The Genders Essay - 2071 Words

The Genders Through out history, men and women have struggled to understand each other. Society has struggled to meld their complex differences while embracing the wonder of individuality. Biologist attempt to explain why men and women are different yet comes from the very similar genetic make-up. Psychologists have made grand strides in understanding how the mind works in the dynamics of relationships between men and women. And in a society that is governed by economics, the realm of social status and money can often determine whom one will couple with. Gender relationships are currently defined in American society by historical classifications. Historical representations of gender roles have been carried over to todays culture.†¦show more content†¦Consequently, is it possible that the value of money has a deeper meaning, enshrined within our individual personalities, transcending the limitations of the state, setting parameters for individual actions within society? These questions drive to the very heart of not only our obsession with money, but they also strike at the essence of who we are as individuals, how we act within society, and how the superstructure of society is shaped. To form an analysis of money and its impact is a two-fold process: we must investigate the dynamics of money on an individual level, and also the interaction and importance of money on a societal level. Traditionally, Marxist theory and Freudian psychoanalysis have been viewed as polar opposites on the spectrum of political thought. The Marxist exploration of economic life in capitalist society strives to define how our society is utilized by the modes of production, bound within the confines of political economy. But, while Marx explains a world of interests and of failures of mutual recognition, he leaves little in the way of clarification on family life - familial recognition and interaction. Psychoanalysis, on the other hand, probes into the realm of familial experience, defining the origins of our desires - what factors are predisposed within our subconscious. By bringing the two approaches together, analyzing Freud in a Marxist perspective and vice versa, a directShow MoreRelat edGender, Gender And Gender932 Words   |  4 Pagescommonalities found throughout the text, which challenges the representation of gender identity in last week’s materials. One of the similarities found throughout this week’s materials is that gender is complex. Professor Davis’s lecture â€Å"Sex Gender – It’s Complicated† defines â€Å"Binary gender: man or women, female or male, and masculine and feminine. Two distinct categories† (slide 5). The Western society mostly see gender as binary, black and white. However, Baird writes in â€Å"Transgender: ‘as the starsRead MoreGender, Gender And Gender Stereotypes1582 Words   |  7 PagesThere are multiple examples and instances where the object of a joke has something to do with gender and gender stereotypes. These types of jokes seem to take center stage at any comedy performance or routine, and the audience loves it. Gender in association with humor brings up a great deal of questions. Do males and females see humor differently? Are there any similarities in the way the sexes view humor? And is there any truth to the thought that humans enjoy crass humor more than other typesRead MoreGender : Gender And Gender1767 Words   |  8 PagesGender’s role in Authority In what ways is the male gender superior to the female gender in relation to â€Å"The Homeric Hymn to Demeter†? It tells the story of Persephone, goddess of spring, taken against her will by Hades. Her grieving mother, Demeter, goes through great lengths to be reunited with her beloved daughter. The hymn portrays a great divide in authority between both genders. The male gods use their authority without consequence. They assert their power on others without taking into accountRead MoreGender, Gender And Gender Equality1391 Words   |  6 PagesThis essay will look at Gender discrimination in an Australian prospective with some overseas perspectives overlapping this essay will look at gender deference’s in pay in Australia and discuss the ideas and arguments surrounding gender equality in the work place. Gender equity in work place is still a heavily understudied in Australia and as is more or less worldwide. In Australia a country of so called â€Å"equality† w hich is still, even in the 21st century is an ambiguous and questionable ideal asRead MoreGender Inequality : Gender And Gender1575 Words   |  7 Pagesthere’s something â€Å"natural† about gender distinction because biology makes one sex different from the other. What they don’t know is gender is the personal traits and social positions that members of a society attach to being female or male. Gender is not a trait we are born with, rather