Gender Issues Role of Women in Modern Texts

¶ … displace all our social ills through psychology and advancing economic status, never quite filled the shoes which society expected. The modern image of life contained high amounts of anticipation and idealism. Yet as the industrial revolution took hold and transformed our culture socially, economically and politically, people discovered slowly that societal expectations were not as easily changed as a new factory was built at the end of the block. People still acted like people always had, wrestling with ideas that seem good at the moment compared to the ethics and values which ultimately held the individual and the community to solid ground.

In this time, the image of a woman and of a woman's place in modern culture also was undergoing considerable forces toward change. The woman's social image prior to the industrial revolution, and a modern mindset was that of a home maker and women who was, or should be content with the home maker's life. Women were not perceived in the social order as having a value beyond what they could contribute as a social support system for men, and men's plans.

However, in this role, women's contribution to society and family life was much more valuable than that of an unpaid maid and baby factory. The social support which a woman provided became the glue which often held the family together. The woman was a person who often worked in the background, without notoriety. However, like the stage crew which makes sure that a Broadway play performance goes off without a problem, the woman who stayed at home and spent her time and energy on and for her family was often responsible for the stability of the entire home.

Nonetheless, modern thought wanted to build a new position for women in society. In response writers cast their images of heroines in early 20th century literature which included many different shades of womanhood, mother hood, progress, and success. At the heart of each character was a major character lesson which the author wanted to communicate, or a lesson about the culture which authors believed could be better told through the life of a woman than the life of a man. In the following cases, the different messaged paint a picture of modern womanhood which was caught in the midst of change, often to her own harm.

Tender is the Night, by F. Scott Fitzgerald is the story of a man caught in between his desires for a traditional woman, or enjoying a non-tradition woman who could provide wealth and fun. In the time of this authors work, the man was the 'breadwinner' of the family. Therefore selecting a woman who could provide the wealth for the home was a non-traditional lifestyle. However, Fitzgerald wants to communicate that while there is nothing inherently 'wrong' with selecting a non-traditional woman, she might come with a price, a high price.

In the case of Dick Diver, the main antagonist in the story, dick falls in love with Nichole Warren, and married her. Nichole is a woman from a wealthy family, and her resources more than meet Dick's desires for wealth and material prosperity. However, the tow met at a time when Nichole is institutionalized in a mental hospital, and as the two progress through life, Nichole never leaved her emotional disorder completely behind. Eventually, Dick tires of her draining neediness, and begins a self-destructive spiral of drinking, and flirting with other attractive women who are more his level of social and intellectual standing. He is a handsome man, and he has no trouble attracting female companionship. Thus the stage is set for the conflict between Nichole, Dick and himself as the story climaxes.

Nichole is a woman with obvious resources, and obvious detractions. She is a woman who can provide for dick the things which men are knows to seek in life, status, attention and money. However the cost which she brings to the relationship is the subtext of the message regarding men and women. Fitzgerald is setting a metaphor in motion regarding the way a man goes about attaining the emotional and character-based success in life. For dick, he was given those three elements. For Nichole, she brought those things into his life, much in the way the modern movement was insisting that women become. But for Dick, he did not find happiness in receiving wealth and economic security from another.

If Dick can be understood as a typical man, and Nichole as the modern woman bringing into the man's life resources for which he would traditionally seek, then the failure of the marriage, and the character flaws within Nichole are a quiet, politically incorrect subtext which suggests that a man cannot find happiness by receiving wealth, and security from a woman. The author seems to be saying that although the marriage is a fun and enjoyable union at the outset, that the couple needs to have more substance to their relationship, or else there will be too high a price to pay. Ultimately these two divorced and moved in different directions.

Another issue of heated debate during the first half of the 20th century was that of racism and the place of black Americans in the larger culture. Society was not yet ready to integrate, even though the civil war had feed blacks. The ensuing migration of blacks from the south to the north at the onset of the industrial revolution created new social pressured, and also created individuals of African heritage which appeared to be causation, and could become a part of 'white' America. (The terms used here are not used to condone the racial bigotry of the early 20th century, but to communicate an understanding of society's values.)

Clare and Irene, both black women who are the main characters in Passing by Nella Larson, were both women of African descent who could, and did pass themselves off as white Americans. Irene grew up in a middle class neighborhood, and turned her disdain toward her past. She did not want to revisit the segregation, nor the shame of her past, and therefore built a personal wall of anger between herself, and her past. Clare on the other hand grew up as a member of a cast off family. She was the daughter of a black man and white woman who did not have any heritage either. Caught in the bigoted no mans land between black and white, she grew up as poor white trash. Clare developed the same level of hatred toward whites that Irene felt for blacks. Even though both looked the same, and could move in the same social settings without creating any racial feelings. It was the inner motivations of these two women which the author used to illustrate the foolishness, and self-destructiveness of bigotry, and discrimination.

Eventually the two met, and in the climax of the book both of the women had to face their bigotry. They have to face the lies they have told themselves. They have to face the lies they have tried to live, ignoring their heritage. These were significant issues in the time of the Harlem Renaissance, which is the setting for this story. All around the women is evidence of the cultural heritage of the black American community, but these two women are Passing, dying because they have not death with their hatred and anger toward themselves.