12/9/09
Relations between “I Want a Wife” and “Not all Men Are Sly Foxes” “I Want a Wife” and “Not all Men Are Sly Foxes” share the same common theme: They stereotype the mother being the dominant parental figure in a young child’s life. There is no denying it small children rely on their mothers for love and care. In the essay “I Want a Wife” the author, Judy Brady writes, “I want a wife who takes care of the children when they are sick, a wife who arranges to be around when the children need special care, because of course, I cannot miss classes at school.” But is it possible for a father to take care of a young child when they are sick, when they get home from work at the wee hours of the night? Should this be acceptable or do fathers need to take the initiative to take care of their children more? Although, these essays have a common theme they are spoken through two different voices. In “I Want a Wife” a mother and coincidentally a wife is speaking about what a great responsibility all mothers and wives take on when raising a child. In the other essay “Not All Men Are Sly Foxes” the essay is spoken through a father’s voice who is expressing his frustrations to the stereotypes that occur in children’s books. In this essay, fathers are perceived to be the weaker and more unlovable parent, in what the author Armin Brott thinks is an inaccurate perception. For example, in “Not All Men Are Sly Foxes” there was an exert that states, “The librarian gave me a list of the twenty most popular contemporary picture books and I read every one of them. Of the twenty, seven don’t mention a parent at all. Of the remaining thirteen, four portray fathers as much less loving and caring than mothers.” This provided imagery and personal facts for his audience on how much discrimination takes place in children’s books towards fathers. Contrary the essay “I Want a Wife” provides imagery and personal experience throughout the essay to the reader on what kind of responsibilities a wife and mother experience daily. This writing technique puts the reader in the wives shoes for a day and provides vivid details that illustrate how dependent children and fathers are on their mothers and wives. The first essay “I Want a Wife” by Judy Brady was undoubtedly directed towards husbands around the world by taking shots at them at times in her essay. For instance, at the end of the essay there was an exert stating, “If, by chance, I find another person more suitable as a wife than the wife I already have, I want the liberty to replace my present wife with another one. Naturally, I will expect a fresh, new life; my wife will take the children and be solely responsible for them so I am left free.” In that exert and throughout the essay the author is treating being a wife like having a job. Also, she explains to the reader if wives are not good enough then they will be replaced with a new wife. This provides the reader with a negative stereotype on the father figure in all relationships which solidifies the author’s case in the other essay that men are indeed discriminated against. The author is indirectly using a simile to compare a father to a boss at work. However, in the opposing essay, “Not All Men Are Sly Foxes” the author states, “Even the terminology has changed: Males and females are referred to as mail “carriers” or “firefighters.” The simile used here puts more of a positive symbol of the father figures and emphasizes how much else they have to worry about with work and money.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
If you think back to your earliest memories, who do you recall being your main caregiver? Most people would remember a feminine figure, whether it be your mother, grandmother or another female relative. Commonly, females take responsibility over young children. In some cases though, a male in the family will take over this nurturing position, much like in The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst, in which a young boy decides to help his disabled brother learn to walk. In the text, the reader discovers that males are able to take responsibility for a kid when a female chooses not to and leave the child the same as if a woman were to raise it.…
- 799 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
In the article, "Delighting in Fatherhood: Four Ways for Dads to Embrace Nurturing", he stresses “childcare is self-care” since “loving others is the most loving thing you can do for yourself” (5). Childcare can foment the process of character-forming, including patience, sacrifice and gentleness. When he spend time with his son, he realises how much he can learn from his son and how much his adult development has been enhanced. The role of fatherhood helps him being present, attentive and mindful. He believes this experience is the best way of self-care, learning from the relationship between father and son, with a pure wonder and…
- 743 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
"A child needs a mother," my father was often told, "and a man needs a wife." He seemed to have agreed, or evidently succumbed to those comments. He remarried with great haste when I was very little, perhaps four, five, or even six years of age. He hardly knew the woman whom he wedded. She was a widow, same as he, and more recently deprived of her spouse than he, with two young daughters who needed to be provided for.…
- 2088 Words
- 9 Pages
Good Essays -
To be a father is not hard, but rather to act like a father needs time to demonstrate that. The father is the main source of income and dominant provider of the family. He settles on the significant family choices together with mother and with the assistance of different individuals. This is the customary part of the father. Fathers and moms have novel contrasts that make them have distinctive child rearing parts, that when joined, give the most far reaching model to help the child grow effectively. Consequently, kids require both parents to help them build up the skills to help them assemble fruitful social relations, take part in dependable conduct, build up the confidence and abilities to be effective in school and to wind up…
- 1200 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
In Anne Bradstreet’s seventeenth century poem, “The Author to Her Book” she compares the awareness of nurturing and properly raising a child to the writing and revising of a book. The speaker is caught between conflicting love of her book and shame of its weaknesses, both of which are expressed in the metaphor and in the tone – both expressing the true mammalian nature of her motherhood, ultimately creating a tone of sincerity and loyalty.…
