Mr. Borden. That relationship can be seen through the symbolism of Lizzie’s birds, which represent the freedom she wishes to have but is unable to attain. The birds have the ability to fly away, but they are constricted by the cage in which they are enclosed. The cage represents society’s conventions, which restrain Lizzie from “flying away.” Lizzie’s father is aware of what the birds mean to Lizzie, and he tries to protect them from others: “It’s those little beggars next door. Hey! Hey get away! Get away there! ... They break into the shed to get at my birds and Papa gets angry” (28). Similarly, Mr. Borden tries desperately to protect Lizzie’s “differences” from others who want to break into her cage. In a strange way, it is almost as though he understands Lizzie’s conflict and has sympathy for her. In many parts of the text, he scolds her for being the way she is and immediately after consoles her by saying, “There Lizzie” (38). The symbolism of such exchanges is that in a male-dominated society, women have only as much freedom as the men around them permit:

Mr. Borden: If Lizzie puts her mind to a thing, she does it, and if she don’t, she don’t.

Harry: It’s up to you to see she does.

Mr. Borden has the ability to constrict Lizzie because she is a woman, showing that females are a subordinate, powerless group. With the same power that Mr. Borden has to give Lizzie freedom, he also has the ability to take her freedom away. He realizes that although he may be able to protect her, the rest of society would ultimately not be able to understand her. Characters such as Harry and Mrs. Borden refuse to accept Lizzie and push Mr. Borden to constrict her. In fact, it is Harry who causes Mr. Borden to crack. After having an argument with Lizzie, Harry returns with an axe, saying that someone had gotten into the birds. Mr. Borden, furious with Lizzie because of their altercation, goes to the birds with the axe and kills them one by one in an attempt to kill her freedom and shock her into conformity. As a female, Lizzie only had as much leeway as her father provided her; her “freedom” as a woman is constructed by a man.

Keep in mind:
This is only a sample.

Get a custom paper now from our expert writers.

Sharron Pollock’s Blood Relations is a play used to show how women are expected to live out their lives according to a preset formula simply because of the bodies into which they were born. However, Pollock uses Lizzie Borden as a way to push those conventional norms of what it means to be a woman. Women are not all the same, just as men are not. Some will not marry, while others go on to have many children. Inheriting a woman’s body does not provide preset guidelines of how one ought to live. Instead, it provides a means to live depending on personal preferences. That is what Lizzie Borden longs for, and what she ultimately achieves only after the murder of her parents.

After a conversation I had with a UChicago admissions counselor at my high school, I knew that the University of Chicago would be the right school for me. I asked her my go to college question: “what, if anything, would you alter about your college or college experience itself?” Answers I received in the past had varying degrees of criticisms. Anything from wanting food that was actually edible in the dining halls to better opportunities for undergraduates to conduct research. After I asked her this question, though, she didn’t hesitate. She told me that UChicago not only “fostered her sense of self” but “allowed her to grow as an individual but more importantly, as an active citizen”. The community of UChicago is “eclectic” and “everyone compliments each other’s’ missing links”. Her last line though, is what still resonates with me today.

“At UChicago, I had the ability to just be me and I knew regardless of my opinions or beliefs, I I had a community that would support me.”

I dream of becoming a part of the University of Chicago community for my college journey. From speaking with the admissions counselor, I know UChicago is the only university that will encourage my out-of-the-box thinking. Although I want to pursue a career in Creative Writing, I also want to study astronomy and psychology so that I can further debate the theory of relativity and have a conversation with Malcolm Gladwell on the importance of vulnerability. With a third of my time at the college being dedicated to studying the core curriculum, I’ll construct a solid academic foundation for me to grow upon throughout life and my career as a novelist.

The flexibility the college offers students by exploration through the core curriculum is another reason I’m applying. UChicago’s small class sizes offer the perfect space for me to grow as a writer but also as an engaged citizen. If offered admission, I’d love to apply skills gained through a creative writing concentration to work on Sliced Bread and Bite Culinary Magazine. Sliced Bread especially caught my attention; any publication where poets speak of their carb obsession is somewhere I want to write!

Additionally, I’m interested in UChicago’s Paris Astronomy Program. Having never been abroad, the opportunity to delve further into my astronomy hobby through classes like Exoplanets with Professor Leslie Rogers is exciting for me. The emphasis on exploration and curiosity in one’s education through the core curriculum, rather than just fulfilling a large amount of core requirements is another key reason UChicago stands out.

I look forward to conversations about Nicolas Sparks’ best novel (it’s Dear John) with physics majors, debates with political science majors about Pluto’s planetary existence, and performing in an acapella group with biomedical engineers. I’m not sure why people say the University of Chicago is “where fun goes to die”, because from what I’ve encountered, it’s not truthful. I’ve never heard alumni who were so inspiring or read of such an engaged student body that are determined to make a lasting impact in society. This a community I’d love to become a member of.