Gender

In many ways, people identify themselves, or are identified by their gender. “I am a man” or “I am a woman.” Gender is undeniably the most defining characteristic of all creatures. Since the dawn of time, women and men have played distinctly different roles in society, simply because they have a different anatomy. Jane Smiley’s A Thousand Acres and Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior both explore ideas concerning the role of women in society. Although culturally and stylistically dissimilar, both books reveal significant insight into themes concerning the role of women as victims of a male domination, the masochistic nature of women to accept positions of in-superiority and the emergence of women as strong, independent beings.
The role of the male has always been indisputably dominant in the society of nearly every culture. China, like most societies, has its shameful history in regards to the treatment of women. Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior,...