Gender Roles In Literature

Gender plays an important role in literature and everyday culture. The roles are portrayed in similar and diverse ways, but the key aspect of the portrayals are defined by what the author is attempting to convey. Authors assign specific roles to each gender as part of their argument; and by analyzing how and why they assign these roles can yield a deeper understanding of the author’s purpose and technique. Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman depicts an inverse gender role and inverse identity role for the main characters in his play. His play depicts how racism can successfully distort a culture. “A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon” written by Gwendolyn Brooks, there is a similar inverse gender and …show more content…
However, the characteristics of each character are different. Contrary to stereotypes, Clay is an intelligent and hard working man; who wears suits and ties even though no one in his family went to Harvard. Clay also pretends to be ignorant of his culture and history. Baraka gives him the role of having an inverse identity. He is a young African American who considers himself to be white. The mother in Brook’s poem is also living contradictory to society’s stereotypes. The mother is a white woman living in “society’s dream” as a stay at home mom. However, the mother is not happy internally. She is not very good at cooking, she doesn’t enjoy wearing makeup, and she is upset at the thought of an innocent African American man being tried for a crime she doesn’t think he committed. The mother feels guilty that such a young black teenager has been treated so poorly. This paragraph taken from the texts shows her perspective. “But there was something about the matter of the Dark Villain. He should have been older, perhaps. The hacking down of a villain was more fun to think about When his menace possessed undisputed breath, undisputed height”(Brooks 341). Her attitude towards the, “Dark Villian,” is not one of anger such as society would suggest. Instead, she feels guilty for the poor young teenager who …show more content…
In the Dutchman, Clay and Lula represent inverse roles of what society expects them to be. The mother also plays this role similarly because she feels the opposite of how society tells her she should feel. However, Lula and the mother have very different characteristics. Lula represents temptation and easily manipulates Clay until she is able to mold him into admitting he is conforming with society. Brooks uses the perspective of someone who disagrees with society, but is trapped because she is a woman. Because she is trapped, she feels responsible for the unfair punishment for her kids and the Dark Villain. Brooks gives her this role because she wants to show that woman like the mother should feel guilty because they are partially responsible. The roles the males are given in the two texts are quite different Clay is given the role of someone who should defend their culture, but conforms to society anyways; and the husband in "A Bronzeville Mother..” the role of the evil sweet prince who appears to have the perfect life on the