ipl-logo

Stereotypes Of Women In The Cellist Of Sarajevo By Steven Galloway

674 Words3 Pages

“The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says ‘it’s a girl’.” - Shirley Chisholm, a late 1970’s educator, author and the first black woman elected to the United States Congress. Chisholm and other women for generations have been victims of male projected and specified stereotypes. Due to the impact of the male opinion on women in society, the female characters in both novels suffer from emotional, physical and psychological stereotypes.

Steven Galloway, a critically acclaimed male author, is responsible for the literary work titled “The Cellist Of Sarajevo”. He adequately takes readers on a journey into the lives of Sarajevan citizens, but more specifically, a female sniper named Arrow. His development of the events and characters in the novel is highly influenced by the fact that he is writing from a male’s perspective. This contributes highly to how Arrow is portrayed. Readers can easily determine from the beginning of the novel that Arrow is fearless warrior. Since she is one of the only female soldiers, she is expected to act and perform as if she were a male. Society …show more content…

Marlena repeatedly finds herself a victim of physical abuse by August. August’s drunken outbursts are the main contributing factor to the violence used against her. Arrow is a prisoner of the war, and Marlena is a prisoner of the circus and the train they spend most of their time on. Marlena and arrow both have no way to escape from where they are restrained to. When Marlena and Jacob ran away from the circus to allow themselves to be together, their hotel room is shortly broken into by the men August sent for them. As soon as Marlena though that she finally achieved freedom, her and Jacob were snapped back into the unpleasant reality. August has both an emotional and physical control over her. The only time Marlena was truly free was when August had been killed by the Elephant,

Show More
Related

Hope In Steven Marloway's The Cellist Of Sarajevo

1473 Words | 6 Pages

Hope in The Cellist of Sarajevo Undoubtedly, an optimistic perspective can have an impact on the outcome of any given situation. On the contrary, a pessimistic view will create negative feelings and can drastically alter the outcome. In the novel, The Cellist of Sarajevo, the three main characters point of view on hope change throughout the story. Their perspective enables them to think positively or negatively on the war and destruction that is going on around them. Steven Galloway explores how the presence and absence of hope affects Kenan, Arrow and Dragan’s outlook on the war.

Read More

Katherena Vermette's The Break

1674 Words | 7 Pages

Katherena Vermette’s novel The Break, is centered around a sexual assault. Through the perspective of eight narrators the story unfolds over the day leading up to the attack, memories triggered by the assault, and the recovery of all those involved. The novel’s two strongest themes are a juxtaposition of gender disparity and the strength and resilience of the women and girls involved. Gendered performance is common throughout the book, for both men and women, although the focus is on the female characters.

Read More

Hate Exposed In The Cellist Of Sarajevo By Steven Galloway

684 Words | 3 Pages

“The Cellist of Sarajevo”, by Steven Galloway, depicts the lives of three citizens in a besieged city. Based on an interview with the author, Galloway hopes readers will glean two main themes, one of which is, “One is to understand what happens to the world and us as individuals when we abdicate responsibility for who we hate. ”(1) Through this theme the author shows how people in power are able to easily influence others during times of oppression to not only benefit themselves, but also enforce hate of the enemy, as shown by character conflicts within themselves or the world and the war.

Read More

The Symbolism In The Cellist Of Sarajevo By Steven Galloway

561 Words | 3 Pages

The Cellist of Sarajevo, Steven Galloway, an author, writer, and novelist, who’s fictional novel portrays three citizens that live within the city of Sarajevo, who are influenced by the cellist’s music. Galloway’s use of symbolism, imagery, and onomatopoeia to develop Arrow’s character in the novel allows Arrow to begin to have hope and learn who her true identity is in Sarajevo. Galloway’s use of the cello represents symbolism, which allows Arrow to feel a slight sense of hope. Arrow explains, “It appears as though the cello stays upright of its own will, independent of the man surrounding it.

Read More

Candy In Search Of Respect Character Analysis

1238 Words | 5 Pages

Introduction: ‘But you know- I’ve been through a trauma life- but you know, life goes on.’ (Bourgois, 2003, p221) Throughout this essay I will explore the character of Candy in the light of a victim, a criminal and a respected character. I believe Candy is an excellent representation of gender in El Barrio which Bourgois has shown us in his book ‘In Search of Respect.’

Read More

Abusive Relationships In Water For Elephants By Sara Gruen

458 Words | 2 Pages

Over time she begins to learn what August is really like through the way he treats other people. She sees how he can be “one of the most charming creatures on earth” (270 Gruen), and the next moment he can be a monster. Marlena is too scared to leave and she also hopes that he can change.

