РефератыИностранный языкThThe Portrayal Of Women Essay Research Paper

The Portrayal Of Women Essay Research Paper

The Portrayal Of Women Essay, Research Paper


Women are portrayed differently in literature depending upon the societal


customs and the acceptance of women in the culture of the author. Although this


is true, it is only partially so. An author is not obligated to write about his


customs and norms, and in fact may use completely different ones in order to


show dissent to the ones he has lived with. Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred


Years of Solitude takes place in a Latin American setting. The passage (1) used from the novel in the comparative analysis


involves a strong willed woman who is respected, however, is unaware of the


situation she is part of. The young woman is unknowingly sleeping with two men


who are identical twins. Similarly, Jorge Borges’ short story “The Intruder”,


also set in Latin America. The woman, in this case, is involved with two


brothers, but she is weak and her awareness of the situation is questionable.


Both selected pieces share common ties in situation, however, differing outcomes


arise, thus, a thoughtful analysis can be generated. Petra Cotes, the young woman in the selection from One Hundred Years Of


Solitude, intrudes in the narrative and distracts the Segundo twins from their


normal daily activities in the isolated village of Macondo. Aureliano Segundo


meets Petra Cotes while she is selling raffle tickets for an accordion. He


doesn’t reveal to her that he has a twin brother when she oddly greets him


familiarly. Petra likes Aureliano Segundo and his brother Jos? Arcadio Segundo.


She does not know that they are two different people. Aureliano Segundo


discovers after two weeks of sleeping with Petra Cotes that she has been


sleeping with his brother too. Once again he doesn’t clear up the girl’s


confusion that they are one person and instead he continues to share her with


his twin for two months. One morning Aureliano Segundo is really sick and he


does not know why. A few days later Jos? Arcadio Segundo becomes sick and tells


Aureliano that Petra Cotes is disgusted with the “low-life sickness” he has


given her and consequently refuses to see him. Jos? Arcadio Segundo never finds


out that his brother had shared Petra Cotes with him. Aureliano Segundo secretly


is cured of his sickness separately from Jos? Arcadio. He begs forgiveness from


Petra Cotes and once they live with each other, their animals begin to


proliferate at an alarming rate. A fortune is made by selling the extra animals


and through raffles. Aureliano takes advantage of his shared physical appearance with his brother


in order to sleep with a woman. Furthermore, he neither informs his brother, nor


the woman he “loves” that there he is a third party in the relationship. An


interesting element of the passage involves Petra Cotes’ name. Aureliano Segundo


describes the entire situation and after the line “Aureliano Segundo obtained


her pardon and stayed with her until his death” a new paragraph begins with “Her


name was Petra Cotes”. Aureliano Segundo’s future with Petra is revealed to the


reader before her name is. Does this suggest that her name is an unimportant


detail according to the Aureliano? Considering Aureliano Segundo irresponsibly


doesn’t inform Petra that he and his brother are sharing her it is a possible


assumption. Without respect for the truth, he may not have respect for the woman


involved. A deeper level involved with Petra’s name is that it means “rock” in


Spanish. She could be considered the “philosopher stone” of the novel due to


this association and her purpose in the story. Petra Cotes (the rock or stone)


brings wealth to Aureliano Segundo. The philosopher’s stone is a magical


substance in alchemy which will cause the transmutation of metals (e.g. a


plentiful supply of aluminum into gold), is a cure for all problems and can


provide immortality. This substance, however, exists only in the imagination. It


is relevant because Petra can propagate money (gold) by her supernaturally rapid


animal breeding. Also related to the stone is Aureliano Segundo’s preoccupation


with alchemy prior to Petra’s arrival, and his later obsession with making gold


fish in his laboratory. Garcia Marquez use of magical realism in his novel makes


this conclusion a fairly valid one. In Jorge Luis Borges’ short story “The Intruder” one woman is primarily


involved. The story is told by a man writing down the account of the Nilsen


brothers as he had heard it in a bar. The Nilsens names are Eduardo and


Christian. Christian Nilsen brings a woman, Juliana Burgos, home to live with


him. Eduardo, like his brother, leaves town to pick up a woman but he ends up


“thr(owing) her out” (2) a few days later.


Eduardo loves “Christian’s woman” (3). One


evening Christian tells Eduardo to “make use of her”. Eduardo realizes that


Juliana is an object to Christian and even so, from then on they “share


her” (4).

