1930 As I Lay Dying Research Paper

Great Essays
Faulkner for Women’s Rights

The 1920’s was the start of a revolution for women. With the 19th Amendment being passed which allowed woman to vote, this was an immense accomplishment for women everywhere, but not all women felt the effects of this change. Women in the American South were isolated to many changes that were happening around the rest of the country. This can be seen in many books from this time. Modern Scholars of Feminist literary theory look at literature through a narrow lens that focuses on the writer’s view of women whether it be economic, social, and/or psychological related; in the same way, William Faulkner’s 1930 As I Lay Dying also examines the American South in the 1920 's in terms of economic struggles, social acceptance and psychological struggles. Today’s Feminist Theory critics can see evidence of Faulkner’s admiration and sympathetic views of woman during the 1920’s.

Feminist Theory is significant when reading literature because this view of literature allows us to see the changes in how the world, especially men, have viewed women over time: “All feminist activity, including feminist theory and literary criticism, has as its ultimate goal to change the world by prompting gender equality” (Tyson) Many works of literature are misogynistic where the female character is shown to be weak, promiscuous or non-existent. Understanding where we as women have come from helps us appreciate male writers like William Faulkner who portray his female characters as women of merit.

In Southern America, women were raised to be three things: First polite
…show more content…
Sentence of Explanation: Addie marries Anse because he has a house with land and to atone for her own sins of hating the school kids.

Evidence: “But you’ve got a house. They tell me you’ve got a house and a good farm.”

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America’s Independence is a book inciting women’s roles during the Revolutionary war and all the struggles they had to deal with and overcome. In the introduction chapter the author, Carol Berkin, discusses how in the history books they seem to tell the Revolutionary war as “both a quaint and harmless war” (Berkin, pg.ix) when in fact it was the complete opposite. When talking about this particular war no one really acknowledges the women’s role and how significant they were. The women that most people know of to be associated to the war are Abigail Adams, Betsy Ross, and Molly Pitcher but what they are known for is not accurate. With this being said, Berkin wrote this book to take a “closer…

    • 806 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Not only in the physical way, but also the way it is viewed in the social world. In a universe that seems ruled by men, she brought attention to the extreme sexism that has, and still is, going on today. By reaching out to the emotion of her audience, she captivated her readers by showing just how objectified women are to…

    • 763 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    WHO WOULD NOT LIKE TO BE A MAN? Women belonged to endless mistreatment; men have always had the right to do so through out the eras. Judy Brady and Virginia Woolf wrote exemplary essays supporting this fact, with a difference of time. Brady summarizes women life’s with variety of examples such as their life as a housewife and the life of a hard worker women trying to overcome them self’s. In the other hand Woolf gives us a close up to women in society’s eyes and their role not being capable of much because of the improperness of the time.…

    • 839 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Pearl S. Buck once wrote, “Men and women should own the world as a mutual possession.” For a long time this was not thought did not cross a person's mind. Women were not allowed to own anything, had no opinion, and did not have many rights, such as being not able to vote. When women started publishing their writing and meeting up to discuss their unfair treatment, the prejudice thinking against women started to go way, and women started to get much more freedom. Women started publishing stories and books that expressed how they really felt in society and also how they wanted to be treated.…

    • 808 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In “The Destructive Male” by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, rhetoric is employed to persuade the reader or listeners to acknowledge and grant women equal rights. Stanton also creates a tone of zealous outrage and accusation with her use of literary devices such as alliteration and personification. Shortly after the United States Civil War, Elizabeth Cady Stanton delivered her speech at the Women’s Suffrage Convention in 1868 (Bjornlund). Stanton had to appeal to the crowd of men and women, conservatives and liberals, and even government officials by showing how women benefit the world and deserve to have the same opportunities as men to make a difference and the freedom to vote.…

    • 1212 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    1890-1925 Dbq Analysis

    • 693 Words
    • 3 Pages

    During the period 1890-1925, the effects on the role of American women had significantly changed their positions politically, economically, and socially. These political changes assert how women’s demanded equal rights, had an expansion of responsibilities and little political power, and the access to birth controls. The economic changes also involved women’s that were needed in the workplace, the right to vote, and growth of the women’s conditions. Not only this, but the social changes includes the stereotypes given to women and having no voice of opinion in politics.…

    • 693 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Reconstruction ended well after 1877 marking the first of a pair of attempts at social equality in the US. It is bookended by the only good war that the US has been involved in that allowed the US to explode on to the world stage as a super power that is only now in its later years of dominance. In the nearly sixty-five years between the years of 1877 and 1945 the United States underwent dynamic changes in many respects. Its social framework for many of its citizens and immigrants changed radically, both in the roles that they functioned with in society but also in the changes to their political incorporation and disenfranchisement. Economically the United States was equally striking in its changes where the differences in the roles that…

