Gender Roles in Narratives - Essay Sample

Introduction

In both the narratives of Jacob and Douglas' narratives, the theme of gender is vivid, but the narrations have differences and similarities in their portraying of gender. Amidst their various narrations in their slavery life the narrators explain their different encounters in their lives. Thus, in the narrators encounters during their lives the thematic description of gender roles of the various people they encounter is very relevant. This paper will critically compare the various styles in which gender is portrayed in Jacob and Douglas’ narratives.

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Jacob’s Narrative

In Jacob’s narrative, the female gender is introduced as very tender and loving. It is achieved through the grandmother who is brought about as the epitome of love and tenderness to her mother, and the daughter of the grandmother’s mistress “She was the foster sister of my mother; they were both nourished at my grandmothers breast” (Jacobs and Fleischner, 12). Also, women in Jacob’s narrative are portrayed as selfless beings and more so devoted to their work in the narrator’s grandmother's case, where she was very diligent and hardworking. “She was much praised for her cooking and her nice crackers became so famous in the neighborhood."

However, the narrator portrays women negatively in several instances, first in the model where the grandmother's mistress borrowed her three-hundred-dollar savings. However, the lending turned out to favor her mistress, “a slave being a poor can hold no property." Also, in the instance where the narrator’s mistress did her injustice by not letting her own a single inheritance as she had promised earlier on. Quotations, she used to refer to “But I was her slave and I suppose she did not recognize me as her neighbor” (Jacobs and Fleischner, 15). Also, in Jacob’s narration, the male gender is portrayed as ruthless in an instance where he punishes the narrator's grandmother at her ancient age, and the auction, the grandmother, is even mocked "shame! Shame! Who is going to sell you”?

Douglas' Narrative

In Douglas' narrative, the male gender is, at the very beginning, portrayed to be irresponsible with an example of the narrator’s father. He even the narrator suspects to be his master. “The whisper that my master was my father may or may not be true." Moreover, women in Douglas’ narrations are tender and loving beings. The narrator’s mother, whom they were separated when the narrator was at a very tender age, makes efforts to check on them. “She made her journey to see me in the night...after the performance of her day's work (Douglas,4). The narrator’s mother was so selfless and could withstand any form of punishment to visit her child. “a whipping is a penalty of not being in the field at sunrise."

The male gender in the narration seems to be brutal to their female servants, where they entitle them to be sexual objects. “this is done too obviously to administer to their own lust, and make a gratification of their wicked desires” (Douglas,5). Additionally, in the narration, the master is controlled by the words of the mistress to do anything that pleases her no matter how evil the assigned task. “as cruel as the deed may strike any one to be, for a man to sell his own children to human flesh-mongers."

Conclusion

In summary, both the narrations depict women's nature in becoming selfless in their deeds in various instances. However, several cases of brutality among women and their male counterparts regarding misuse of power in offending their subjects have been depicted. The use of force, especially of the mistress to humiliate their subjects, is portrayed in Douglas’ narration.

Works Cited

History.com Editors. "Frederick Douglass." 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 09 Sept. 2020.

Jacobs, Harriet A., and Jennifer Fleischner. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2010. Print.

Jacobs, Harriet Ann. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself. Charleston, SC: BiblioBazaar, 2007. Print.