Women aren’t that dissimilar from men, although they face different biological, cultural and social pressure, some pragmatic women concede and act in response well to such pressures. The facts remain that the contemporary society treats women in a different ways as compared to men. Therefore, in this paper, I will discuss the role of women and the development of female character in a particular setting as portrayed by Nakamoto Takako short story The Red.
In her work, Nakamoto begins by describing a picture of an unfortunate family that relies on Shige wife to Kanenari for survival. The writer's words "pointing out the extreme poverty of their household" (91) describes this statement. The same is also evident from the fact that Shige lacked money to buy even a little bread to soothe her son's hunger (85). The poverty that associated with this family introduces a hardworking woman known as Shige. Her hard work actions are evident by her spending time with putting together envelopes for piecework. She has been doing this for a while, though her husband Kanenari is working as at lumber mill, he hardly provides for the basic needs. All his daily earnings end up with the alcohol sellers where he drinks every evening. The writer says that Kanenari earns a day wage of a Yen and eight sen only to be left with thirty – five sen that day after buying alcohol. It implies that Shige is the bread winner in that family. Furthermore, She decides to work at an excavation site as a casual in building the road (93). Despite the hard time and harassment from the supervisor, Shige believes that like other women whom she works together with, she will be able to raise money to cater for food and shelter for her six hungry mouths.
Besides this, women are also portrayed as loving and caring character. Shige's personality illustrates a clarification of this statement. After Kanenari had engaged in a fight with the foreperson which resulted in him hit on the head, he stopped going to the lumber mill. Shige decides to pay a visit to the supervisor with an elegant box of sweets. She had to pawn the obi she'd kept since marriage for her to buy the sweets (89). Despite the fact that he accepted the failure of her husband, he would have the gut to solve the conflict. In fact, she went to the foreperson's house for a second time to plead him to use his power to lighten the sentence against her husband or even to hasten his release by even one day. But this was all in vein as she did not succeed, this time round nobody bothered to acknowledge her presence (92). Moreover, the supervisor's wife is a symbol of unity; she promised Shige that she will speak to her husband and plead her to solve the existing conflict when she returns. That is a clear indicator of women's feminism position in the short story.
Takako also portrays a picture of struggling women who undergoes difficult challenges while finding the solution to their problems. She argues that at the exuviations, Shige together with other women encounters hard moments as they labor all day in their red underskirts strenuously. Shige draws a clear picture of the struggle, for example, despite the pain she undergoes thorough, the supervisor accuses her of laziness (95).
Contrary to the Red story, other feminist writers like Wakasugi Toriko portray an image of revolutionist women. In her story The Mother, Wakasugi describes how women, including Mioko were fired. Despite her keeping it a secret the newspaper explained how the employee's women who were trying to organize a union was discovered. Later on, these women, including Mioko were fired (104). However, women in her story have similar characters to those in the story the Red. For example, they are caring, loving and are entitled with child rearing responsibility as portrayed by Mioko's mother (114). Other writers like in the story the prayer also shows how hardworking and caring women are.
Notwithstanding the fact that they encounter social as well as the cultural struggle in life, women in the short story the Red are of great importance. The above illustration is a clear indicator of how important they are. However, the author shows that they are responsible for parental as well as family responsibilities. For example, she says "while keeping an eye on her youngest three-years-old Sue pulled out his work table” (81).
Work Cited
Takako, N. (1929). The Red. Women’s Art Fall Lecture. Asahi Auditorium. Tokyo.
Ineko Sata. The Prayer. Central Review. (October, 1931). Literally Front. Tokyo
Toriko Wakasugu, (1931). The Mother. Translated from criticism. Tokyo
