Introduction
Race, gender and power are issues that affect our day-to-day life and can hinder or promote progress, depending on how they are handled. Race and gender are issues that a person has to live with as he or she has no choice once found to belong to a particular group. There am2qare challenges that comes with being born in a certain gender depending on expectations of the society. Power, on the other hand is an occurrence that can happen or disappear depending on the circumstances. Since the issues of gender, power and race are part of our life, it is necessary for people to know how to handle them to ensure they do not hinder progress in the end. In this paper, we shall focus on the above-mentioned issues with a focus on two characters from three novels, raisin in the sun, Othello, and the pearl. We shall look at how the characters handled such issues and how they led to their downfall or progress in life.
Raisin in the sun
Raisin in the sun is about a black family that is determined to live in a white dominated environment. The family gets an insurance package from the deceased man of the house and make plans on how to invest the cash to ensure they live a good life. each member of the family has a plan and try hard to merge their ideas. In this book, the two characters that we shall analyse battle with the issues of gender and race as they purpose to survive (Schilb 1006).
Walter Lee Younger
Walter Lee Younger takes the role of the protagonist and happens to be the eldest son of the home. Culturally, he is to take over the leadership of the home after the death of his father. He is a young man with great ambitions and plans; his desire is to venture into a liquor business that promises great wealth for the family. Walter recognizes the great responsibility that lies ahead of him to take care of his family as a man, prompting him to come up with ideas that will ensure success. Being a young man, he is also caught up with challenges of peer pressure and the need to make a statement among his peers. There is a desire in him to live his life by pleasing his peers, yet he is held back by the responsibility of taking care of the family. Being black and the thought of not being as rich as he desires to be are his greatest nightmares yet he has to survive.
Walter is also held in between the desires of his mother and sister to have a house. Even though he is the male figure the family has, he cannot run away from the fact that he has a mother who is also the symbol of authority in the family. He is not sure about whose decision will work for the family. Walter recognizes the need to have and take absolute power in his family, which prompts him to engage in some ordinary jobs to be able to take care of his family. There is a desire and a conviction within him for wealth yet he does not find a project that will guarantee his family such needs. Walter is over ambitious yet he does not take his time to concentrate on a single project. He wants the power, the money and the wealth yet he is not ready to take everything step at a time. It is for this reason that he spends most of his time and resources identifying solutions to end the issues that are affecting his family.
Beneatha Younger
Beneatha is the daughter of the home with a promising future compared to the rest of the family. His position as a girl in the family however limits his capability to make solid decisions and mostly has to agree on what her mother says. She has a passion for greatness and dreams of being a doctor. Her desire is that the family will acquire adequate wealth that will grant her a promising career yet she cannot specifically mention that the insurance money goes to her education (Schilb 1011). Beneatha is a representation of the modern educated woman who is struggling to survive in an environment where women empowerment is not a priority. She has to give up her ambitions of becoming a doctor for sometime because of the financial struggles that her family is facing. Being black and a woman for that matter makes her struggles more sophisticated. She appears to be the most intelligent in the family yet sidelined from the major decisions being made.
When Beneatha is caught in between supporting the decision of her brother or mother, she supports her mother. She is a believer of the fact that a man should not always be the overall authority in the family. According to her, the ability to lead is in the hierarchy of the family rather than gender. Having attained a higher level of education, Beneatha has been delivered from the belief that a woman’s position should be undermined. She approves to this by standing by her mother. Her support bears fruit which he mother acquires a dream house in a white dominated environment. The decision to move to such an environment despite the opposition the family faced is a sign that they are ready to live beyond racism and embrace a life of success and fulfilment.
Othello
The novel, Othello revolves around family and marital issues in a male dominated society. The men in the novel are working towards making a statement of power as the women are made to suffer for their ego. The most interesting characters I read in the novel are Othello and Desdemona, who are faced with the challenging of sustain and proving their love for each other. The novel is all about gender responsibilities and the efforts of each partner to find a solution to their wonderful relationship that has turned out sour.
Othello
Othello is a symbol of authority and male chauvinism in the novel. He finds it east to trust a male friend rather than his wife, whom they have shared a good relationship. The desire to dominate the family and make his wife submissive to him makes him fall a victim of a jealousy trap that was laid against him by Iago. Othello has been brought up in an environment where a man has the power to do whatever he pleases to protect his family, even if it means destroying it. Despite the fact that he has been with his wife for quite some time and built trust, he fails a simple test of not trusting his wife and ultimately destroys him. His decision to follow up on the matter and deal with the culprits destroying his relationship is spurred by the fact that he has the power and the wealth (Schilb 1260). He seems to care less about the bond he shares with his wife as his ego takes a toll on him.
Iago seem to have understood the area that will injure Othello’s ego and plotted his plan well. It was all about touching the very thing that will compromise on his authority, both as the man of the house as well as the influence he had in the society. Othello trusted his wife and the thought of her playing fool of her would definitely stir up jealousy in him and prompt him into action. Othello wanted to prove a point to his wife as well as his subjects by showing them that they cannot survive without him. It was only after being prey to the trap that had been set for him that he realised that he would have trusted his wife, a woman more than Iago the man. It was a painful truth that he could not handle, realising that he was the one that betrayed his wife and not as he thought. The novel ends in a sad note where it is proved that ego is what sustained a man, and when all such pride has been taken away, he is nothing better than a corpse.
