Kiran Desai “The Sermon in the Guava Tree”: harsh expectations for women

This short story was entertaining, I really did enjoy it! I did however, cringe at all of the statements made about women in it, especially the long list of what the ideal wife is. “This girl should keep her eyes lowered and, because she is embarrassed and shy, her head bowed, as well. Nobody wants a girl who stares people right in the face with big froggy eyes. She should be fair-complexioned, but if she is dark the dowry must include at least one of the following items: A television set, a refrigerator, a Godrej brand steel cupboard.” It rambles about all these things the bride must do, but the one thing he said that really made my jaw drop other than the fair complexion is “This girl should have passed all her examinations in the first division. But will listen respectfully as you lecture her on various subjects you yourself failed in secondary school.” This short story shows the personality and looks that a woman must have and surprisingly, most of these are similar to America’s expectations of women. Looking at the book as a whole, it shows the idea that women must be perfect, not too dark and not too light, must know things but still listen to men, even if they obviously do not know what they’re talking about. It's all about the woman being perfect, never about the man and how he's literally up in a tree, doing nothing. They’re still worried about the womans worth, and even if she was born with a darker complexion, the son’s family is expected to get more as if being darker-skinned makes a woman less valuable. It was a harsh reality to read, knowing that these impossible and ridiculous expectations are put on women all around the world. According to Paula Davis-Laack,


“We live in a world that teaches girls to judge their worth based on looks rather than abilities. In addition, girls get the mixed message that they should be themselves but be perfect too. “ Desai uses these drastic expectations to shed light on the problem of marriage, but also on the problem of how women are viewed. When talking about women, they’re either talking about them being overemotional, upset, or obsessing about clothing. The main thing Desai is getting at in this part of the short story though is that, what the boy does doesn't matter. The girl, however must be absolutely perfect or you basically have to beg to give her away to be married. According to Joe McCarthy, “Women who can’t pay an expected dowry price or who are unable to make additional payments in the future are often subject to harassment and abuse. Other times, husbands or in-laws throw acid on a woman or set her on fire.” Girls parents should not be prideful, but the boys should. “This, after all, is the boy’s family. They’re entitled to their sense of pride.” Desai did a great job in making my inner feminist feel anger towards the expectations about women in this. This shows a lot about how ridiculous and tedious our expectations of women are around the world. The only thing we can do to change it is become knowledgeable about these impossible standards and change them, let women be who they want to be.
























Works Cited


Davis-Laack, Paula. “Will We Ever Let Girls Be Good Enough?” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/pressure-proof/201206/will-we-ever-let-girls-be-good-enough.


McCarthy, Joe. “9 Reasons Why Dowries Are Horrible for Women.” Global Citizen, www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/8-reasons-dowries-are-bad-for-women/.

The Dolls Museum in Dublin by Eavan Boland: passive voices of women in history

Boland hits hard on the topic of women being passive voices in history. Her descriptions of the dolls hit hard with how many women probably felt during these times. One such example is, “The wounds are terrible. The paint is old. The cracks along the lips and on the cheeks cannot be fixed.” There are many metaphors in this, such as how lips being damaged or cracked typically mean forced silence. This represents how women’s perspective in history is a rare thing. According to Chiponda & Wassermann, “Apart from the differences in historical roles, the literature reviewed revealed that the representation of women and men in history textbooks is not nearly numerically equal, with women not represented as often as men in either text and illustrations.” Finding any writing from Greek women is almost impossible, except for Sappho. Another great example is, “The eyes are wide. They cannot address the helplessness which has lingered in the airless peace of each glass case: to have survived. To have been stronger than a moment. To be the hostages ignorance takes from time and ornament from destiny.” This hit me hard because, no matter what hardship women faced, they are still there, but are unable to tell the story of their lives. People come by to look at them only to value them on appearances, not knowing the damage they saw and survived! It has not been until recent times that women have been able to have their voices heard, but even that is a huge understatement. Regardless of our political beliefs right now, men are still making choices for women that women should be making. This all goes back to the idea that women’s voice, and the voice of minorities are silenced. Even the word minority brings on the idea that it’s the smaller voice, though that is far from the truth. Women both today and back then have been and are being silenced and expected to be perfect, which can be shown through the metaphor Boland uses, “Here they are. Cradled and cleaned, held close in the arms of their owners. Their cold hands clasped by warm hands, their faces memorized like perfect manners.” This goes back to the idea that women were basically a second rated human back then, they were owned and expected to be perfect. Part of being the perfect wife or woman was staying passive and silent, meaning their survival and their views of history were often silenced, especially their own part in helping bring the world to a better future. According to bibliographyonline, “ Elizabeth Cady Stanton was an American social activist and leading figure in the early women’s rights movement. She was a key figure in helping create the early women’s suffrage movements in the US. She was the principle author of Declaration of Sentiments in 1848.” It’s sad because she was not someone I learned about in class or in any history book ever, she helped change the world and yet we learn nothing about her in history classes. This shows that women are often silenced in history, even in the modern age.

