Women Between The Time Periods Of 1865 To 1928 Essay Example

The hardships that were undertaken by women during the era of industrialization and civil war were remarkable. A lot of literary contributions have been made in order to salute the hardships and transformations that have been undertaken by women during 1865 to 1928. The aim of this response paper is to present the three examples of women that were studied within the course to understand the hardships that were faced by women socially. The chosen examples include “Désirée Baby” by Kate Chopin, “Maggie: A Girl of the Streets” by Stephen Crane and
“Maggie: A Girl of the Streets” is a very strong address to the critical social situation that were faced by the women. It was noted that the protagonist of the story named Maggie was undergoing tough life as she wanted to make life easier and better. However, she was constantly turned down by her family. The author has shown hope that she could be with Pete and make things better with him after marrying. However, later in the story, Maggie is also deserted by Pete. Constantly deserted by her loved ones, Maggie ends up in prostitution and passes away. It comes to understanding that in case women wanted to bring some change in living standards; she had to pay a price for her actions.
Talking about the portrayal of women in the story read in the course entitled, “Désirée Baby” written by Kate Chopin, it comes to understanding that life was not easier for women before the civil war. The setting of the story by Kate Chopin have been done during the 19th century where skin color was considered to be the factor that would allow people to gain social status. In simpler words, the major character of the story named Désirée undergoes a number of hardships in the relationships she had with other people. The author has shown that the act or behaviors of women were basically marked as reactions to the superiority exerted by men over women. In addition, women were merely considered as the symbol of inferiority. Désirée undergoes transformation within the story and becomes stronger. In the wake of her transformation, she undergoes hardships in terms of having no social rights or representation. In fact, Desiree’s own husband did not want to support at all.
Finally, the third and significant example of women undergoing hardships is Helga who is the protagonist of the story named “Quicksand” written by Nella Larsen. It is an evident fact that the protagonist undergoes hardships but rather in terms of sexism. The author has represented her as a person who was stuck between the two worlds of whites and blacks where her mother was a white female and father was black. She undergoes hypocrisy all her life. Eventually, she made her way to the strongest voices of Renaissance of Harlem in New York. She had a troubling time for not being accepted by the either world because of the increased racial issues.
Through the above analysis, it comes to understanding that different characters as discussed above are effective portrayal of women who had to undergo hardships during 1865 to 1928 because they had no value given by the society. In fact, women were considered to be doing fewer good to society. The present status of women is by far the strongest because women like Désirée and Maggie have created examples and lessons for others to follow.

Works Cited

Chopin, Kate. Short Stories by Kate Chopin: Desiree's Baby, the Storm, the Story of an Hour, at the Cadian Ball. New York: General Books LLC, 2010. Print.
Crane, Stephan. Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. New York: Interactive Media, 2014. Print.
Larsen, Nella. Quicksand. Chicago: Start Publishing LLC, 2013. Print.