Madison Grimes
May, 30th 2017
Lit-comp 1/2
Nervous Conditions Essay
“Tsitsi Dangarembga’s novel Nervous Conditions tells the story of Tambu, a 14 year old girl living in Rhodesia, and her relatives and their struggle to liberate themselves from oppression, specifically focusing on the oppression of women. Consequently, the novel mostly centers on Tambu’s female relatives; Nyasha and Lucia. These three women are oppressed through the novel and treated as objects, they are there to please the men. Nothing they earn goes to benefit them, and they are not supposed to express their opinions.
The narrator of the novel, Tambu, is a hardworking, intelligent 14 year old girl who wants a proper education. After her brother's death she has an opportunity for an education however, because she is a woman, it's not just that simple because the men in her family get the upper hand. She leaves her home and goes the live with her uncle. While living with her uncle, aunt, and cousins she faces many problems around her gender. On page 15 she is told, “Can you cook books and feed them to your husband? Stay home with your mother and learn to cook, clean and grow vegetables”. She is being told that she does not need an
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Tambu admires Nyasha and how she looks at conflicts as a way to improve her knowledge of herself instead of a problem. Nyasha is often arguing with her dad about the way she dresses and acts. “‘You are the daughter,’ Chido informed her. ‘There are some things you must never do.’” (pg 117) Chido, Tambu’s brother is telling her the things she wants to do does not fit into her “gender box”. Along with that, there is a constant theme of saying she is dressed “too slutty for the friday night dances, and the way she dances is too sexual.” All of that comes back to embarrass her father babamukuru, the headmaster of the
It shows women have the desire to make a change in the country. She forces her audience to think about themselves in comparison with the working children constantly throughout the speech. She associates the working with when they sleep. “Tonight while we sleep, several thousand little girls will be working in textile mills, all the night through…” This makes the audience feel guilty and truly think about how they have it compared to the children.
Because of the caste system, members of society are restricted from changing ranks, choosing what job they would like, and earning a fair wage. It is evident that the caste system is outdated because a person is born into a caste level and are only able to change their rank by either marrying someone or earning enough money to move up in ranks. Her perspective on this aspect of their society is important because after this point in the story she is surrounded by people of rank four or above. If the story had been told from the point of view of one
Although it was common for girls to receive an education no higher than reading for knowing more was seen as unfit for marriage (Archives: Part One, Women’s Education), she accomplished both reading and writing at home while having access to her family’s large
She does not care about what society or her grandmother wants her to do. She took a stand, not only for gender equality but also independence for herself. Janie is tired of being a servant, specifically to Joe, but also to society and her grandmother?s expectation. Janie wants equality, independence, and happiness. This response is the start of a ?new?
Everyday, she excels in her job of caring for the children and making a difference in the community. Due to her kindness she would always bring thoughtful gifts for the children. She doesn 't have to do the classes with the children everyday but she continues to do it like Sylvia says “school supposed to let out in the summer I heard, but she dont never let up” (Bambara 96). The lessons learned while earning her degree has lead her to becoming a positive role model in the children 's lives; nonetheless, teaching them lessons that may never learn from others. She shows her passion in the story by saying “she said, it was only her right that she take responsibility for the young ones’ education.
Janie’s gender had a great impact on her from a young age. Her Nanny expected her to get married as soon as possible. She did not believe that Janie could make a life for herself alone. Nanny thought she needed the protection and stability of a man.
With the rise of civilization also came the rise of patriarchy-based societies and the slow decline of the importance of women in society. For the longest time the history of the world has been written by men who have been the head of the patriarchy and have forgotten the role of women in history. It is important to realize that women do in fact have a place at the table with men when it comes to importance in history, and are not just the ones cooking and serving the meal. It is women who tasked with raising the next generation. By looking at women of the past, people of the future can learn and evolve to fight oppression and gain their own power.
Mary contended to, female’s requirement to get instruction that was equivalent to their status in the general public in her article titled "the vindication of the right of ladies" (Frazer, 2008). Mary stretch ahead to characterize the situation of a lady in the general public by expressing that, females ought to be dealt with as colleagues to their spouses and not simply minor wives (Frazer, 2008). Likewise, Mary keeps on demonstrating that, instructing a lady would in the end help out in building the general public as in, females possibly will later on teach their
Welter states, “The best refuge for such a delicate creature was the warmth and safety of her home. The true woman’s place was unquestionably her own fireside—as daughter, sister, but most of all as wife and mother, Therefore domesticity was among the virtues most prized by women’s magazines” (Welter 5). Since the woman was confined to the house, without any other options for work or hobbies, the home was more of a prison than a place of comfort. Welter states that the “woman, in the cult of True Womanhood…was the hostage in the home” (Welter 1). The narrator in the short story is seen to suffer from this sort of
This mother is strong believer in domestic knowledge and believes that through this wisdom her daughter will be spared from a life of promiscuity or being, in her words, a "slut". Most importantly, it allows readers to see the detrimental measures of gender roles that are brought upon young girls just coming into womanhood. It is through the understood setting, constructive
Benaboura focuses her story on Yamina and how she learns to fight for her rights. Mrs Raïs is an important character in the story. She says to Yamina to “sharpen your nails, make them into claws to defend yourself with.”
During the 1890’s until today, the roles of women and their rights have severely changed. They have been inferior, submissive, and trapped by their marriage. Women have slowly evolved into individuals that have rights and can represent “feminine individuality”. The fact that they be intended to be house-caring women has changed.
Similarly in Atwood’s novel, in spite of the fact that Gilead is a dystopian male controlled society, it is the female characters that discriminate their own gender. It is the Wives that knowingly accept that other women, the Handmaids, are treated as sexual and reproductive objects for their personal benefit of obtaining a child. Given that these have the highest social status a woman could achieve in Gilead, they do not intend to oppose the dystopian stipulated dogma. Similarly, another female group that is discriminated by the Wives are the Martha’s, who have the role of being commended domestic tasks given due to their infertility. At the same time, the Aunts, are another group of women who willingly accept the existent discrimination among the female population of Gilead, as they are the
The time when this story took place was a time when women were viewed as second class citizens. Mothers had traditional roles, which usually left them in the house, while men also had their roles, outside of the
The novel, Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, describes the life of a teenage girl, Kambili, who is raised in Nigeria. In the novel, Adichie uses two main settings to effectively describe the themes of freedom, silence, and repression. The two settings that are used in the novel are Kambili’s hometown in Enugu and another small town, Nsukka, where Kambili’s aunt and cousins live. The contrasts between the settings are startling. In Enugu, Kambili, her brother, Jaja, and her mother all face oppression from Papa.