it is a â€Å"brand† to which we are labeled with. It refers to the psychological, social, cultural, and behavioral characteristics that are being associated with being a female or male. Gender involves hierarchy, ranking menRead MoreGender Socialization : Gender And Gender1040 Words   |  5 Pagesillis Women Studies 9 online Oct 8, 2015 Gender Socialization Gender, according to Lorber, is the product of a range of social forces that influence our gender construction through a system of reward and punishment. throughout my life, I have been taught to be a women by family and through society, all that at some point supported the goals I had for myself or created obstacles by challenging my own ideas of what meant to be a strong women. Gender socialization is the process by which individualsRead MoreGender, Gender And Gender Roles1476 Words   |  6 Pagesmen were the predominant head of the household and women were expected to cook, watch their kids, and clean? This is an excellent example of gender roles, and how they control some aspects of life. Gender roles according to multiple sources are, the way people behave, what they do and say, to express being a female or male. (â€Å"Gender Identity†, Blackstone, Gender Spectrum). They are forced upon an individual from the day that person is born even in the most trivial of terms of putting boys in blueRead MoreGender, Gender And Gender Identity931 Words   |  4 Pagesor female gender. This self-identity problem can usually be accompanied by numerous forms of treatment to change ones’ physical appearance, and make it more consistent with their identified gender identity. In many cases, the individual can identify with the gender of the opposite sex to the point one believ es that he or she is a member of that gender group trapped in the wrong body. This is also called Gender Dysphoria or formerly known as Gender Identity Disorder. The person with gender dysphoriaRead MoreGender, Gender And Gender Bias1429 Words   |  6 Pages Language and gender has become an increasingly popular topic of study over recent decades, most likely due to the second wave of feminism in the 1960s and 70s. This can also be seen in the fact that goals of linguistic studies shifted at this point, to not just look at grammatical differences between males and females but to examine sexism and gender bias in language. The wording of such studies becomes increasingly important in the modern era, as gender is now recognised as a socially constructedRead MoreGender, Gender And Gender Discrimination1303 Words   |  6 Pagesprecipitating gender inequity (MacWilliams, Schmidt, Bleich, 2013; U.S. Census Bureau, 2013). Unfortunately male nurses have become victims of discriminatory stereotypes which deter the recruitment of males into the profession (Meyers, 2003; O’Lynn, 2004; Rajacich, Kane, Williston, Cameron, 2013). Barriers of equality are impeded by the historical origin of modern nursing and to achieve integration in a femi nine dominated field remodeling nursing to include equality for both genders. Selecting this

The Lost Children Of Wilder - 2188 Words

â€Å"The Lost Children of Wilder† Intro to Child Advocacy – Professor Bradley Forenza Johnny Flores – 10563993 24 November 2014 Section 1 : Who and What is â€Å"The Lost Children of Wilder† about? The non-fictional book, â€Å"The Lost Children of Wilder; The Epic Struggle to Change Foster Care† written by a reporter of The New York Times Nina Berstein, is an inspiring story about the lack of proper funding and placement of children in the foster care system in New York City from before 1972 to today. This book in specifics focus on an attorney and child advocate Marcia Lowery who respectfully stood up to the entire foster care system of New York City using the face of then, thirteen year old Shirley Wilder and her soon born son Lamont Wilder. Shirley Wilder was a troubled African-American child who was raised in a drunk and abusive home. As a child both her parents neglected her; her father, Jay All, was a jealous and drunken abusive husband and her mother, Helen Wilde, was a drunken â€Å"party animal† who soon became sick with tuberculosis. Moreover, a year after Shirley was born her parents married in a Baptist church; which joined her mother, father, sister and not Shirley by the father s last name. Shirley was then the only one left with her mother’s stained last name. There were many problems between both parents in the home she was raised in. It became a drunken relationship that had much affect on Shirley. She often witnessed her mother haveShow MoreRelated Analysis of The Lost Children of Wilder by Nina Bernstein Essay580 Words   |  3 PagesAnalysis of The Lost Children of Wilder by Nina Bernstein â€Å"The Lost Children of Wilder† is a book about how the foster care system failed to give children of color the