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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,

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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.

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