Report for THE DEATH OF WOMAN WANG - Book Report/Review Example

In as much as the women in the modern Chinese society are fighting to get their democratic space in the society to boost their perception from the other gender they still faced the major challenges they used to face of being viewed as disabled gender that cannot even defend itself hence injustices from institutions of marriage, property ownership and education. Women were not allowed to go past the basic education and this is fueled by the forced early marriages; the worst is that the women are not allowed by the societal norms to own property in their name.

Because of the injustices against the women, the issue of suicide with respect to the same women is rampant in the book. Spencer writes, “Suicides were considered morally correct as they showed the depth of the woman’s reverence for her husband.”1 This was chauvinistic as it was viewed as an act that was done by women as a connotation when the husbands died by taking away their lives so that they will forever remain chaste to their husbands. This makes this Confucian ideology a quite unjust and unintolarable act against the women.

On the contrary, it was not a good idea for a woman to commit suicide just for any other happening like the fear of the repercussions of their acts, as this would be quite detrimental to the society and the Chinese community at large. According to Spencer, the women who killed themselves due to frustrations and used ropes in doing the hangings from their kerchiefs would most likely haunt the deserted alleys and the rooms they were found dangling1. The Chinese would think f women as rebels when they died through suicide but this was not the case.

The reality is as depicted by Wang’s death that the women would engage in such acts after undergoing a miserable life full of injustices like being subjected to torturous marriages after being forced into such marriages and denied formal education that would enable them be women of value. “Though she was dead, woman Wang still posed a problem, perhaps more of a problem than she had ever posed in her life. For in life, she had not had the power to hurt anybody, except her father-in-law and husband by her language and conduct, and perhaps the man she ran away with.

But dead and vengeful, she was suffused with power and danger: as a hungry ghost she could roam the village for generations, impossible to placate, impossible to exercise.”1 This statement from the book implies the negative notions related to women’s death as portrayed by Wang. In the Chinese traditional society, marriage was a critical factor as the ideal of arranged marriages is discussed fully in the book. The books takes note that marriage was arranged to an extent of teenage girls of barely age thirteen.

“Arrangements were common enough at the time, a young girl could get food and protection, while her future mother-in-law got an extra pair of hands to help in the house.”1 Women in such relationships were not allowed to raise a voice in fact; they were to be subservient towards their masters who made all the decisions. Women opinions and contributions were not welcomed in the society. The ideas of being subservient were common among the Chinese ideologies as they are, were meant to be the way of life of the women in the Chinese society who were not allowed to questions the societal ideals but to accept them as they were.

“…fostered virtues in women: chastity, courage, tenacity, and unquestioning acceptance of the prevailing