The brothers, who had never disagreed


on anything, begin to argue about trivial skin dealings when “they were really


arguing about something else” (5). The two


brothers decide the only way to stop their fighting is to sell Juliana to a


prostitution house and divide the money between themselves. Temptation brings


the two men separately back to Juliana. Christian decides that it is ridiculous


to wear out the horses (or so that is his excuse) and it is necessary to take


action to halt the destruction of his and Eduardo’s family relationship. The men


ultimately decide to sacrifice (by killing) Juliana in order to mend their


brotherly bond.The brothers obviously see Juliana as an object not worth


calling by name. She is trapped in this situation and isn’t strong enough to say


“no”. Interestingly the man who is retelling the tale of the brothers before


delving into the story writes: “I write it down now because, if I am not wrong,


it reflects briefly and tragically the whole temper of life in those days along


the banks of the River Plate” (6)This


provides a possibility that the women in Latin America at the time of the story


were treated roughly and used by men. However, the way that Juliana was treated


in relation to Latin American women can only be a reflection of the society at


the time because life can only be a base for literature. The two men in the


story are built up to be tough and rough cowboys but end up being weak as they


succumb to their urges. The short story and the passage are comparable. The narrator in “The


Intruder” describes a Bible in the Nilsens’ house which “records the misfortunes


of the Nilsens” (7) . This is quite similar to the overall narrative of One Hundred Years of


Solitude which is being read out of Melquiades’ history book by the last of the


Buendia family. This mystical book contains all of the Buendia family’s history.


The family was doomed to extinction, hence all that was written in the book was


a misfortune. In both stories, the men who shared a woman were brothers. Also at


least one of the brothers consented to the sharing of the woman. Petra Cotes’


name wasn’t mentioned until Aureliano Segundo revealed the truth to her and the


reader learns of the future of Aureliano Segundo with her. Juliana’s name wasn’t


uttered by either brother after they both became involved with her. Neither of


the “sharing” situations lasted more than half a year. For the Segundos it was


two months, and the Nilsens “some weeks”. Both sets of brothers were around the


same age – their early twenties – and the girls were beautiful and youthful.


These examples illustrate the similarities between the two stories and the


behaviour of the men towards Petra Cotes and Juliana. With the common Latin


American setting it is possible to attribute these similarities to the way life


progressed around the Latin American authors perhaps it is not the sole factor


relating to the women’s treatment, but it can be regarded as one


reason.There are differences between the stories as well. In One Hundred


Years of Solitude Petra Cotes is unaware that she is being violated, whereas


Juliana, in “The Intruder”, does. An issue arises here. If Juliana knew she was


being used as an object to satisfy the desires of the two men, why didn’t she


attempt to leave? A reason, that further supports the explanation of the


similarities in the story is, Juliana was not permitted, culturally, to react to


the ill treatment she was receiving. Brotherly relationships are priority. The


women are not important, as they are potential intruders into the brotherly


love. Petra Cotes ultimately marries Aureliano Segundo whereas the Nilsens kill


Juliana. Aureliano Segundo marries Petra because he tells her the truth and then


respects her. These significant differences in the outcome of the tales


influence their analysis. The stories could have resulted in the same manner if


Aureliano Segundo and Jos? Arcadio Segundo were closer and more rough and tough.


It is safe to attribute the history of the Nilsen brothers and their cultural


opinion of women to their choice to kill Juliana.The treatment of the


women by men within One Hundred Years of Solitude and “The Intruder” depended


upon the characters’ backgrounds. The twin Segundos hadn’t ever been violent.


The Nilsens always were protective of their brotherly bond. Without the violent


background in one story or the gentler background in the other story, the


results of a similar situation were unique.Endnotes 1. 1 Appendix 1: Passage from One Hundred Years of Solitude, 192 -


197 2. 2 Borges, Jorge Luis. A Reader, “The Intruder”. ed. Emir Rodriguez


Monegal. trans. Alastair Reid. Fitzhenry & Whiteside: Toronto (1981),


291 3. 3 Ibid. 291 4. 4 Ibid. 5. 5 Ibid. 6. 6 Ibid. 290 7. 7 Ibid.Appendix A Passage from Gabriel Garc?a M?rquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. p.192 -


197

Сохранить в соц. сетях:
Обсуждение:
comments powered by Disqus

Название реферата: The Portrayal Of Women Essay Research Paper

Слов:1771
Символов:11470
Размер:22.40 Кб.