facilities that would help them lead a somewhat normal and protected life. The story of Shirley Wilder is a sad one once you find out what kind of life she had to live when she was a young girl. Having no mother and rejected by her father she has become a troubled girl. Shirley Wilder was rejected from foster care becauseRead MoreThe Nameless Governess in The Turn of the Screw: Hero or Villain?1181 Words   |  5 Pageslunacy. In reality for that time period in history she was not offered a position that many other women her age were not capable of and doing as well. Laura Ingalls Wilder was a school teacher from 1882-1885, she was fifteen when she started teaching and only eighteen by time she had finished because she had married (Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home Museum). However, by today’s standards maturity and age and readiness would not be something we would consider of a woman younger in that field untilRead MoreHansel and Gretel Analysis Essay873 Words   |  4 Pagesinto a children’s entertainment monopoly. Therefore, if we melt the sugared coverings of Disney and wade waist deep into the wilder, more sinister side of human dreams, we are transported back to a time where the supernatural reigned and superstitions thrived. These stories were most often whispered in the dark, passed down orally from world-weary adults to wide-eyed children, thus providing a haunting warning against straying from societal values. While most of the tales have been altered with theRead MoreThe Transience Of Human Life1852 Words   |  8 Pagesthe beauty in routine and peaceful moments often taken for granted. Each of the three acts, titled life, love, and death respectively, illustrate the common stages of human life while highlighting the charming flurry of everyday routines. Although Wilder explores this simplicity found in American traditions and early twentieth century life’s reassuring steadfastness in his renowned production Our Town, his stellar character development clearly illustrates the rather daunting motif of human life’sRead MoreEssay on Critique of the Novel Our Town4629 Words   |  19 PagesThornton Wilder was born on April 17, 1897, and died on December 7, 1975. He was born in M adison, Wisconsin to Amos Wilder, an American diplomat, and Isabella Wilder. Thornton Wilder started writing plays in The Thacher School in Ojai, California, and graduated from Berkeley High School in 1915. He served in the Coast Guard in World War II. After the war he attended Oberlin College, then Yale University where he earned his B.A. in 1920. His writing was honed at Yale where he was a part of the AlphaRead MoreAmerica Should Have Stricter Gun Control1290 Words   |  6 PagesThe scene is all too recognizable. A troubled person pulls out a gun in a school, an office, or a shopping center, and he or she slaughters innocent men, women, and children. Recently, mass murders have occurred at Columbine High School, Virginia Tech University, and Omaha’s Westroads Mall (Schwartz). These tragedies are not inevitable, so people wonder one question. Are guns in our society getting out of control? Four out of every ten Americans own a gun; which leads to the perception that AmericaRead More The Power of the Family in White Noise Essay examples1139 Words   |  5 Pagesprotagonist in his novel White Noise, Jack Gladney, has a nuclear family that is, ostensibly, a prime example of the disjointed nature way of the family of the 80s and 90s -- what with Jacks multiple past marriages and the fact that his children arent all related. Its basically the antipodal image of the 1950s nuclear family. Despite this surface-level disjointedness, it is his family and the extrasensory rapport that he shares with them allows Jack to survive in his world. MurrayRead MoreSimilarities Between Washington McNeely by Edgar Lee Master and Our Town Comparison by Thornton Wilde621 Words   |  2 PagesEdgar Lee Masters and Our Town by Thornton Wilder themes because Our Town was inspired by many of Edgar Lee Masters’ poems. Both pieces of work share the themes of death and time, a character similarities between Mrs. Webb and Washington McNeely. Two themes the poem has is death and time. The poem displays the theme of time, because it starts out telling the story of a man who is from, and raises his children in, a noble and rich family. As his children get older, 2 of them died, and the others,Read MoreThe Major Themes in Russell Freedmans Martha Graham, a Dancer’s Life904 Words   |  4 Pagescontribution to literature for children†, which infers that he was credible and highly respectable person at that time. He had published over 50 nonfiction books for young people, and usually wrote about animal behaviors and American history. Freedman’s famous books are Freedom Walkers, Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery, and