Comparatve Essay on the Fat Black Womans Poems, Sula and Wide Sargasso Sea
"These writers explore both the social roles that confine them and the bodies that represent the confinement". In light of this quotation, compare how the writers explore gender.
'Wide Sargasso Sea', by Jean Rhys, and 'Sula' by Toni Morrison are both novels that respond to the issues of women that are confined to their social roles. Grace Nichols' book, 'The Fat Black Woman's Poems', supports and also contrasts the views of both Rhys and Morrison. All three texts question gender roles and oppression in society. While Nichols is very outspoken and doesn't let her gender confine her, the main character in Wide Sargasso Sea, Antoinette, is restricted by social and historical roles in her society. Characters like Sula are a threat to the rigid stereotype of the serving woman, and Morrison contrasts the role of Sula with Nel, a girl who embraces the conventional belief of society that a woman should marry and settle down and serve her family.
All three texts explore gender by emphasising the importance of a woman's voice. Nichols uses her voice to focus on her identity, and to portray her confidence. In her poem 'Love Act', she says "Her sorcery cut them, like a whip, she hide her triumph, and slowly stir the poison in". This shows that Nichols knows that women aren't weak, and have their own kind of power and intelligence, and she challenges the oppressive men that surround her. Her use of simple English and Creole reinforce her Creole identity. For example, in the poem Skin-Teeth, she says 'Massa' (Master) and in The Fat Black Woman Goes Shopping, she says 'de weather so cold'. Her use of colloquial language shows us that even though she lives in the Western world, she still speaks as they do in her homeland, and she will not change the way she speaks to conform to society’s ways. The title 'Love act' acts as an ironic euphemism for the degradation derived from forced sex with the planter, but one critic claimed that the rest of the poem shows that "this situation
'Wide Sargasso Sea', by Jean Rhys, and 'Sula' by Toni Morrison are both novels that respond to the issues of women that are confined to their social roles. Grace Nichols' book, 'The Fat Black Woman's Poems', supports and also contrasts the views of both Rhys and Morrison. All three texts question gender roles and oppression in society. While Nichols is very outspoken and doesn't let her gender confine her, the main character in Wide Sargasso Sea, Antoinette, is restricted by social and historical roles in her society. Characters like Sula are a threat to the rigid stereotype of the serving woman, and Morrison contrasts the role of Sula with Nel, a girl who embraces the conventional belief of society that a woman should marry and settle down and serve her family.
All three texts explore gender by emphasising the importance of a woman's voice. Nichols uses her voice to focus on her identity, and to portray her confidence. In her poem 'Love Act', she says "Her sorcery cut them, like a whip, she hide her triumph, and slowly stir the poison in". This shows that Nichols knows that women aren't weak, and have their own kind of power and intelligence, and she challenges the oppressive men that surround her. Her use of simple English and Creole reinforce her Creole identity. For example, in the poem Skin-Teeth, she says 'Massa' (Master) and in The Fat Black Woman Goes Shopping, she says 'de weather so cold'. Her use of colloquial language shows us that even though she lives in the Western world, she still speaks as they do in her homeland, and she will not change the way she speaks to conform to society’s ways. The title 'Love act' acts as an ironic euphemism for the degradation derived from forced sex with the planter, but one critic claimed that the rest of the poem shows that "this situation