Read More

Gender Roles In Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston

633 Words | 3 Pages

The United States Constitution states that the country values liberty, life, and happiness for all of its citizens. These three values shape the ideal American experience. Most view it as living freely, where all men, women, and races are created equal, and where oppression of genders and races does not exist. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, however, Zora Neale Hurston challenges the traditional view of this experience by illustrating how gender roles and racism change it, manifesting that it is not close to what the average citizen goes through, especially if he or she is black.

Read More

Comparing 'The Yellow Wallpaper And A Jury Of Her Peers'

1006 Words | 5 Pages

Authors, especially female authors, have long used their writing to emphasize and analyze the feminist issues that characterize society, both in the past and the present. Kate Chopin, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Susan Glaspell wrote narratives that best examined feminist movements through the unreliable minds of their characters. In all three stories, “The Story of an Hour”, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, and “A Jury of Her Peers”, the authors use characterization, symbolism, and foreshadowing to describe the characters’ apparent psychosis or unreasonable behavior to shed light on the social issues that characterized the late 19th century and early 20th century. Penning many stories that demonstrate her opinions on the social issues of the era,

Read More

Essay On Gender Roles In Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano

1883 Words | 8 Pages

Writing post World War II, Kurt Vonnegut’s Player Piano simultaneously works with the established and changing gender roles within U.S. society at the time and creates satirical commentary. Seemingly relegated to a position of powerlessness on their own, Vonnegut uses different female characters to portray how women in that time period could attain power (usually through marriage). Power (synonymously meaning influence) and the desire to attain power is seen in the prominent Player Piano women, Anita Proteus, Dr. Katharine Finch, and “Mom,”-- but also in less prominent female characters as well. Vonnegut’s different characterizations of these female characters reveal how different “types” of women were all oppressed under the collective thumb

Read More

Sandra Cisneros Loose Woman

479 Words | 2 Pages

Despite the claim that the world has made progress towards gender equality, women are expected to depict feminine characteristics and mannerisms deemed suitable by society. Sandra Cisneros challenges these societal expectations in her poem “Loose Woman” by embracing the negative connotations of a masculine woman. Cisneros faces the pressures of conforming to the American and Latin American status quo of being a woman. Because Cisneros chooses to defy many womanly ideals, she is labeled with “undesirable” identities heavily influenced by religious beliefs. These religious views impact the social expectations of a woman’s sexual orientation as well as her social behavior.

Read More

Roles Of Women In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

1262 Words | 6 Pages

Think of our society today and the role that women play in it. Women impact people’s lives every single day. In Tim O’Brien’s book, The Things They Carried, there were a couple of women who were brought up in the book, and it showed the enormous effect that the women’s presence had on the men during the war. Mary Anne and Linda were two girls who played huge roles, yet were not even the main characters. Their roles consisted mainly of altering the soldier's personalities and perspectives of life during this time.

Read More

Gender Norms In The Story Of An Hour By Kate Chopin

632 Words | 3 Pages

Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story of an Hour” is set in the late 1800s – a time when women were considered inferior to men. Women had traditional roles as wives and mothers. In this 19th century patriarchal society, Chopin shows us Louise Mallard, the main character, who does not comply with the female gender norms of the Victorian period. When Louise learns about the death of her husband, her reaction and the reaction of her sister and the doctor tell us a great deal about gender stereotyping during this time. Louise Mallard is described to us as “firm” and “fair.

Read More

Theme Of Gender Identity In Jackie Kay's Trumpet

67 Words | 1 Pages

Trumpet, written by Jackie Kay is a novel that examines some of the ideals that form a person’s identity. The most highlighted theme in the book is that of gender identity, but by identifying her protagonist, Joss Moody, as the son of a black father and white mother (the same as the author herself), issues of race are also relevant and are going to continue to be

Read More

Water For Elephants Theme Analysis

1001 Words | 5 Pages

She is married to August although she admits, “‘I think I’ve loved you [Jacob] from the moment I laid eyes on you. But don’t you see? I’m married to August” (Gruen 274). For Marlena too August is a barrier. She does not love August the way she loves Jacob, but August is her husband.

Read More

Similarities Between Structural Functionalism And Symbolic Interactionism

836 Words | 4 Pages

In today’s modern society, everyone is largely affected by society. From multiple social institutions like the government and economy for instance or even the effects of education and mass media; these all play a huge role in an individual’s relationship, behavior, and actions in their society. For an individual to understand things like a “culture” or why every society has a ‘social class hierarchy,’ they will be directed to “Sociology”. Sociology is the systematic study of the structures of human society and social interaction. Sociology attempts to understand how things like society, social events, interactions, and patterns influence the way humans think, act, and feel.

Read More

More about Stereotypes Of Women In The Cellist Of Sarajevo By Steven Galloway

Related Topics

Open Document