Kids at Work. Moreover, Mr. Freedman chalked up several Newbery Honors, the May Hill Arbuthnot Lecture Award, the Sibert Medal, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, and etc. In MarthaRead MoreAddicted Series And Its Effects On Me1119 Words   |  5 Pagesoften feel left out, sometimes it was unintentional, and sometimes it was on purpose. It’s not something, I hold against them. They simply thought, I wouldn t get it because I m younger than them. It s completely unavoidable, but the exclusion isn’t lost on me. My life isn’t as lonely as I make it out to be, I promise. I have friends, but I never feel I could ever lean to them. It was partly my fault. I’m not completely the excellent friend to rely on. Then, I discovered this magical world filled

Holden’s Transition Into an Adult Free Essays

string(27) " know Jane all over again\." There is a moment in every child’s life where he or she realizes that growing up is not as desirable as they once thought. Before this moment they fantasize about not having a bedtime or driving or finally being able to drink. But then they feel the weight of the adult world with its responsibilities and restrictions of a society that doesn’t value the individual and expects its citizens to morph into mature, controllable adults. We will write a custom essay sample on Holden’s Transition Into an Adult or any similar topic only for you Order Now This is the time parents hate, the time when their children try to rebel or run away to escape their future as adults, but time, alas, cannot be outrun. The adult world expects many things of its inhabitants—a job, a family, taxes, sex, and much more. Unfortunately, most young adults feel as though they will be crushed under this strange new world. Holden Caulfield is no different. When we meet Holden and when we leave him at the end of the novel he is in a mental hospital because of a recent break down. J. D Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is Holden’s reflection on the events that led to this mental break down. He is a young adult still trying to hold on to the world of children for as long as he can. The child world is a place with very few things to worry about. It is a place of innocence and a time when anything is possible. The adult world could not be more different. As Holden is starting to see, the world of adults is cold, uncaring, and unfair. When people make the transition from children to adults they change forever—they become what society believes acceptable adults to be. Holden is reluctant to make the transition and conform to the adult world because he believes that in conforming he would lose his innocence and disappear. Holden is reluctant to leave his childhood behind because that would mean conforming to the public opinion of what adults should be. There are very few examples of adults in this novel for Holden to see what an exemplary adult is and does. One of the few adults we meet is Mr. Spencer. Even if Holden doesn’t fully respect Mr. Spencer he does like the man enough to go and see him before leaving Pency Prep. During that visit Mr. Spencer tells Holden that â€Å"life is a game that one plays according to the rules† if they want to survive in this world (Salinger 8). The problem is Holden has no desire to follow anybody’s rules just because some one tells him he has to—there is no reason for Holden to learn faulty and unnecessary rules. Holden believes that life is only a game for the people who are winning. The winners only believe in the rules because they work for them. Holden, according to Mr. Spencer, is not one of the winners because he won’t shut up and do what the adults tell him to do. The thing is, Holden doesn’t fully understand what the rules are because Holden doesn’t truly understand the world of adults. A side effect of this, as Peter Shaw points out, is that Holden is â€Å"most reliable when dealing with the world of children, and less reliable when addressing the adult world† (Shaw 124). Holden doesn’t want to understand the world of adults; he doesn’t ever intend to enter the game so why should he learn the rules? Holden scoffs at the â€Å"phonies† who have succumbed to life’s rules. He only hates these phonies because he is afraid of turning into one himself. All throughout the novel, Holden is reluctant to join the world of adults because he is afraid of changing into something he’s not. Literary critic Alsen agrees by saying that Holden is afraid that he is going to turn into a phony of he is forced to live around them in the near future (Alsen 3). He is out on a date with the queen of phonies Sally Hayes when he reveals how he believes he can escape the adult world. It is then that he shows us how he believes he is going to escape the adult world; he says he’s going to live in a cabin â€Å"with a brook and all† where he