Women's Role and Status in Society

I believe there's a purpose or motive behind every story that was written by every author. An insight or message is to be shed on the reader. From reading Sky Lee's "Broken Teeth" I noticed the role of women stood out throughout the majority of the story. Through Lee's story of the mother's childhood, I was able to grasp some insight on how Chinese women in particular were treated in the past.

I've actually did some research on the status of women in the Chinese history. Confucius, a famous and respected philosopher in ancient China, revealed that women were grouped as slaves and inferior to men. There's a saying from the past that still exists today which listed the criteria that must be met inorder to be a good woman to her husband. If translated it's called " The Three Obediences and the Four Virtues". It basically highlighted that women should "obey" their husbands like how slaves obey their masters. This quote also highlighted a "daughter's duty to her father" (146).

Although we're living in the 21st century, it's safe to say that there are still some families out there that value males more than females just because men are going to be the ones that'll be passing down the family's last name. The incident in the mother's story where she recieved a blow to her cheeks when angered her father because she accidentally knocked her little brother over greatly illustrated the value of males in families of ancient China.

After this story, I have much more respect for my parents than before because I realised how lucky I am because they love me and my siblings equally.

"The First Woman"

Many writers often write narratives to portray their own real life experiences and Gabriel Szohner in "The First Woman" also falls into this category. He introduces us to Franz a struggling painter who immigrated to Canada over 3 years ago. He has dreams of being a well-renowned painter; yet we know that Gabriel is developing a career as a painter, having moved to Canada from Hungary and already establishing himself as a literary guru.

He is bitter about life and its hardships and his lack to success; and wishes for harm to befall him. He is in a foreign country with hardly any friends and his failures thus far make him resign to whatever fate has in store for him. The girl is introduced into the narrative and she almost seems like a whole dream for we do not even get to know her name. She is important to the narrative since we get a glimpse into the life in the area Franz resides and also know that there are more immigrants Italians whose mannerisms are not the best. We also get to see the gentler side of Franz, one that yearns to love and be loved, a caring one.

One hopes that Franz would develop a friendship with the girl and possibly get a window of opportunity at being successful, since we are sympathetic with Franz situation of desperation. In my analysis, the girl represents opportunities that come by everyone once in a while. The opportunities are not clear as day light for all to see but one has to grab the opportunity or at least try else the chance shall be gone and we are back to square one.