Womens Roles and How They Are Obtained - Essay Example

Melody Murray 10-25-07 AFRC 063 Beavers Women’s Roles The nature of human relationships is central to most pieces of literature. While the nature of this exploration might change from one author to another or one story to another, it is as people relate to each other that the central issues of our lives are examined and exposed as being either a universal experience or an anomaly in time. Examples of this are present in stories in which men interact with each other, women interact with each other or the two genders interact with each other. It is particularly in this last that is most concerning to the authors in the present discussion. While the issue of how men relate to women and women relate to men has been a long explored topic, one that was nearly taboo for centuries was the question of how black men relate to black women. Due primarily to their status as slaves and laborers, black people have only recently, within the past 100 years or so, had their voices heard. Because of this, the relationships between men and women as they exist within the black community have remained relatively unexplored until recently. Central to Jean Toomer’s Karintha, Ernest J. Gaines’s A Long Day in November, and Toni Cade Bambara’s A Tender Man are relationships between black men and black women, and more specifically, how black women must contend with the realities of black men. Throughout all three stories, it is revealed that, much like the relationships among white people, women’s lives are altered by the roles pushed upon them by men. In Jean Toomer’s novel Karintha, the male characters overwhelmingly reject the natural cycles of life in order to rationalize their desire for Karintha. Throughout the story one is inundated with descriptions of her beauty and the lust it inspires in the men around her. “Even the preacher, who caught her at mischief, told himself that she was as innocently lovely as a November cotton flower” (Toomer, 19). Karintha’s actions, which are natural expressions of her personality rather than any devious attempt to gain the men’s attentions, must be denied in favor of what the preacher and other men decide she is based upon their interpretation of her actions. Toomer specifies that the preacher “tells himself”, connoting this type of external construction of her identity. Immediately following the preacher’s episode, the reader is informed: “Already, rumors were out about her” (19). The juxtaposition with the preacher’s thoughts, leads one to read these rumors as the product of more constructions, more denials of who Karintha is in favor of who the men want her to be. It is a denial of reality in favor of the fantasy. Although Karintha is dimmed as a result of these assumptions, the effects of it upon herself and others are diverse. Later, as Karintha becomes a woman, the reader learns she “has contempt for them” and “she has had a hold” which she abandons. Her contempt springs from her frustration with her external imposed role within the society. She recognizes that her power to attract men is grounded in the mystique they have created for her, and thus is not her own. But as it is the only option available to her, she must embrace it. It is this denial of her role and right in determining her own sense of self that breeds her contempt for the men and develops the hard, self-denying heart that would abandon a newborn baby at a sawmill. Her refusal to accept proper parental responsibility seems to be Karintha’s one attempt at controlling her own life, and yet, would not the image of perfect beauty be marred by a child? Pregnancy, motherhood would demystify her, likening her to commonplace wives and mothers and prevent her from continuing to perform within the male-defined image of her that has dominated her life thus far. The reader is informed that Karintha has contempt for the men, but through actions such as this learns that she also indulges them when she is in the mood for it, illustrating her inability to escape the role that has defined her. Both are responses to her understanding that these men, who see only what they want to see, will never get to her inner depths. “Men do not know that the soul of her was a growing thing ripened too soon. …they will die not having found it out” (20). Through the events of the story, Toomer describes this truth as Karintha’s essential truth, her essence, in a sense, and it is this essence that the men, or anyone else, will never have. There is a reactionary tone, a spiteful curse with the invocation of death, which ultimately implies a waste of life as a result. Similar to Karintha’s story, Amy, in Ernest Gaines’ A Long Day in November, is caught up in an undesirable identity imposed upon her from without. Amy is unhappy with her childish husband who cares more for his car and friends than for her. So she leaves him, only agreeing to return when he burns the car. As this might suggest, the nature of their relationship is complex. Initially, when her husband, Eddie, attempts to make sexual advances, Amy fends him off saying, “‘Go back to your car,’ Mama says. ‘Go rub ‘gainst it. You ought to be able to find a hole in it somewhere’” (Gaines 363). With statements such as this, Amy seems to be jealous of the attention Eddie spends on his car, instead of her. The mere presence of this jealousy would seem to imply that she loves him or at least places value in his affection; however, she denies loving him perhaps as a matter of pride in that he doesn’t seem willing to return her affections to the same degree. Amy’s mother rejects Amy’s excuse of public opinion for refusing another man shortly after leaving Eddie as she says, “‘You mean you still love that yellow thing,’ Grandma says. ‘That’s what you mean, ain’t it?’ ‘I didn’t say that,’ Mama says” (375). Amy focuses on her commitment to marriage and her sense of propriety in remaining true to her marriage vows while denying that she is still in love with her husband. She seems highly unwilling to admit to loving Eddie to anyone, even herself. It is this lack of acknowledged emotional investment in her marriage that forces the reader to question Amy’s actions in the story. The car burning is supposed to be Eddie’s manhood ritual. As it is depicted in the story, Eddie makes a great sacrifice because his car is the thing he loved most in the world, above even his wife. It is a public event, with the community serving as witness to his transition. And finally, his biggest detractor, Amy’s mother, puts the official stamps on it as she says, “‘I do declare,’ Grandma says. ‘He’s a man after all.” This would seem to be the perfect start to an entirely new life for the couple, with both of them able to enter it as adults. However, the question is asked, through the movement of the story, is he a man now? It can be argued that Amy doesn’t see him as such. Immediately she unmans him in the private, domestic sector, when she demands that he beat her. She claims it is for appearances, but it seems to be both penitence on her part and a punishment on his. In this scene, it is clear that Eddie does love Amy, and he has no desire to beat her. Amy has put all of her problems with her husband on the car, investing the vehicle with all of his childishness and limitations, but he is the same man after the burning, and she has to contend with her failure to understand who he is. There is no excitement on Amy’s part after the burning. She doesn’t seem remotely pleased that he loves her enough to burn the car. One could argue that this is because she is preoccupied with her future beating, but then one would expect a joyful reconciliation after that. Though she cries in his arms, she doesn’t say she’s sorry, she doesn’t acknowledge his pain in hurting her. She doesn’t even say she appreciates his sacrifice. Instead, Amy recognizes that she has taken over his manhood in a sense. She controls not only herself, but him as well. This realization is made physically manifest in the beating she receives. Wife-beating is the ultimate exhibition of male power over the woman, and in making him beat her, she assumes his control over this power. She is cold to him because he has made her become something she is not, she has become the man. She must take on this role because he cannot be who she wants or needs him to be. Finally, Aisha of Toni Cade Bambara’s A Tender Man has to contend with a role given to her by others. “She looked coiled on her side of the table, mouth full of poisonous fangs” (142). Cliff likens his girlfriend Aisha to a snake, which is, perhaps, an apt description. Similar to the snake in the Garden of Eden, Aisha seems to act as a catalyst for Cliff’s personal transition from “innocence” to experience, from an adult life in which he can will away parental responsibilities and painful thoughts to one in which his sense of helplessness and defeatism are no longer valid excuses. However Bambara makes it clear that this image comes from Cliff as it is not supplemented by any descriptions by the narrator. So it is Cliff that casts this role upon Aisha. She does not seem pleased to bring up her knowledge of Cliff’s child and spends much of the time wavering between hesitation and anger. Aisha’s choices regarding Cliff seem to he limited. He surrounds her. The reader is informed that she knows his ex-wife, her cousin was in his class, and Bambara finally removes any possibility of Aisha avoiding these issues as they literally fall into her life when Cliff’s ex-wife collapses on her. The hesitation on Aisha’s part seems to come from a desire not to ruin her own relationship with him. After all, he is “one of the good guys” and she is genuinely interested in him. Her anger seems to be a result of her frustration with who he is, that not all the pieces seem to match up together, that he isn’t entirely who she wants him to be, and perhaps, a bit of frustration with the antagonistic role he has given her. She literally takes on his responsibilities, that of his child Rhea, a role which could have been avoided had he taken care of his daughter himself. While the women of these stories are seen to take on roles that have been forced upon them by the men in their lives, there are also several instances in which the women themselves also attempt to force roles upon the men they meet. This is particularly evident in the books by Bambara and Gaines. When Cliff refuses to accept responsibility for his issues, he deals with them by passing them on to Aisha, who is presented the case in such a way that to refuse aid would harm others and reject her socially defined role as the family caretaker. Rather than accept that this is who Cliff really is, Aisha opts to take on these enforced issues while trying to cling to a faulty impression of Cliff’s personality and expecting him to live up to it. Amy also cannot find a means of accepting her husband’s failures as they are, but instead chooses to project them into the physical manifestation of them, his beloved car. As it is proved that Eddie does, indeed, love her through the ritualistic burning of the car, there must have been numerous other ways in which Eddie demonstrated his love for Amy that Amy never recognized as such. Rather than focusing on how Eddie chose to demonstrate his love for her, Aisha expected him to demonstrate his love for her in her way and found it unsatisfactory because of its enforced, insincere approach. Even Karintha, in her abandonment of her baby, chooses the life she lives, constrained as it is by the conceptions men hold of her, rather than taking responsibility for the child and taking on a new role in which she might have greater freedom to explore her own identity. In doing so, she sanctions and encourages the male opinion of her and refuses to embrace her female-defined space. While either identity is male-enforced and constraining, Karintha recognizes that being a mother would remove her from male attention and force her into the female realm. She opts for the definition she’s grown comfortable with. This effect of the women upon the men suggests a symbiotic action between them that nevertheless seems to originate from the men themselves. What emerges from these stories is the concept that forcing others into socially or individually externally assigned roles only serves to weaken the relationships that develop. Perhaps due to greater social definitions of women as caretakers and men as workers, women seem to adopt these additional roles without complaint, though the silence they observe is unsettling and contributory to the central issue. Karintha seems to keep quiet about herself out of spite, or a sense of futility when being honest and forthright might have alleviated some of her distress. Amy claims that her actions stem from a desire not to have Cliff be a laughingstock, but would she really tell him he has failed her to his face, in front of their son? No, instead she suffers in silence and is unable to overcome her impressions enough to accurately view Cliff’s positive aspects. Finally, Aisha, the most contemporary and the most outspoken of these women, is strong enough to challenge Cliff, to question him, but by the end of the book, her voice has faded to a whisper. What might have happened had she retained her ability to challenge? The silence is hard on the souls of these women and everyone suffers as a result. Read More