Gender and Womanhood Question in The Three Stories - Term Paper Example

?Gender and womanhood, manipulation and victimization in the stories: ‘Slave Mother”, “When I was in Xia Village” and “Hands” The three short stories, Slave Mother, When I was in Xia Village, and Hands, have women protagonists who live a wretched life imparted to them either by the male-dominated or by the class-ridden society. But the common element that unites these stories is the way in which the female leading characters in these three stories show a will to survive in the face of adversities. All the three stories show subdued victims who are not much able to fight against the injustices they suffer from. But they neither succumb to them. The message that is passed over to the reader is that not only a fighter but even a survivor is a hero. And these tales throw light upon the ability of this gender group to impart love and service to others even when they are dehumanized to great extents. When looked upon this way, these stories can be considered to be alternative feminist narratives. The short story, ‘Slave’s Mother’, is about the fate of a woman who got pledged to a stranger by her own husband in the name of poverty. This is also about the agonies of this mother who had to experience the pain of parting with her little sons twice1. Underlying these parallel narratives of human tragedy, are the concerns of gender, womanhood, and victimization that give this tale a feminist edge. In contrast to the glorification of motherhood practiced by main stream narratives, this story has something else to tell. It is all about how the entire body and self of a woman is transformed into a machine for giving birth, by the male-dominated society. The man who pays money in this story, for getting this woman (another man’s wife) as his own contract wife for a certain period, does so because he wants a child.2 It has to be noted that he is not even considering her as an individual. It is as if he is hiring a machine. And it is not out of love for her, or even out of a sexual desire for her, that he does this. This is the ultimate theme of dehumanization in this story. And the husband who pledges her completes the circle by giving away the woman who had cared for him and shared his life, just for the sake of money. He is not even bothered how his own 3-year old son would survive without his mother. There are also intriguing but very real (anti)women characters in this story, who adds on to the oppression of the female protagonist. The three women in this story are representative of the three faces of the same reality- a gender politics that puts women in the role of the victim as well as the perpetrator. The nameless woman who gets pledged by her husband to another man, the broker woman, Mrs. Shen, who arranges this pledging, and the first wife to the man who pays the money to get a temporary wife, are these three women characters in this short story3. None of them is having a gender perspective. They are just survivors in the margins of a male-governed system. And they never develop a sisterhood among them even though the female protagonist and the ‘first wife’ have all reasons to do so. The first wife is forced to accept a second wife for her husband just because she could not give birth to a child.4 Hence, she and the second wife are victims of the same problem- a man’s selfish desire to have a male child even at the cost of hurting the women who give birth to it. But the first wife never feels any real bonding with the second one.5 It seems, the author has intentionally abstained from giving the name of the pledged woman (whom we will call the ‘mother’ from now onwards) a name, as in this story, she is never allowed by the society to have an identity of her own6. Her name does not matter. The only thing that matters is that she is a worthwhile commodity for sale. This becomes more evident when it is stated that, she is preferred by the hiring man just because she has a greater possibility of giving birth again as she has delivered more than one child before as well. 7 The name of the second wife is not also mentioned in the story. But the broker who arranges the pledging is described as Mrs.Shen. Here it is evident that the only woman who is in control of her own life, at least to some extent, is Mrs. Shen, as she is not depicted as related to any man who makes decisions for her. She is doing her own business and earning money, though the nature of her business is shady. It can be assumed that she is given a name by the author just because she is the only woman who has control. She has an identity of her own. And she is even able to adamantly press for her commission in the deal.8 Hence, of course, she deserves a name but the other two women are different. They are just extensions of their husbands’ selves and hence they do not even need a name. This could be the logic behind the omission of their names in the story. One day, very un-dramatically it is announced to her by her husband that in order to survive the poverty that the family was suffering from, she had been pledged to a man who wanted a temporary wife to bear him a child9. The extent to which women are objectified in the society lay before the reader as a naked truth. The man, the husband, is seen finding justifications for his decision in their poverty and his ill health but still to a sensitive reader, it is evident that he is not feeling any specific guilt conscience or even sadness for making such a decision10. His intention is only to convince her at least in some respects and he is at manipulating his way through using soft words. The way in which a woman is kept out of the different stages of a decision making process that affects her and her family, fatally, is depicted by the author (Ling) with a chilling and matter of fact narrative style. But the mother is not able to question this injustice and what she manages to do with great difficulty is to just ask, “why didn’t you tell me before?”11. Then soon she has understood that the decision was final. She is resigned to her fate and only thing that she does is to fall back into the memory of her girl child being murdered brutally by her husband soon after she was born12. The story does not directly tell why the girl child was murdered but it is evident that a girl child was seen as a burden and wastage of time to bring up, by the husband13. This has to be read in relation with the fact