Thematic Essay on Life by Bessie Head

Depending on where someone is brought up they will view the world in two different
aspects. Someone who was raised in the city is going to see the world in a totally different light than someone who was raised in a village. A person raised in a village does not mind the notion of hard work, being out in the sun for hours on end with out a break, and not having air conditioning to come home to. A person in the city is not used to hard work, and are used to the notions of television and air-conditioned homes. The promiscuity and the sudden lack of promiscuity (due to her marriage) of the title character in Bessie Smith’s “Life” is the element of the story that keeps it moving along with the social and gender issues that impact her.
It is very clear that Life’s promiscuity is the only way she knows how to earn money and she acts as if she is oblivious of a better lifestyle. Life comes into the village where no one knows of prostitution and brings this form of living there ...