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A Comparison Of Susan Glaspell's Trifles And Battle Royal

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As one develops and matures, one begins to grasp an understanding of who they are in this world through experiences. There are a numerous amount of outside forces and social institutions that influence the way people live. These institutions just so happen to be educational, familial, religious, or governmental. Whatever the case may be, it may work in one’s favor or not based on one’s identity. Sexism, racism, classism, and other forms of discrimination continue to persist to this day based on identities that are not necessarily in one’s control. These ideas are constantly expressed in different types of narratives. Susan Glaspell’s Trifles describes the story of a sheriff, attorney, their wives, and a neighbor to attempt to uncover the truth about a crime that occurred in the Wright …show more content…

Ralph Ellison’s “Battle Royal” is a story about a young black man who is invited to give a speech at an event, but is forced to fight in a battle while blindfolded. Identities are the framework for the way the characters act and how others act toward them. Within society, recognizing the marginalization and benefits that some have due to their identity is essential to understanding our own. In Susan Glaspell’s Trifles and Ralph Ellison’s “Battle Royal” the authors demonstrate the undeniable effect that the characters’ intersectional identities of race and gender have on their lives, both positively and negatively. In Glaspell’s Trifles, the women are treated as subordinate and passive creatures that simply must do their house duties. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters who are the wives of the men, are brought to the home to help the men find clues and evidence that points to Mrs. Wright, who Hale believes killed her husband in his sleep. When they walked in, the house was extremely untidy and the men commented on her lack of housekeeping skills. None of the blame is put on her husband because of the traditional

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Ellison’s main character suggests that African Americans’ hopes, dreams, and freedoms in America, are basically ideal if only kept “separate like the fingers of the hand” (para. 2). The most profound statements like this were used to describe the main character’s thoughts of insecurity during the battle and what he was up against living in a white society. Ellison’s main character claims, “I had suddenly found myself in a dark room filled with poisonous cottonmouths” (para. 11). This language added a disturbing layer of fear with a twist of uncertainty to the story showing that the African Americans were in the biggest battle of their life. In addition, prejudice, torment, and hate was an extra layer elaborated on throughout.

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On March 1 2017, I attended an event for the anthology A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota. This event included readings, musical performances, and a choreographed performance. The entire event completely captivated me, but I was most impacted by Andrea Jenkins reading from her part of the anthology titled “The Price We Pay: How Race and Gender Identity Converge”. In her piece, she talked a lot about gender identity, race, and how they intersect.

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The pressure to conform to societal norms and escape discrimination can be overwhelming, and it is important to recognize the impact it can have on an individual's mental and emotional

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Imagine this: you are living in a discriminatory world full of people who do not understand you, and choose to judge you by your differences instead of getting to know you. If you are even the slightest bit different. The slightest distance from ordinary, you are judged. You do not get to fight for them to know you, because as soon as they place stereotypes on you. They decide who you are supposed to be.

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Mrs. Wright is the main character in Susan Glaspell’s one-act play Trifles. While Mrs. Wright is being held by the police for her husband’s murder, a few men go to investigate her home, and a few women go along to gather some of her things to bring to her in jail. As the ladies collect Mrs. Wright’s possessions, they begin to come across trifles. The trifles include: a messy kitchen, a poorly sewn quilt, and a broken bird cage with a missing bird. The women view these items as important clues, and withhold their findings from the men so that they could help Mrs. Wright out of her troubles.

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The core theme of Ralph Ellison’s short story ‘Battle Royal’ is racism and its manifestation in the society that the author lives in. The conflict between the two cultures, black and white, the segregation and suppression of the African Americans by the whites are emphasized through various incidents. The fact is that the narrator himself unconsciously gives in to racism and as a black man longs for the approval of the white man. He considers himself superior to the other blacks. But the ‘battle royal’ that he is compelled to participate in finally makes him realize that in the society he lives he is “an invisible man.”

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In Susan Glaspell's play “Trifles,” there is a difference between the men and women’s way of perceiving evidence to Mr. Wright’s murder case. The men spend most of their time searching for solid evidence upstairs where Mr. Wright's murder takes place. However, the women spend most of their time in Mrs. Wright’s kitchen. Instead of seeking tangible evidence, they inspect the condition of the items and acknowledge how they have been muddled around. Different perspectives lead to a variety of discoveries such as the women’s way of perceiving evidence.

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The environment in which an individual grows up in can affect life greatly. Our surroundings influence one’s personality, self-expression, and individuality, otherwise known as identity. Finding one’s true self is the most grueling stage of life and expectations of family and society make the process even harder. One’s true identity can sometimes clash with hopes of others, thus breaking tradition and/or family ties. Pressure to change will always be present, but staying true to uniqueness will prevail.

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A Jury Of Her Peers Character Analysis In the play Trifles there exists considerably opinions being built about the character regarding Mrs. Wright, on one hand, since the lady isn't going to take lively involvement in the play and also, however, since the grounds for her criminal offenses is also realized by inductive and also deductive research. The little information that we can quickly collect emanates from Mrs. Hale, who helpful to understand the actual past of Minnie Foster due to the fact that before the lady became Minnie Wright, at about two decades preceding. Based on the information, we find out that Minnie Foster is your common country-bound person who carried on using the traditional routines which are held in distant and also singled out sites.

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Gabal Said The Trifles of Society The society holds different realities to act naturally obvious, that all men are made equivalent, and that they are enriched by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that include; liberty, life, and the quest for happiness among others. "Trifles" by Susan Glaspell, is a one-demonstration play, which incorporates components of what the women’s suffrage development is about. The play from Glaspell recounts the tale of a murder riddle of the wedded couple of Mrs. Minnie Wright and her better half, the murder casualty, John Wright; this story likewise joins the temperament of society at the time towards women, and how they were seen as trifled in the eyes of society as they are under the subordinate of men.

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Landon Davis Prof. Becca Klaver WRIT 120A 11 March 2023 Internalized Oppression, Hierarchies, and the Cycle of Discrimination So often we only focus on the direct line of oppression from groups in power, but it is a cycle that continues through the oppressed themselves. Internalized oppression within marginalized individuals creates hierarchies within marginalized groups. This internalized oppression, which can be expressed through racism, homophobia, sexism, etc, can be buried deep within a person and it is difficult to recognize.

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How others see you is influenced by material, social, and physical constraints. This causes a tension between how much control you have in constructing your own identity and how much control or constraint is exercised over you. How we see ourselves and how others see us differ in many ways, but is an important factor of our identity. “A Lesson Before Dying”,

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The characteristics of race, class and gender hold precedence over all other qualities during the determination of one’s value. The idea of superiority and inferiority has existed since differences were first recognized by humans. The belief that an individual’s self-worth is measured by their ethnicity, sexuality, and economic status has impacted the lives of many Americans. As equality movements have transpired, victims of discrimination have varied. In the late 1980s, the lack of acceptance in conventional society created hardships in the lives of transgender women and gay men.

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Trifles a one-act play by Susan Glaspell was one of the first examples of American feminist drama. The basis of the play surrounded two farmwives who protested the male chauvinistic characters by concealing evidence from a murder. The theme of the play was quite frank, in fact, Glaspell made the feminism so apparent that anyone could figure it out. Even the title, Trifles, foreshadowed the sexism—basically, the men viewed the women to be unintelligent and incompetent; however, the ladies’ unofficial investigation turned out to be successful while the men’s official investigation did not. This was Glaspell’s way of utilizing irony—trifles by definition means, “treat (someone or something) without seriousness or respect.”

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“Well, women are used to worrying about trifles” this was remarked by Mr. Hale, little did he know that these “trifles” had the ability to resolve the murder mystery. Not only Mr. Hale but the Sheriff also says “Nothing here but kitchen things” in the starting of the play. They understand Mrs. Wright was living a miserable life. This shows that the men’s mind is stuffed with injustice and preconception so much so that they neglect the relevant evidences as being “trifles”. They investigate the other male dominant places in the house.

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