Throughout Mariatu’s story in the book, The Bite of the Mango by Mariatu Kamara and Susan McClelland, there is a constant reappearance of the mango fruit. The title of the book is very important and very relevant to Mariatu’s life. The importance of the title is evident through the one remarkable initiative, the mango. Winner of a Red Maple in 2009, the title “Bite of the Mango” is a very appropriate title for this book. As it is obvious, Mariatu is a victim of survival for which she must endure many horrifying experiences.…
In Mali, the women’s role is to be confined to her home and yard. A Malian woman is first and foremost valued in her roles of spouse and mother. Placement into these family roles starts early; young girls are expected to help with housework and look after younger siblings. The women of Mali have arranged marriages from an early age. And even though they are arranged, the husbands are usually married to other women also. Irreconcilable differences like lack of communication, spousal incompatibility, and unhappiness between marriage partners are some of the things Monique complains about. She has more education…
Monique and the mango rains is a touching story about a peace corps volunteer and a Malian midwife. The story is set in the small village of Namposella and is narrated by the Peace Corps volunteer Kris Holloway. The book gives you an in depth perspective on the life of a woman in Mali and their culture as a whole. In this paper I will be discussing anthropological concepts including rite of passage, patriarchy, and religion and how they apply to Monique and the mango rains.…
The characterization, in The House on Mango Street, of Esperanza’s great-grandmother and Rafaela is used to convey how women were inferior to men in Esperanza’s society. According to Esperanza, her great-grandmother was a very wild woman. That is why she refused to marry until a man “threw a sack over her head and carried her off” (Cisneros, 11). This shows how unimportant women are, of that time, that a man could kidnap a woman and she could do nothing, no matter how wild she was. Also, despite her wild personality, Esperanza’s great-grandmother shows how women could be forced into marriage without a say in who they marry. Like Esperanza’s great-grandmother, Rafaela has many hopes such as dancing at the dance hall or bar. However, she never…
“The small rains that come, in February and March. They come when the earth is dry and the heavy rains still far away to make the mangoes sweet.” In some ways, Monique, the midwife, can be thought of as the rain. She is the Malian women’s hope for a successful childbirth and a healthy baby, as well as being the hope for them to have greater access to crucial health care that they do not have. Monique is there for the women in tough times and whenever they may need her, she will come, just as the rain will eventually come to make the mangoes sweet.…
Generally speaking, the author considers that the lack of (or erroneous) nutritional education, combined with the women’s position in Malian society (in…
2. Women in third world nations, especially the mestizo, mulatto, and indigenous populations do not have equal rights as men. Women are close to nothing and no one seems to appreciate them. They are the hard-working cooks, cleaners, caregivers, nurturers and family stabilizers. Without them, the social order would collapse; however, in the third world problems especially with pregnancy and little money, their lives are hard.…
defying their status quo as women in Algerian society, women used the resources and means they…
give her a shot at life. He even goes as far as to hide her from Comfort, whom is…
One view suggests that as long as there are two genders and those genders see themselves anatomically different, women will be unable to have the same life opportunities as men. Flaws can be found in this particular theory, one of which is if both genders experience indistinguishable fundamental conditions and role expectations then recognizable gender differences would disappear. Giddens’s structuration theory explains how social structure shape individuals and at the same time individuals shape social structure. The research performed to help understand gender equality and gender as a social structure is complex and has many variables. It is this complexity that makes it so difficult to determine the gender specificities that account for the inequality in socially constructed stratification systems and within these systems the social hierarchy.…
Gender inequality and class inequality are two of the most contemplated inequality issues from the time. Although most of each issue have been resolved, their essence still lingers in modern-day society. Why they were created is beyond the known as of now, but they, along with other inequalities, subconsciously define how societies ensue, even today. Clearly, political organization, the Agricultural Revolution, and inequalities have had an impact on human societies from an early…
The short story “On the Rainy River” is an integral chapter in the memoir The Things They Carried written by William Timothy O’Brien. The short story is written through the perspective of O’Brien in present day and as a young man faced with a draft notice for the Vietnam War. In “On the Rainy River,” O’Brien portrays the importance of bravery of individuals in the society through the use of symbolism, powerful tone, reflective point of view, narrative devices, and through the reoccurring theme of courage.…
In chapter six Esperanza gets to her new home. She isn’t very happy with the living conditions. I can’t imagine living in some place that was like a stable. Then when Esperanza is told that she would be responsible for sweeping and taking care of the babies I remembered that when she said that she could work earlier that everyone laughed. This is probably not going to go well. She had never taken care of anyone or anything before. She didn’t know how to wash clothes or to change diapers or how to sweep. She was too proud to admit that she didn’t know how to sweep so she just acted like she knew what she was doing. She was determined but she created a big mess in front of a large group of women and Marta. This part reminded me of the movie The Princess Protection Program. In this story a girl who was a princess is put into a “normal” life where she is expected to work and go to school. In both stories the girls start without knowing how to take care of themselves and are humiliated in front of a large group because of their lack of knowledge. In the Princess Protection Program the girl learns to take care of herself and ends up helping others. I hope that things work out the same for Esperanza.…
According to Lindsey (2010), Patriarchy is perceived as the perpetuator of female subjugation and disadvantage within all societies (Institute of Economic Affairs, 2008). Globally, all social structures are male-dominated and uphold androcentric norms which favour men over women and define women’s oppression as being confined to unalterable biological determinants (Parpart, et al, 2008; Kishanger, 2007:3). This androcentric culture is particularly evident in the African history (Parpat et al, 2000). Women themselves deeply internalise and adhere to these norms and perceive themselves as being unsuitable for non-domestic roles. This explains the cross cultural perception that girls only end up in marriage and therefore any investments on them accrue to the benefits of their marital families upon marriage (Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), 2008). Thus the historical and global evidence of…
I think when the author used the term “the feminization of poverty” he was talking about the the major struggle that many women deal with in the world today. Women not only make less money, but normally with a broken family, the woman is the one who has to support themselves and the children. Unless you have a great paying job, many times it is a struggle to live even with two incomes. For a female it is hard to get a job that a man can get, and even if they do get it, they do not get paid what a man would because a woman can not do all of the things that a man can. Our text states “Worldwide, a third of all households are headed by women. Because women receive less income than men in all countries, and because they are so much more likely than men to bear the expenses of childrearing alone when a family is headed by one parent, it is not surprising that women are generally poorer than men.” (Crappo, 2013) Women would be more vulnerable to living in poverty because they do not make the money men make, and again, many times they are found supporting the children by themselves which means they have no “extra” money and sometimes they do not have the money to support what little they do have. There are many cultural factors that contribute to this. Many people still think that women should be at home raising the kids, cooking, and cleaning. With that comes many people that do not think a woman is capable of doing certain jobs. In some countries women are still not allowed to work.…