Many feminists have certain ideas that they have towards the idea of the housewife with Betty Friedan, Marilyn Frye, and bell hooks ideas being some of the most significant. Take for example Jane the housewife. Jane is a housewife in 1950s America. She is highly capable and bored with her life, and wishes she could get a good job like her husband. Unfortunately, local employers only hire women for low-paying, uninteresting jobs that Jane would not find fulfilling. Friedan, Frye, and hooks all…
Most people have had experiences or people in their life that held them back from doing what they truly wanted. This makes the poem “Housewife” by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer, relatable to most people. Susan conveys a powerful message through this poem, which is that everyone should follow their dreams and live their life the way they want to. By letting others hold you back, you will not amount to anything, but an unfulfilled life. Susan delivers this powerful message to her readers by using…
unsatisfied with their lives. Women had always been exposed to the notion that there was no greater destiny, than to be a great housewife – cleaning and taking care of the family. The belief was that women didn’t want careers or opportunities, they just wanted to accomplish the true feminine fulfillment – beautiful, skinny, married, and living in a nice home. Being a housewife was a glorified role, and many proudly wrote this as their occupation on professional documents. Any issues that these…
Picture your classic 1950s housewife. She has shoulder-length (or shorter) hair that is neatly curled. She wears a tea length, shirtwaist dress and low heels- a feminine, yet, in today’s world, conservative look. She is probably set cooking in her kitchen and sporting her staple piece: an apron. This woman, however, is more than a chef. As a mother and a wife, she is the caretaker, the cleaner and the shopper. She tends to the house during the day, takes care of her children and waits for her…
it. It is the case of William Carlos Williams that, in his poem “The Young Housewife” of 1916, critiqued the power dynamic between conventional gender roles by exposing in it the vulnerability of women to sexist, even misogynistic attitude. We can notice it in the women’s characterization made of facts and a sexist speaker and in the denounced speaker actions. First, the characterization of the woman in “The Young Housewife” is a proof of her vulnerability and the speaker’s sexist thinking.…
Plath was therefore caught up in a time where on a very subconscious level she still had the values of an “ideal housewife” infused in her psyche, while she was also a newly empowered young ambitious woman trying to find independent identity and leave a mark in this world. Therefore the same woman who thought that to be deprived of the experience of child birth and motherhood is a “death indeed”, also questions “when and if” is she would feel anything at all for her child. (Plath, Sylvia. The…
William Carlos Williams is an imagist poet, who superiorly controls the meaning of his poems, using subtle language manipulations. One poem that shows this in particular is The Young Housewife. This poem is about the time the speaker was driving and sees a young housewife near the curb, calling the ice-man and fish-man to come. He compares her to a dried leaf, which at the end, he crushes with his car. This poem was published in 1916, a time when the world was a misogynistic place. Though the…
First, I focus on two characters, both of which are female and housewives, examining their traits. Next, I will see how they are beingtreated in their families and how they react to the treatment. Loureen: A Rebellious Traditional Housewife The first scene opens when we hear a couple arguing. The very first dialogue of the play…
beginning of his efforts in poetry Williams’ underlines the fears associated with the cultural change to modernism, and the prevalent criticisms within it. This is seen the most obviously in his poem The Young Housewife. With a definitive focus on simple lines and modern day life, The Young Housewife sits as a solidification of not only Williams’ dream for what poetry should be, but…
is about 430 words, an increase from my average of 380 in the first half of the semester. Assessments Through my posts on William Carlos Williams’ “The Young Housewife” (Mar. 13) and E. E. Cummings’ “in Just-” (Mar. 25), I’ve used this assignment to analyze specific passages and poetry styles. Though my response to “The Young Housewife” leads into questions about what differentiates poetry and prose, my first paragraph discusses the effect of certain phrases and words on my understanding of…