In the novel Breath, eyes, memory by Edwidge Danticat I noticed one main theme throughout the novel. This theme was the societies obsession with purity and the problems this brings to the women in the community.
The most graphic and disturbing example of this to me is the practice of testing. Martines testing was an extremely emotional disturbing practice to her. It was humiliating and confusing. The reason that Martines tested Sophie was because as a girl Martines was tested up until she was raped. Sophie was tested up until she breaks her own hymen, trying to take some form of control over the situation at hand. The practice of testing was used to ensure a future husband and family's pride, worth and honor which leaves the women's body mainly as a trophy and no longer her own.
The tradition of obsession over a women's body and her purity objectifies the women and leaves them confused and unfamiliar with themselves. It forces the women to do harmful things to their bodies, like Sophia's bulimia, Martines suicide and Anties alcholism. Although presently in our society we don't practice 'testing' and we don't focus so much on virginity I believe that we still objectify women almost as much as in the novel. Women are expected to be submissive, a certain size with a certain look, and are constantly thought of as the inferior sex in society and in business. There are many different sources that objectify women, one source that does it the most would be music, mainly rap music, but it can even go all the way up to the government. The article about Laura Bush's speech about Iraqi women is one example of this. Laura Bush objectified the women, not in a sexual way, but in a way that was trying to demean their culture and tradition. I would hope that soon our society will try to take bigger steps towards eliminating sexism so that both sex's can live equally and happily.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
1 comment:
I think you raise a good point. Although our society does not practice the ritual of "testing", there are still other forms of objectifying women in our culture. This goes to show that there are several ways of demeaning women, either in the home or in the bedroom. It is good to keep in mind, though, that not all women have the same experiences. For example, there is no single experience that defines life as an American woman, or life as a Haitian woman, for that matter. However, the fundamental experience of a patriarchical society allows these women to relate to one another's condition, no matter how specific.
Post a Comment