50 Essays Questions
Lost in the Kitchen
1. In the essay Lost in the Kitchen, the author Barry uses various stereotypes to degrade both men and women. The first stereotype that Barry uses is when he writes, “I would no more enter the kitchen than I would attempt to park a nuclear aircraft carrier, but my wife, glides in very casually and picks up exactly the right kitchen implement, and starts doing exactly the right thing without receiving any instructions whatsoever.” In that one quote, Barry is using the stereotype that women are like professionals, and can do near anything inside of a kitchen. The type of stereotype that Barry used to describe his wife dates back to the early twentieth century, when a woman’s main job was to just cook and clean. Barry also degrades men by using the stereotype that man are completely incompetent in the kitchen when he writes, “the man , feeling guilty, finally shuffles in and offers to help. So the woman says something like “Well you can cut the turnips.” … It is the absolute simplest thing that she can think of. But the man… this instruction raises many troubling questions.” This stereotype describing a man shows how insufficient a man is in a kitchen, even when it comes to the simplest of things, such as cutting a turnip.
2. The use of humor by the Barry in the essay is used to compare men and women in not such a harsh tone as other novels would compare them. In the essay, the author Barry does not attempt to refute the stereotypes, rather he attempts to confirm them. Barry not only states that these stereotypes are his opinion, they are also scientific finding based on exhaustive study from his own experience. I believe that Barry used humor to bring light to a bit more serious situation, in which people all across the world use stereotypes to describe different individuals, such as women belong in the kitchen, or that Chinese are good at math, so that people can understand that stereotyping is not a good thing, and that people
1. In the essay Lost in the Kitchen, the author Barry uses various stereotypes to degrade both men and women. The first stereotype that Barry uses is when he writes, “I would no more enter the kitchen than I would attempt to park a nuclear aircraft carrier, but my wife, glides in very casually and picks up exactly the right kitchen implement, and starts doing exactly the right thing without receiving any instructions whatsoever.” In that one quote, Barry is using the stereotype that women are like professionals, and can do near anything inside of a kitchen. The type of stereotype that Barry used to describe his wife dates back to the early twentieth century, when a woman’s main job was to just cook and clean. Barry also degrades men by using the stereotype that man are completely incompetent in the kitchen when he writes, “the man , feeling guilty, finally shuffles in and offers to help. So the woman says something like “Well you can cut the turnips.” … It is the absolute simplest thing that she can think of. But the man… this instruction raises many troubling questions.” This stereotype describing a man shows how insufficient a man is in a kitchen, even when it comes to the simplest of things, such as cutting a turnip.
2. The use of humor by the Barry in the essay is used to compare men and women in not such a harsh tone as other novels would compare them. In the essay, the author Barry does not attempt to refute the stereotypes, rather he attempts to confirm them. Barry not only states that these stereotypes are his opinion, they are also scientific finding based on exhaustive study from his own experience. I believe that Barry used humor to bring light to a bit more serious situation, in which people all across the world use stereotypes to describe different individuals, such as women belong in the kitchen, or that Chinese are good at math, so that people can understand that stereotyping is not a good thing, and that people