Relationships: Now and Then :: Marriage Puritans Essays

Relationships: Now and Then Do we still live in the seventeenth century? It’s very interesting to look back at the differences and similarities in men’s and women’s relationships since then. My husband, Sean, and I were brought up very differently; he was only raised by his mother who provided everything for him food, shelter, and love whereas I had the more traditional family in being raised by both parents. My father was the provider, a construction worker who worked long hours five to six days a week, and my mother, a homemaker, tended the home doing the cooking, cleaning, and also caring for us children. Now that I’m older and have my own husband and children, I find myself using the traditional traits that I’ve seen and learned from my parents. Tending to my husband’s and children’s every need not only seems to be a normal feeling, but it’s a natural instinct for me. According to Edward S. Morgan in The Puritan Family: Religion and Domesti c Relations in Seventeenth-Century New England, â€Å"In each relationship God had ordained that one party be superior, the other inferior†¦.Wives were instructed that woman was made ultimately for God but immediately for man†¦.† In living in the twenty first century, relationships seem to be better now than they were in the seventeenth century. Men and women today are marrying for love and happiness, and also building their lives together as a team whereas the Puritans married because it was a law of God where the husband was in charge of his wife and being happy didn’t exist. Marriage in seventeenth century New England meant that duties were forced upon both husband and wife. It was the husband’s duty to support his wife and family, and the wife’s duty to care for her husband and tend to his home. Morgan states, â€Å"When [a woman] became wife, she gave up everything to her husband and devoted herself exclusively to managing his household.†¦ her duty was to ‘keep at home, educating her children, keeping and improving what is got by the industry of the man.’† Personally, I couldn’t see myself passing anything to my husband and after we got married I didn’t. While the little I did own continues to be mine, whatever we own now became ours whereas being a Puritan wife meant owning nothing and being owned.

Two stories that show divisions or conflicts within communities

Both of the stories ‘The train from Rhodesia' and ‘Leela's Friend' illustrate divisions of classes and some of them result in conflicts. ‘The train from Rhodesia' is in an allegory form to convey the deep hatred of the author towards her racially divided home country – apartheid. ‘Leela's Friend' shows the class division by demonstrating the prejudice that people have on those who are low in hierarchy. ‘The train from Rhodesia' is about a train from Rhodesia ‘calling' into the station with all the white passengers on it and there are the vendors who crowd round the train trying to sell their wares. The train is personified by using verbs such as ‘creaking, jerking, jostling, gasping' and saying it has ‘a dwindling body behind it'. This emphasizes the classes divisions between the rich passengers on the train and the poor sellers in the station. The poverty of black people seems to be the reason for division. The ‘creases' in stationmaster's uniform and his ‘barefoot children' all give the impression of scarcity in the people inside the station. However, the girl on the train was ‘throwing' a ‘hard kind' chocolate to the dogs. This use of antithesis here accentuates the division – not only in class – but also in poverty. There is also contrast of the attitudes and feelings of the young man and the young woman. The twist of story at the end is that the young woman's rejection of the lion carving which her husband has bought for her and which she obviously admires. The man is ‘arguing with him for fun' while the woman's face is ‘drawn up, wryly, like the face of a discomforted child'. The use of oxymoron in the epiphany of the woman and the shocked man here show another division due to the different views and opinions upon the way of treating poor black people. Gordimer describes the people and the setting in the third-person but does show us the young woman's point of view on several occasions. For instance, in line 168-169 there is no subject ‘she' in the description of shame upon her. This emphasizes the guilty among some white people about the exploitation of the country and also made the reader feel empathetic towards the young woman. The ‘majestic' and ‘heraldic' lion was ‘fallen on its side in the corner' lead the main theme of the story – the richer and privileged white European arrive and exploit South Africa's labour and move on, they are never really part of the country as the train symbolizes. The central narrative question in ‘Leela's Friend' is ‘Did Sidda steal the gold chain? ‘ He is been prejudiced by Mr. and Mrs. Sivasanker for the missing chain of Leela just because he is the only one servant of the house. The story circles around the sense of hierarchy and honesty and directness of children. The sense of level is shown in the beginning of the story while ‘Mr Sivsanker was standing in the front veranda of his house. ‘ Also, verbs such as ‘send' and ‘keep' imply a pet imagery of Sidda and this highlights the class divisions among the servant and his master. Narayan use an irony in positioning him in the house: ‘she made him squat on the floor'. Even a 5-year-old child can decide to have Sidda stay and ‘command' him to do whatever you want. This imagery is more symbolized in line 79 and 80 where Leela is represented as ‘little princess' while Sidda is described as her ‘pet'. ‘He looked at her mutely, like an animal. ‘ This pet imagery is used by Narayan throughout the story. The golden chain, the running away, not permitting to sleep in the house all accentuate his level and hierarchy comparing to the owner of the house. He is prejudged as he is ‘already looked queer' when Mrs Sivasanker knows that the chain is missing. Even he has been proved that he has not taken the chain; Mr Sivasanker still calls him a ‘criminal'. All these ironies of prejudice show that the class division within this community and all the cause of this is that Sidda is in a position of servant and therefore loses his right. Both of the stories accentuate the unfairness and injustice upon the weak class as the result of class division and their poverty. ‘The train from Rhodesia' uses the woman's point of view and her epiphany to make the reader feel sympathetic towards the vendor. ‘Leela's Friend' uses the pet imagery to emphasize the idea of classes and prejudice on poors.

Child Abuse Is A Global Problem - 1195 Words

Little kids do not understand why they are abused. It is a tragedy to see kids die, injured, helpless, or hopeless because of abuse. Child abuse is a global problem in today’s society, and not many make it preventable in order to protect the victim. The ad exemplifies how an individual’s point of view can influence how they perceive child abuse by using a reflective board which changes based on the physical angle at which an individual views the sign. Through rhetorical appeals, the ANAR Foundation ad â€Å"Only for Children† argues that people will only visualize child abuse from their own perspective, rather than from the viewpoint of a victim. The ANAR (Ayuda a Nià ±os y Adolescentes en Riesgo) Foundation gives adolescents a place to contact†¦show more content†¦The emotional sensitivity creates the urge for children to cry out for a release from their physical and emotional pain. According to the set up of the image, only kids are able to see the br uises. Kids seem to struggle to express their need for help, due to being frighten or embarrass from the adults. To help kids from being fearful, the ANAR Foundation offers a private phone line â€Å"116-111† for children, which is set in place to help prevent further unwanted harm from the adult(s). The â€Å"Only For Children† image is a reflective piece of advertisement, because the audiences are able to see from two perspectives, a child and an adult. Looking at the ANAR advertisement, there are two different images that are being observed depending on what view the audience is looking at. At an adult point of view the image is display the paleness in the boy’s skin with a dull grey background overlapping his skin complexion. The grey background represents the sorrow and depression of his life, in which he feels that it is slowly turning into darkness. Not only does the color go into depth with his internal conflict, but also the physical details that are pi ctured in the ad. The quote that is observed from an adult point of view reads, â€Å"Sometimes child abuse is only visible to the child suffering it.† This message appears to be a warning for the adults due to many children not being able to call for help on their own. The image demonstrates the ideas of