would pretend to be a deaf-mute so he wouldn’t have to deal with anybody (Salinger 132). This way, Holden avoids all of the things that would force him to grow up such as a job and relationships with people such as friends and family—in short, society. That, however, wouldn’t solve anything because he knows deep down that would never happen. Sally points out that his plan is not practical. Holden wouldn’t be able to keep himself alive for longer than a week if he just packed up and moved to the wilderness. And he would still need to communicate with adults to get the supplies he wanted even if he did pretend to be a deaf-mute. Sally’s flat out refusal of the plan shows the qualities of a sure thinking adult, and that is why he calls her the queen of phonies—because she’s already acting like an adult. Physiologists say that girls mature faster than boys do so it would make sense that Holden is avoiding the adult world instead or embracing it like Sally. But Holden already knew Sally’s personality from previous encounters. Jane, however, he is not too sure about. Another thing that Holden is afraid might have changed is Jane Gallagher. Throughout the novel Holden is searching for a person to call and almost calls her but time after time he puts it off by saying that he’s â€Å"not in the mood† (Salinger 59). Holden doesn’t want to call Jane and find out that she has changed since the last time they were together. Holden would rather live with a memory of a girl who won’t move the last row of checkers than get to know Jane all over again. You read "Holden’s Transition Into an Adult" in category "Essay examples" Holden doesn’t want to face it, but his world is losing its innocence—Sally, Jane, and even Holden are maturing, even if it is at different rates. Holden is dimly aware that in the process of losing his innocence he is being dragged into the adult world whether he likes it or not. This losing of innocence has been happening gradually over time and it’s impossible to stop mostly because Holden didn’t realize it until it was too late. One point in the novel where Holden becomes aware of this is when he is at Mr. Antolini’s house. Holden believes that Mr. Antolini is â€Å"being perverty† by making a pass at him when he wakes up to find Mr. Antolini stroking his hair. Holden is at a kind of limbo in his life where he is mature enough to know what a sexual pass is but immature enough to not be able to differentiate that from a warm gesture of caring love (Salinger 192). Holden is scared and confused by this; he is actively trying to prevent himself from growing up but the losing of innocence happens with the passage of time and cannot be prevented. The imbalance of maturity and innocence inside of Holden is dangerous and Mr. Antolini can see that; that’s why he tries to help him. But then Holden misreads Mr. Antolini’s intentions and flees his house in an even more desperate state than which he came. Another way his departing innocence is made know to Holden is when he goes to his sister’s school and the history museum after quitting Mr. Antolini’s house. He goes inside his sister’s school—his old school—when he sees the worlds â€Å"Fuck you† on the wall (Salinger 201). After he wipes them off the wall he realize that even if he spent his whole life rubbing Holden’s life where he realizes that evil exists in the world and he can’t get rid of it nor protect people from it. The adult world is a nasty place and no one can change that. Then he goes to the museum and once inside he heads for the mummies’ tombs. These are the final resting places of some ancient and highly respected people—it is supposed to be a place of peace. However, Holden sees another â€Å"Fuck you† sign written there (Salinger 204). This enforces his revelation he had at the school; that there is no escaping the bitterness of the world no matter where he goes. Even though Holden is just realizing these things now, his real changing point is when he saw James Castle lying dead on the ground after his fatal jump. During the talk Holden has with Mr. Antolini we see some parallels drawn between Holden and James Castle. Mr. Antolini says that he can see Holden â€Å"dying nobly [†¦] for a highly unworthy cause,† which is exactly what James Castle did (Salinger 188). James died protecting something he said because he believed it to be true, but his death didn’t change anything. If Holden carries on like he is he’s going the come to the same end James did—suicide. Antolini also lays out a new meaning for maturity that Holden might be able to live with; he says that an immature man is one who dies â€Å"nobly for a cause† rather than a mature man who is willing to â€Å"live humbly for one† (Salinger 188). Holden, however, doesn’t fully understand what Antolini is saying and just assumes that, like everybody else, Mr. Antolini