that female infanticide is a prevailing practice still in Asia14. And it is observed that “in China, for instance, a boy is called a “big happiness” while a girl is a “little happiness”15. And it is too evident to tell that it is a boy that the new husband will also want. In this short story, the broker woman, Mrs. Shen, who arrives next day to send the mother off to the new hirer of her, (and she also collects a commission for the deal from the husband), is depicted as indifferent to the suffering of a mother as her husband is. 16. This is indicative of how womanhood is different from gender sensitiveness. And Mrs. Shen is also as manipulative as the husband of the mother.17 The reader is reminded that irrespective of one’s gender, one is prone to be a part of a value system if one does not keep alert. Mrs, Shen, though being a woman, is not aware of the patriarchal values that she had assimilated into her thoughts and feels no compassion for the central character of this story. It is only normal for her to gain profit from the pledging of another woman. And the first wife of the new husband of the ‘mother’ is also not very kind to this woman and she even scolds her and treats her as a servant.18 This scenario is yet another typical example of how a person can be a woman but still act out on male values. It is also reflective of how the power of a woman is associated with her status as a wife. And this is why the first wife exercises this power and competes with the ‘mother’ for it. If the two women were to meet in a different setting, there could have been a possibility to develop a bonding between the two, provided the power equations are different. It is also reminded by this situation that all the power relations that involves men are determined by their associations with men. In the short story, When I was in Xia Village, the narrative unfolds dramatically and without conveying too much of the story that is to be told, until the character, Agui remarked that “how miserable it is to be a woman”.19 The way rumors spread against a woman who dares to be different in her life is what gets revealed next.20 The woman protagonist in the story, Zhenzhen had run away from her home in hope of becoming a nun, but she was captured by the enemy Japanese soldiers and taken to Japan.21 Her decision to become a nun was prompted by her being deserted by her boyfriend.22 She returns to her home after contracting a disease and suffering a lot in her life of misery.23 But when the youth who had rejected her love and in some aspects caused her running away from home, returns to her offering to marry her, she rejects him.24 All the villagers are seen viewing her as a prostitute, and an arrogant woman. But the narrator in the story, a woman, sees something else in her. What she finds is a unconquerable spirit of survival and an openness rarely found.25 These two approaches to the same person is reflective of the gender contradictions in a society. What the narrator tries to do is by altering the point of view, alter the whole sight itself, before the readers. Thus a crazy, wretched woman transforms into a bold, self-assertive one as the narrative unfolds. Zhenzhen is aware that in her village, by becoming wife to a village man, she would never be able to forget her past and start a new leaf in her life.26 It is the wisdom she had unknowingly assimilated about the status of women in the society and it prompts her to reject the easy way out, that is, marrying the man who has sympathies for her. Instead what she wants is to to search for a solution in which she is the mistress of her own life. This is the quality that keeps this protagonist a bold spirit though she is a victim, ultimately. All the misery that Zhenzhen has endured was not able to break her sense of independence. The courage that she shows in returning to the village, which was sure to despise her for getting raped was her first expression of that independence.27 And the way in which she had and is defying his father, is another manifestation of her rebellion to power centers of the society.28 This story also reminds one that though all rebellions against oppression become successes, they are justified for their symbolic value. The way Agui cries when she hears the story of zhenzhen and the way the narrator in this story, who is also a woman, gives emotional support to Zhenzhen and wins her trust are two ways of responding to the same gender issue.29 While the first woman is unable to help Zhenzhen and just ends up expressing her empathy, the second woman is able to be part of the empowerment process that Zhenzhen undergoes. The other village women in the story are showing mixed responses to what happened to Zhenzhen.30 Sometimes they are sad about the fate of Zhenzhen but some times they judge her with cold indifference.31 In the story of Zhenzhen, it is clear that she is a victim of unforeseen circumstances on which she had no control. But yet, the villagers, even women among them, are seen viewing her as the cause of her own suffering.32 How a victim of sexual assault gets re-victimized by the society is depicted with great detailing in this story. The victimization that Zhenzhen undergoes is not understood by the society. And even the man who offers to marry her is doing that out of sympathy and the regret he feels for his past doings. But what Zhenzhen is trying to do is to overcome the stigma that her victim status imparts her. And she is totally aware that she has to do that herself and she cannot entrust that job to anyone else. This might have been a lesson she had learned with her experiences with men including her boyfriend, the rapists and the Japanese general who became her husband.33 But the society around her is ready to at least partially forgive her for being a victim (!), only when she will return to a normal married life. A woman who has deviated from normal life is an object of despise and even fear for them. She is a threat to the very moral fabric of the society and this is why the society tries to oppress her through slander. It is as if the society wants her to become non-existent, dead. And the narrator in the story has observed that the all women of the village “because of Zhenzhen, became extremely self-righteous, perceiving themselves as saintly and pure. They were proud of never having been raped.”34 Here also the truth that womanhood and gender sensitivity are not the same, is reminded in the minds of the readers. Because of the duality of the ideas such as blemished and pure, or good or bad, these women had always needed a the presence of a bitch to show the society that they were nice women, who conformed. Zhenzhen fitted into that slot perfectly. She did not conform, not in the past and not now. Even if she were not to be kidnapped by Japanese soldiers, there is all the possibility that she still would be called a prostitute, as she was a free spirit difficult to contain. The third short story, Hands, is the story of Wang Yaming, an impoverished girl whose self esteem is close to non-existent and who is never complaining even when she is insulted and hurt.35 This is a story in which the politics of gender intertwines with that of class. Wang Yaming has black dirty hands and she never fits into the school kids with whom she is studying and residing.36 And she is called a “freak” by her school mates.37 Her pronunciation of English is awkward but she is not at all bothered about it because she considers English as only a foreign language, the ignorance about which naturally is not a crime for her.38 The innocence of this girl raises a question before the readers- whether she who does not conform is the “freak” or the others who simply submit their selves into adoring a foreign language are “freak”s.39 When the author tells this instance in the beginning of this story, the reader could make out the genuine independence of the spirit of this girl and the unique kind of rationality that she possesses. It is this rationality that helps her survive in the face of continuous insults. She is so chillingly aware of her draw backs and she does not scold others for reminding them to her. But the people, who surround her, both the kids and the teachers never seem to be aware of this unique spirit of hers. The girl is never complaining or quarreling also because she is too focused on her wish to learn and become something, to learn something “about the world.”40 From her family, she is the only one who had been blessed with the opportunity to study in a school.41 And she is aware of her responsibility to teach her siblings once she completes her studies.42 And gradually, as the narrative unfolds, it is revealed to the readers that this girl has a great commitment to learn, as she goes on reading her lessons through nights and again starting getting up in dawns, at the onset of the first rays of light.43 The way her father give his own gloves to her when she asked for a pair of gloves to hide her black hands, is a heartrending depiction of their poverty.44 In Wang Yaming’s story also, the direct perpetrators of injustice to her are the woman teachers, the girls and the woman house mother. None of them ever wakes up into a gender or class awareness that could accommodate a girl from a poor household who is fighting against all odds to learn and succeed in her life. It is the great desire for survival that joins the three protagonists of these three short stories. The mother, Zhenzhen and Wang Yaming have no one to look up at to draw strength from and hence they tap their own inner energies to survive the depressive realities in their lives. But the goals of all the three were “just beyond their reach.”45 There was not even a speck of hope that they could see in the horizon of future. Still, all these women show great perseverance at the face of misery. It is the fact they survive that is more important, than the question of whether they protest or come out of the oppressive ways of life in which they are caught. Another common aspect of the two women, Zhenzhen and Wang Yaming is that they silently go into the little comforts that nature provides them when they are hurt by rest of the world. It is as if they draw their wish to live, from nature. But the ‘mother’ is seen to be too engrossed in her misery that she cannot even notice anything outside it. It is as if she has no sense of her own self or individuality at all. But the other two have a silent sisterhood with nature. And whenever they are cornered by the worst difficulties of life, the seek refuge in nature. Zhenzhen is seen running away onto the nearby hill and Wang Yaming cries facing the wind.46 In all these three stories, the manipulators are both men and women. The victims are women. These stories do not simply put men against women in the age old power equation of patriarchy but bring in women also as the tools in the hands of a patriarchal system. It is also in the backdrop of communism that these stories have to be read. The story of Zhenzhen is a criticism of a communist society where, to be in Japanese territory getting raped by them, and getting married to Japanese man becomes so stigmatizing an experience for a woman.47 If Zhenzhen were raped by a native man, what would be the reaction of the villagers is just a hypothetical question. But yet it can be assumed from the general characters of the villagers in the story that they might feel more pity for her. And in the tone of the villagers, there is a hidden statement that she deserved to be raped as she had ran away from home in the first instance.48 Here it has to be noted that a woman’s individuality is rated only based on her marital status as was the case of the mother in the story, Slave Mother. And all these stories, through understatement, remind that the status of women, in a communist society, is not much better than in a pre-communist society. All these three short stories celebrate the survival of women who have no chances to better their lives. It is this positive note, appearing in the narrative as a subtle undercurrent, that imparts these otherwise depressing tales, a profound meaningfulness. And this is why they could be considered as good gender narratives. Works Cited Hiao, Xong, “Hands”, In Joseph S.M. Lau and Howard Goldblatt (Eds), The Columbian Anthology of Modern Chinese Literature, New York: Columbia University Press, 2007. Print. Ling, Ding, “When I was in Xia Village”, In Joseph S.M. Lau and Howard Goldblatt (Eds), The Columbian Anthology of Modern Chinese Literature, New York: Columbia University Press, 2007. Print. Shi, Rou, “Slaves’ Mother”, Name of the Editor (ed) Name of the Book, Place of Publishing: Publisher, 1955. Print. Weightman, Barbara.A., “Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East, and Southeast Asia”, London: John Wiley and Sons, 2011. Print. 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