Work Cited

Chiponda, Annie, & Wassermann, Johan. “Women in History Textbooks: What Message             Does This Send to the Youth?” Yesterday and Today, The South African Society             for History Teaching (SASHT),                           www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862011000100006.

“Women Who Changed the World |  .” Biography Online, www.biographyonline.net/people/women-who-changed-world.html.

Heart Of Darkness: Racist or not?

This reading was the most challenging for me for many reasons. The question that's been on my mind this whole time though is what the point of this reading was. Why did Conrad write it? Of course, it shows why imperialism was awful, however the views on it being racist are mixed. Marlow states “The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much.” I noticed that Marlow’s descriptions of white people versus black people are very important in order to answer this question. Marlow states “I met a white man, in such an unexpected elegance of get up that in the first moment I took him for a sort of vision.I saw a high starched collar, white cuffs, a light alpaca jacket, snowy trousers, a clear necktie, and varnished boots. No hat. Hair parted, brushed, oiled, under a green-lined parasol held in a big white hand. He was amazing and had a penholder behind his ear.” This is his idea of describing a white man, leaving the reader with the idea that this man is policed and responsible. In their culture, this can be seen as good. While his description of black people is different “Six black men advanced in a file, toiling up the path. They walked erect and slow, balancing small baskets full of earth on their heads, and the clink kept time with their footsteps. Black rags were wound round their lions, and the short ends behind waggled to and fro like tails. I could see every rib, the joints of their limbs were like knots in a rope; each had an iron collar on his neck, and all were connected together with a chain whose bights swung between them, rhythmically clinking.” This makes black people not only seem very different, but also depicts them like animals. Notice the symbolism of the collar and the rags looking like tails, which is intentional writing. Throughout the book Marlow describes the black people in the book as savage or other descriptors to mean animalistic. When their culture was simply different than his. This is what separates whether the reading was racist or not. It was racist because no matter what, it failed to realize the difference between cultures. Marlow is still stuck in a very black and white way of thinking. Them versus us, culturally wise. According to Stephanie Pappas, most people do actually have racist tendencies and a lot of these are actually because of the culture that one has grown up in. That however does not mean that someone can blame being racist on their culture. One has to take responsibility and change themself. Kurtz is not one to be glorified either, while he did start to interact more with the natives, he actually did become a savage. I do not mean savage in the way Marlow and the other white people were, I mean he used others for his gain and this tribe was just another way to gain what he wanted using force. Kurtz used his power over the tribe, because they thought he was a god to get what he wanted. That is what a savage is, not someone who has a different culture than you. This commonly even happens nowadays, thankfully most people don’t call others savages, but we do things like make little girls go home from school because they have their natural hair instead of spending tons of money or hours trying to get their hair into what white culture wants it to be. According to Marquaysa Battle, “Black girls are still being discriminated against for wearing their natural hair the way it grows from their heads. Not only are they asked to change their hair to fit mainstream standards, but they often have their education threatened when they refuse to conform.

From having their class sessions interrupted, to being threatened with suspension and expulsion, school officials can't seem to stop obsessing over black girls' hair.” The idea of different cultures not understanding each other is still a very common thing.  

 

Works cited

Battle, Marquaysa. “8 Times Schools Let Black Girls' Hair Interfere With Their Education.” Elite Daily, Elite Daily, 7 May 2019, www.elitedaily.com/life/culture/black-girls-natural-hair-racism-schools/1953497.

Pappas, Stephanie. “Culture Poisons Brain With Racism, Study Finds.” LiveScience, Purch, 2 Oct. 2011, www.livescience.com/16339-culture-racism.html.