Desdemona
Desdemona is a representation of the hard work that a woman puts up to cement her relationship in vain. She is an example of many other women whose hard work and diligence go unrecognized as the very people they trust turn against them. Desdemona is also an example of how a mere suspicion and negligence can cost a relationship. Desdemona is living in a society where a woman is not supposed to make mistakes and have to take full responsibility of the faults that are experienced in the relationship. A woman is a custodian of trust in a relationship and any fault will make her suffer for the same. The efforts of Desdemona to keep and maintain her relationship implies how important marriage is to a woman rather than the man (Schilb 1289). She is living in a society where marriage to a woman is a symbol of dignity, protection and love. Once the very virtue of trust is compromised in the relationship, Desdemona appears to be a miserable woman who does all she can to prove her innocence.
The failure to prove her innocence implied the end of her marriage relationship. The society was designed in a way that implied that once a woman was married, she had no other place to go. When things turned out to be sour in a marriage relationship, she had no option of going back to her father’s house. The fate of her life lied in her husband’s hands and there was nobody else to defend her. Through Desdemona, we also realise how defenceless a woman can be in the midst of such a crisis. Even a fellow woman who understood her innocence could not come to her rescue but rather teamed up with a man to facilitate her downfall. Emilia, Desdemona maid, aids in her downfall and does not defend her only after it is too late. Even after speaking the truth that would have made the situation better, Emillia suffers the same fate as Desdemona.
The pearl
The pearl is a story of a poor and humble family that lands a treasure that promise them a life of wealth and power. The family was living a happy and content life until when they landed on a treasure. It is ironical that instead of the treasure transforming their life for the better; it becomes a source of frustration and even death to their life. The family do not find happiness from the treasure and decides to get rid of it. The pearl signifies the poverty mentality among the poor that robs them of the opportunity to manage wealth even when they have all the opportunities (Steinbeck 65). We shall analyse the issue of gender, power and wealth focusing on the main characters of the novel, Kino and Juana.
Kino
Kino, just like any male figure in the family longs for a day when he shall deliver his family from poverty. She has a supportive and understanding wife who also delights in his prosperity yet does not impose much pressure on him. The biggest challenge that Kino faced that inspired the desire for wealth was his son, who was stung by a scorpion. The inability for his son to obtain treatment simply because he was poor prompted a desire in him to grow wealth. Just as any other responsible man would do, he desired a good life and education for his son. He sacrificed everything just to ensure the dream was fulfilled. However, the very greed he had to grow wealth landed him in trouble as it dawned on him that he lacked the ability to handle prosperity. The misguided mentality among the poor that having a lot of wealth will solve life’s issues is revealed through Kino, who lives a miserable and insecure life after getting the treasure.
The story reveals the fact that power and wealth without hard work is meaningless. Kino displays the sad reality that poverty is not just defined by a person’s financial status but also intellectual capability. Even though he had the treasure, he lacked the practical know how on how to invest and grow the treasure. He was sceptical about the investment, which made him not benefit from him. Kino had just landed on an amount that he had never dreamt of or even imagined. He believed that the pearl was so costly that he could easily fall a victim to conmen. Such fear, common among the poor, prevents them from taking a risk or even holding so much to what they have (Steinbeck 28). The constant fear that robbers would be coming for his pearl causes him sleepless nights yet he is not ready to get rid of it. It was only after it had cost his son’s life and livelihood that Kino decided to get rid of the treasure.
Juana is a symbol of strength and stability that is to be expressed by a woman to a man who is facing crisis. Juana is at the centre of the poverty and prosperity that is experienced by Kino. He remains to be a loyal wife to him through all the changing phases of his life. He does not seem very excited about the pearl and even attempts to get rid of it once it becomes a source of frustration to her family. She displays stability in the various crises that they go through as a family and even tries to find a solution to the problems. Compared to his husband who is obsessed with the desire to get rich, Juana accepts their fate and does all she can to survive. She found alternative medication for her son when they were denied treatment at the hospital because of their state. She also plays the role of a diligent wife by praying for her family as well as supporting her husband even when she feels he is on the wrong.
Juana displays the sensitivity of a woman by predicting the danger that is likely to befall her family because of the pearl. Her efforts to make her husband understand how the pearl has become a curse to them rather than a blessing are ignored and decided to take the matter in her hands. She makes the deliberate decision to get rid of the pearl so that the family enjoys the happy and contented life they had before. The husband realises this and tries to find a better solution to dispose the pearl. Juana has to remain calm through the issue and know how it is hurting his family. Even though he has a solution that will ensure peace in the family, she leaves it all to her husband to make the final decision. Her diligence pays off when her husband finally realises the frustrations that the family has had to go through because of the pearl and decided to get rid of the pearl.
Works cited
Schilb, John. Making literature matter: an anthology for readers and writers. Bedford/St. Martin's, 2006.
Steinbeck, John. The pearl. Penguin, 1994.