    • 1182 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Each story has many perspectives: the ones of women, men, children, the powerful, the powerless, the conqueror and the conquered. A different side of the story is brought to light by each new perspective, all of them immensely influenced by culture and society. In societies all over the world, women are seen as inferior to men with minuscule powers or rights. Strongly influenced by culture, these ideals are set in society as gender roles. While some societies grow by taking into account new values, attitudes and behaviors, other societies still place weight on traditional gender roles.…

    • 782 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sojourner Truth’s Ain’t I a Woman and Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s Declaration of Sentiments are feminist texts given and written, respectively, at Women’s Conventions around the country. Both texts demand equal rights for women. Ain’t I a Woman argues why women should be granted equal rights, while Declaration of Sentiments lists oppressions put on women by the patriarchal society. These are both some of the most influential feminist texts from the first wave feminist movement in the United States; however, their context, content, authors, and style, differ the meanings of the texts and reveal the restrictions placed on different women at the time.…

    • 1124 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Over the course of American history, specifically the era known as the Roaring Twenties, there have been both cultural advancements and moral setbacks. The 1920s brought Americans jazz music and technological advancements, but it also was tinged with the stain of organized crime, bootlegging, and, sadly, racism. Perhaps the most prominent aspect of the Roaring Twenties was the fight for women’s suffrage as women had to gain their right to vote. Not only did women have to fight to vote, they also had to go to bat for their political, economic, and human rights (“Women’s Suffrage Movement” 1). The disparities between men and women during this time period were egregious.…

    • 1355 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the society we live in women are powerless and objectified to male domination. This idea has been portrayed in, film, literature and history. This idea is shown in the novel The great gatsby written by F, Scotts Fitzgerald, The Handmaid’s Tale written by Margaret Atwood, Sins of the father written by Fleur Beale and The colour Purple Directed by Steven Spielberg. Through theses texts there is a successfully reflection of powerless women in different settings and the display of the idea that women are inferior to men.…

    • 1317 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Feminist Theory within The Handmaid’s Tale Feminist criticism is a literary approach that seeks to distinguish the female human experience from the male human experience. Feminist critics draw attention to the ways in which patriarchal social structures purloined women while male authors have capitalized women in their portrayal of them. Feminism and feminist criticism did not gain recognition until the late 1960’s and 1970’s(maybe add citation here of where you found this info). Instead is was a reestablishment of old traditions of action and thought already consisting its classic books which distinguished the problem of women’s inequality in society. In the 1970’s, The Second Wave of Feminism occurred known as Gynocriticism, which was pioneered…

    • 1845 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In The Great Gatsby, Tom Buchanan is cheating on his wife, Daisy with his mistress Myrtle. In the relationship, Myrtle uses her sexuality to attract Tom and he abuses her by breaking her nose. A reader today with a Marxist and a reader with a feminist perspective may interpret their relationship differently. Marxist literary criticism focuses on the struggle between the lower and upper class and the issues of power and money in literature. Readers with this point of view would perhaps look for the oppression of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie.…

    • 1006 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Slave Mother Analysis

    • 1712 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Eliminating Race and Gender in the Fight for Equal Rights in Sojourner Truth’s, “Ar’nt I a Woman” and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper’s, “The Slave Mother” By applying the theory of Feminist Criticism to Sojourner Truth’s, “Ar’nt I a Woman” and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper’s, “The Slave Mother” one can identify several ways both poets are able to claim their authority over the language in their texts to expose the illogical reasoning of the antagonists -- those supporting the patriarchal state. By applying rhetorical literary devices as well as collectively using imagery, slang, and improper English both poets introduce several types of universally understood emotions which invite the sentiment of any human being, regardless of the entirely differing…

    • 1712 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Gothic literature is a type of literature that was at its peak during the fifth to fifteenth century. It is described as a dark literature most famous for its swamps, forests, castles, and the presence of the supernatural involving horror. Female gothic is simply gothic literature written by females that express female independence and the fear of male dominance, marriage, and the traditional role of being a submissive woman. The stories written by female gothic authors include frightful situations that include things such as monsters, mistreated female characters, and what happens to women when they become dominated by men. (1) Some of the most famous and known female gothic authors are Mary Shelley, Ann Radcliffe, and Charlotte Bronte.…

    • 1329 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays