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Fiction and Gender Role Reversals

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Women have been viewed as second class to men and have been oppressed for being female. During the 16th and 17th centuries, women are supposed to stay in the house to clean and prepare the meals for the men who would work for the family’s income. In the Victorian era where women are in the same social class but are making improvements but there is still sexism. The modern era which included the events such as the women rights movement, demanded for women have the same rights and opportunities as men. The Puritan, Victorian, and Modern time periods demonstrate the superiority of males and the obstacles throughout these eras that women overcome to eventually reverse their roles with men in society. The Yellow Wallpaper, True Grit, and The Great Gatsby all show the change from a male dominant society to a world where women are striving in a male dependent world. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper expresses the demanding expectations men have for females during the Puritan era. Jane is an example of how females are obedient during this time period. She shows duty towards her husband when she says, “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage” (Gilman). Jane accepts her husband leaving her alone in an abandoned house and only coming to see her so often. John shows how men think of their wives as their property and do not care about them. When Jane says, “John is kept in town very often by serious cases” (Gilman), John might be busy at work but he is also not going to see her because of her mental health. He put her in that home because she is ill and he has no need for her. The Yellow Wallpaper gives samples of how women are viewed during the Puritan era by having John demonstrate the oppression he puts Jane through. Mattie Ross in True Grit uncovers the hidden personality of what a Victorian woman craves to be when she is brave enough to go into unfamiliar territory to avenge her father’s death. People during this time never thought a woman would ever be near some type of violence yet alone a fourteen-year-old girl but with Mattie’s determination to avenge her father’s death, she creates a different view on women. Mattie acknowledges the struggle women face every day when she tells the reader that “people do not give it credence that a fourteen-year-old girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father’s b

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