Miss Baker is described as “a slender, small-breasted girl” and compared to a “young cadet.” This description of her androgynous features characterizes her as a “flapper,” and makes her representative of the novel’s emphasis on modern styles that clash with established, traditional standards, including gender roles.
The Great Gatsby – 1
The Sun Also Rises – 13
After their affair has ended, Brett indicates that Romero was ashamed of her because of her style, saying “He wanted me to grow my hair out. Me, with long hair. I’d look so like hell.” Apparently, Romero feels like Brett isn’t sufficiently feminine because she has a short haircut. He symbolizes the traditional male and her modern style defies traditional gender roles.
To the Lighthouse – 2
Mrs. Ramsay feels protective towards men because of the boyish reverence “something trustful, childlike” they offer her and other women. In reflection, she contrasts this with what she thinks her daughters feel, the “infidel ideas which they had brewed for themselves of a life different from hers; in Paris, perhaps; a wilder life; not always taking care of some man or other.” This association between Paris, the mecca for Western expatriates, and the rejection of traditional gender roles goes to the very heart of modernism.
To the Lighthouse – 4
William Bankes remembers walking along with Mr. Ramsay one day when they happened upon a hen and her chicks. Seeing how this scene affected Ramsay, who said “Pretty–pretty” as he looked at the birds, Bankes associates this image with Mr. Ramsay’s decision to settle into the “clucking domesticities” of life with Mrs. Ramsay and their eight children.
Their Eyes Were Watching God: 6
Janie’s grandmother offers a distillation of gender and race relations by telling Janie white men rule the world, but they’ve passed their burdens over to black men. Black men, in turn, did the same thing to people over whom they had power, black women. Consequently, black women bear the world’s burdens. As Janie’s grandmother puts it, “De nigger woman is de mule uh de world.”
Their Eyes Were Watching God: 10
Janie leaves Logan Killicks to marry a self-important man named Joe Starks, who becomes mayor of the small town they move to. During the ceremony for the start of his term as mayor, the townspeople ask to hear from his wife, but he says “Thank yuh fuh yo’ compliments, but mah wife don’t know nothin’ ’bout no speech-makin.'” Even though Janie “had never thought of making a speech, and didn’t know if she cared to make one at all,” this incident still “took the bloom off of things” between her and Joe. This scene can be contrasted with her grandmother’s wish for a pulpit, from which it would be possible for her to “preach a great sermon.”
With reference to the dearth of information about his wife and other women in this narrative, Winifred Morgan writes “The black women in Douglass’s narrative are by nature subordinate to the men. They serve as examples of victimization, such as his aunt, or as shadowy helpmates, such as the free woman he marries” (82).