is trying to turn Holden into something that he’s not. Holden can’t envision himself living in the adult worlds and as a result, he feels as though he is fading away, soon to be lost forever. A strong moment where Holden is afraid he is going to disappear I when he is talking a walk in New York. He feels as though once he steps off of the ledge he’s â€Å"never going to get to the other side of the street [and] go down, down, down, and no one would ever see [him] again† (Salinger 197). Whenever this happens he prays to Allie, his strongest link to the world of children, that he won’t disappear. Allie is symbolic or Holden’s childhood because Allie is never going to mature—he’s dead. Also, Allie died when Holden was at a tender young age, â€Å"only thirteen,† which is the time when puberty is supposed to start (Salinger 38). That is part of the reason why Holden misses Allie so much; it’s because Holden’s childhoods disappeared along with Allie. Even the structure of the end of the novel lends evidence to Holden’s predicament. At the end of the novel we don’t know if Holden is going to be ok, or what he is going to become in future years—in short, we don’t know any more than Holden does. Holden’s problem is that he has been trying to change the world to fit him, while everybody else is saying that he needs to shape himself to fit the world. Even though Holden ends up in a mental hospital doesn’t mean he is crazy. Carl Luce, one of Holden’s friends from the many schools he has attended, is the first person in the novel that suggests that Holden gets Psychoanalyzed which, as Trowbridge points out, suggests that the world will not change to Holden’s needs, but that he needs to tune his mind to the world (Trowbridge 25). This is exactly what Holden is afraid of—the whole reason why he is avoiding the adult world is because he wants to stay true to himself. The thing he doesn’t realize is that he can do both. There is a way to adapt to the changing world and still remain Holden Caulfield. We, however, never find out if Holden learns this crucial lesson. We do know that as long as Holden remains in New York he will remain confused about the adult world. Holden is baffled by the world that surrounds him when he is in New York because New York is symbolic of the adult world. As Robert P. Moore points out, the vulgarity of the story comes not from Holden but from his surroundings (Moore 159). Seeing as how Holden spends most of the novel in the adult world, Moore backs up Holden’s belief that the world of adults is a vile place not fit for the innocent. Another thing that enforces that belief is when Holden is in the hotel and he is watching the people on other floors play these weird sex games like the guy and girl spitting water on each other or the man dressing up in women’s clothing. Holden frightened of the adult world because he believes that the adult world destroys the beautiful. This harsh world destroys the beautifully simplistic things in life like a short story about a boy and his goldfish or a perfectly formed snowball. Holden is afraid of his journey from childhood to adulthood because he doesn’t want to conform to society, disappear, or lose his innocence. The problem is, the process has already begun. Holden is becoming more aware of the adult world and he does not like what he sees. Holden is being forced into a cruel world that consumes child after child. So, predictably, Holden is trying to run away from the unpleasantness like any scared and misguided person would. Holden is unaccustomed to dealing with the complexities of adult life, and he therefore tries to cling to the simplistic life of a child, simply because he can’t deal with this strange new world. And Holden is not alone in his feelings of helplessness and melancholy—most every child has felt this way before, at varying degrees. Holden is just has extremely passionate feelings so naturally he feel very strongly about this. Holden believes that the only person he can count on one hundred percent of the time is himself. He doesn’t trust people too easily and is an accomplished liar. So naturally he doesn’t trust the few people who actually try to help him to ease his way into the adult world, like Mr. Antolini. All Holden sees is a bunch of adults trying to squish him into the mold of a mature, respectable adult. Any young adult would be wary of people trying to impose their will onto them—adolescents hate structures that try to stifle their individuality and will do almost anything within their power to actively avoid them. Many people find it strange that children can’t wait to grow up but adults spend an eternity trying to regain their youth, but both the children and the adults want the same thing—freedom to do what they want when they want. How to cite Holden’s Transition Into an Adult, Essay examples