Our society has long assumed that women are weak because they act based on their feelings. Women endure several hardships that are not tantamount to any man's. Women sift through their various conflicting feelings and create rational decisions and ideas from them.
Choice 1: From a piece of fiction (short story, section of novel, or a play) choose a female character on whom to focus, and create a project that discusses some of the following questions:
• What is the author’s attitude towards her? (how can you tell?)
• What is your attitude towards her?
• How do (at least 2) other characters view her?
• How does she view herself?
I was taught to learn about the protagonists in the stories that I read, and frankly, most protagonists are male characters. There is very little credit given to female characters especially if she was not related to the male character, or if she was not given any romantic interests in the story. I believe that every minor character plays her/his role to help the major characters attain development. I want to learn more about the roles of women in history, and how they were represented. As a female myself, I think I would be able to provide insights involving female emotions. I want to focus on Lae Choo, the Chinese mother from Sun Sui Far's Mrs. Spring Fragrance collection.
-What the author thinks of her:
The author writes Lae Choo as a fragile woman, defenseless and reckless. But she also writes a selfless, loving and hopeful mother.
-What I think of Lae Choo:
At first, it may seem that Lae Choo is like a typical mother that we see on television drama: submissive to her husband. But as I read her story, I realize that she was the one who made the fortified decision that will lead her son back to her arms.
Two other characters' views on Lae Choo:
Her husband, Hom Hing, tries to overpower her somehow by blocking her decision to give up her jewelry to fund James Clancy's journey to Washington to retrieve their son.
James Clancy thinks that she is hysterical for chasing a son that will he knew will never remember her.
How Lae Choo thinks of herself:
Lae Choo is an optimist. She looks forward to having her son back into her arms, and tries to convert her tears into smiles. She thinks of herself as someone who is resilient having to endure this unspeakable damage of losing her own child.
WORK CITED:
Hicks, Jack et al. From an excerpt of Sun Sui Far's Mrs. Spring Fragrance. The Literature of California, vol. 1, University of California Press, 2000, pp. 321-329
Bravo Regina,
ReplyDeleteYou post is well put. It captures what is lacking in literature, frankly in all aspects of our artistic lives, the development of real female heroes. I hope you do your character proud, lord knows the publishing companies and Hollywood usually don't.