Outline
The unique experience that women have living in a patriarchal society finds its reflection in many literary writings. Karen Van de Zee, being a popular romance novels writer, and Gail Godwin, an American short story writer, addressed the problem of women’s suffering caused by the unequal structure of society where they happened to have unprivileged positions. The two stories are thus very similar because they portray main characters that resemble each other in many ways, which might be also the reason why the stories have similar plots, yet with different endings. In addition to this, given the historical period when they were written, the styles of the two stories are very similar. Thesis: Through the lenses of critical feminism, Karen Van de Zee in ‘A Secret Sorrow’ and Gail Godwin in ‘A Sorrowful Woman’ through the use of certain type of settings, plots, character development and style of writing emphasize the problem of women’s suffering in the society with a very limited understanding of the appropriate social role for women.
II. Both Karen Van der Zee and Gail Godwin put their characters in middle class settings to
demonstrate that the problem of women’s subordination to gender stereotypes is also relevant to middle-class women that, at least seemingly, are empowered.
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III. As far as the plots of the stories are concerned, the authors use progressive type of plot that in a relatively short time gives the audience a very full understanding of the problem of inability to follow the ‘traditional’ female role that the main characters face.
IV. With the help of the specific type of character development in the stories, the audience acquires a better understanding of the main characters’ self-concepts that are strongly affected by social stereotypes.
V. Karen Van der Zee and Gail Godwin use similar writing styles, which are very familiar to the modern audience, which has an embedded message that the problem of gender inequality, regardless of all the attempts, is still an unsolved issue.
Introduction
The unique experience that women have living in a patriarchal society finds its reflection in many literary writings. Karen Van de Zee, being a popular romance novels writer, and Gail Godwin, an American short story writer, addressed the problem of women’s suffering caused by the unequal structure of society where they happened to have unprivileged positions. The two stories are thus very similar because they portray main characters that resemble each other in many ways, which might be also the reason why the stories have similar plots, yet with different endings. In addition to this, given the historical period when they were written, the styles of the two stories are very similar. Thesis: Through the lenses of critical feminism, Karen Van de Zee in ‘A Secret Sorrow’ and Gail Godwin in ‘A Sorrowful Woman’ through the use of certain type of settings, plots, character development and style of writing emphasize the problem of women’s suffering in the society with a very limited understanding of the appropriate social role for women.
Body Paragraph 1
Both Karen Van der Zee and Gail Godwin put their characters in middle class settings to demonstrate that the problem of women’s subordination to gender stereotypes is also relevant to middle-class women that, at least seemingly, are empowered. The problem of gender inequality is usually argued to affect working class women to the highest extent (Harvey 789). The authors, however, show that social stereotypes regarding women’s function in society knows no class division. The main character in Gail Goldwin’s short story experiences the problem of the unwillingness to adhere to the role of a housewife, regardless of living in a beautiful house and being able to afford a full-time babysitter (Goldwin 2). In the meantime, settings in A Secret Sorrow demonstrate that the main character is a middle-class woman who drives good cars and lives in a big house (Van de Zee) but still defines herself by her ability to have children. The authors thus try to present the problem of middle class women who, regardless of being economically empowered, are deeply affected by the deeply entrenched gender norms.
- Godwin, Gail. “A Sorrowful Woman.” Web.
- Harvey, Adia M. “Becoming Entrepreneurs: Intersections Of Race, Class, And Gender At The Black Beauty Salon.” Gender & Society 19.6 (2005): 789-808. Web.
- Van Der Zee, Karen. “A Secret Sorrow.” 1981. Web.