- 570 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
“Any man can be a father, but it takes a special person to be a dad.” There are some people who do not have the opportunity to have a father in their life. Someone they can call dad. Like the men in the work’s “Daddy” Sylvia Plath and “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke. A similarity of the works is that that the fathers were admired by their children. In contrast, In “Daddy” the fathers was abusive and in “My Papa’s Waltz” the father wasn’t abusive towards the son.…
- 528 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Parenting, or bad parenting, is a strong and clearly defined theme in A Good Man is Hard to Find along with generational shifts. The grandmother wouldn’t take her “children in any direction with a criminal like” (1) The Misfit. Even with her warning bailey, as a clear example of generational shift, doesn’t “look up from his reading” (1). This showing of complete and utter disregard of his mother presents the problem of generational shifts, Bailey neither cares nor respects his old mother’s words.…
- 490 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Over the course of many years’ fathers are becoming more absent in their children's lives, for example “One out of every three children in America lives in a home without their biological father present” (Promoting Responsible Fatherhood,2012, pg2). This very alarming because research has shown that father present in a child life has more positive effects such as helping…
- 218 Words
- 1 Page
Good Essays -
Throughout history fatherhood has evolved from the hunter gather, to the Pre-Industrial, to the Industrial, to the modern 21st century (Burgess). Through each era the role of a father involved him to simply provide for his family, which meant going away and not spend time with them. Even in the 21st century fathers are required to spend a great deal of time away from their wives and kids. Being a father entitles much more than just providing for the family. It entitles a father to bond and help raise his kids. Without the presence of a father, kids grow up struggling through life. The role of a father is to provide support and positive interaction in a child’s life, without these elements a child loses the ability to fully experience life. Ashley Rhodes the author of “Fatherhood is Essential” covers these main points in her essay by providing examples of her own experiences with her father. Support in a child’s life is one of the key elements that shapes the type of person that child will become in the future.…
- 973 Words
- 4 Pages
Better Essays -
Gender is a cultural construct. Each society will determine how roles are played out by assigning gender ((Mascia-Lees and Black 2.) Typically women are the caretakers, leaving the idea that they are more nurturing than the fathers, who are busy and not emotionally stabled to be involved. It is evident in the Akas, that gender is not relevant to who takes care of the children. Every mother and father are both contributors as to how their children are raised and they also both show their children love and…
- 830 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Mr Murray’s hostility towards his son’s actions places the reader in a position in which enables them to be decisive of the father’s traditional idea of masculinity.…
- 733 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Gender roles in raising a family are a controversial topic in many homes today. Many people still believe that it should still be the man as the primary source of income, and that the woman should stay and raise the kids, while taking care of the home. Many dads today are abandoning this stereotype, and they choose to do a little bit of everything.” I think modern fathers take on many more roles.” (Linn) This resulting in being there for more of the child’s life, and playing a more active role in their childhood.…
- 872 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Mothers have always been the role model when it comes to nurturing and child rearing. However, since the last couple of years have seen Fathers play a crucial role in the upbringing of children. Take the example of celebrities like David Beckham, Will Smith and Johnny Depp who have shown deep bonding with their babies and have become role models. Melanie Mallers, professor of Pyschology at the California State University states that, “Fathers play a hugely important role in the mental health of their children much later in life.”…
- 499 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
1). Throughout Cooper’s entire paragraph are numerous examples of the kind of misogyny that Child spoke out against. In the end, a perceptive reading will have no trouble realizing that Cooper’s paragraph perfectly embodies the masculine portrayal of women in literature that Child so greatly despises: women are worth anything only so long as they are pleasing to…
- 541 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
For my Second Shift assignment the working parents that I interviewed were my own parents. Both of my parents do house work after coming home from work. They have duties that they are expected to do. When something is broken, it is my dad or me that fix it. Me and my dad always carry the heavy things and do the heavy work. Sometimes I do have to do it alone when my parents can’t do it. My mom always cleans and does most of the cooking in the house. When I was a little kid, my mom always made me food and reminded to do my homework. She would be the one to take care of me and wake me up to go to school. From looking at what my mother does on a daily basis I can tell that she does more work in the house than my father. I can see that most women have these kinds of obligations in their households. I also remember reading some information about the different roles in modern households a few years ago. As I read in 2002 the journal "Sex Roles: A Journal of Research" published a study on women and their roles in the family. Their study found that seven out of ten married parents believe child care should be shared equally, but two-thirds of the mothers said they most of the time cared for children.…
- 659 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays