400 Years in House Arrest
The past, when applied to gender roles, has the power to regress the advancements of generations of women. The right to voice one’s opinions or choose who to marry seem like the most basic behaviors that humans were designed to do. In reality, precedence for such privileges were based wholly on gender in previous societies. Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, Shakespeare’s Othello, and Alvarez’s In the Time of Butterflies reflect the confinements surrounding the life of a woman during time periods not even 400 years of one another. Gender roles portray women as inferior to men and limit individual ability to control their own life. A woman's expectation to shadow a submissive and obedient homemaker often results in conformity under dominant male figures, stripping them of the possibility to serve a meaningful purpose.
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Most women refrained from the workforce as a result of the deterrence that came with abandoning their domestic ties. Perhaps the strongest illustration of gender roles can be found in the types of women represented. George favored his ability to “go in an’ get drunk and get ever’thing outa his system all at once, an’ no messes” (Steinbeck 56). Prostitutes were a commonality among the men’s lives and bolstered their idea of female objectification. Curley's wife is the only female character largely developed in the course of the novel and is classified as “jail bait all set on the trigger” (Steinbeck 51). If a women was not a prostitute, they were labeled as jailbait, and viewed only as having sexual worth that often created more problems than it solved for the men. The extent of obscene depiction and their commentary on femininity in Of Mice and Men justify a woman’s inability to make a significant societal contribution even in the most dire periods of