Edith Wharton The summer and Scott Fitzgeralds Tender is the Night - Term Paper Example

? Thesis ment: The radical changes of women as the evolution of centuries take and how they contributeto the economy. The stories by the authors Edith Wharton “The summer” and Scott Fitzgeralds “Tender is the Night” have clearly expressed the radical changes of women in their short stories. The Edith Wharton’s novel the summer is a story revealing the coming of age of a young woman. The hero is opposition of the cultures of the society she lives in and her upbringing. Her opposition to the society’s code helps her find her suitable place in the society. The short story “The Summer” has clearly adopted the themes of coming to age that deal with adolescence conflict, love and the maturation process. The short story use the protagonist character Charity Royall who has shown most of the themes of the coming of age that have in turn expressed the radical changes of women in the modern society. Fitzgerald’s novel has also expressed the radical changes of women through his novel he has used Rosemary Hoyt as a character who has also acknowledged the themes of coming to age by comparing the Americans and the Europeans (Wharton, 37). In the modern society, women in the 19th century were living in the era characterized by gender inequality. During this century, the women enjoyed few life privileges. Women enjoyed few of the social, political and legal rights that have now being neglected in the Western countries due to their ineffectiveness of denying women equal rights with men. Women had no right to vote and had limited control over their properties. During this era, women were expected to remain submissive to their husbands and fathers. The upper class and the middle class women were expected to remain at home doing the housewife chores. Their occupations were also affected since they were considered to be limited in the society. The lower class women did chores both at home and beyond since, they were the poorly paid servants in factories. This is evident in the story of the summer where Charity craves for a better life than the one she is currently living in a small town (Wharton 27). However, her dreams have been socially restricted and also locked out by her weakness character and the codes and rules of the society (Wharton 67). The novel is one of the first stories expressing the radical changes of women. The novel expresses how young women have been sexually awakened. The story begins with an encounter, followed by a passionate affair and later ends with a wedding. Many to be similar to other “sentimental” novels of the period have viewed the outline of the novel but critics have recommended Wharton for her in-depth feeling and upper class style have turned the plot to art. The novel’s reviewers have thoroughly analyzed the general meaning of the wedding and the various issues that have continued enticed critics in the twenty first century. In the 21st century the feminist activists have campaigned for the women rights such as the voting rights, contract law and the possession of property. The feminist campaigns have changed the society’s old cultural ways especially in the west by achieving most of their rights like gender equality, rights to own property and contracts and equal pay with the male gender. The feminists have also struggled to protect women from sexual harassment and domestic violence. During the beginning of urbanization, industrialization and the expansion of the market economy. The middle class and the life expectancies have radically changed in the American societies. During the eighteenth century the people worked together and division of labor in the farms. Charity Royall an eighteen-year-old girl who was raised by a couple. She lives with her guardian Mr. Royall who was a window. Charity knows very little about her parents and the story about her parents was not spoke of by members of the society. However, the appearance of Lucien Harnus a young architect who was not afraid to ask any question changes everything in the society. Charity future dreams remained locked out the more she listened to Mr Royall insecurity slithered her being although there were slight outward changes. Due to her will to change her life, charity is able to secure a job as a librarian against other eligible girls in the society. She appears bright, proficient in identifying opportunities and self determined to achieve her dreams. However, charity lacks a female figure as a role model this due to the society beliefs and cultures that a woman’s place is at home cooking, looking after children, house chores and awaiting for the man at home after work. The ability of Charity to secure a job in the society has revealed the radical changes of the women, which has generally contributed to the economy of the society (Wharton 77). In the modern society, also known as the 21st century women know have the right to secure jobs and even work in better positions in society than men. The education of the girl child has contributed to the change of the women from the traditional ways where they were submissive to the men and the modern ways where women are no longer restricted by the outdated ways of culture and beliefs. The ability of women to work in better paying jobs in the modern society is evident in many sectors of the economy. We have a number of women working as doctors, politicians and even financial advisors. The women effort to shift from the traditional culture has shifted the economy of the society in a positive way. Research has revealed that societies that still abide to the old cultural ways have ragged behind in matters concerning development of the society economy. We also find charity at a disadvantage in matters concerning love. In the modern society where women have been sexually abused by the male gender and the society members do nothing about it this is evident in the story of the summer where charity narrates her story with her first young suitor. Charity’s heart was ravaged by the life most malicious discovery where her first young g suitor brought agony instead of joy and happiness. This has revealed that most of the men in the earlier centuries would take advantage over the innocence of the young women and there were no rules or laws protecting the females. However, in the modern society the law protects women. The modern government has put in place the laws protecting the female gender from the male chauvinism. The women rights have protected them from sexual harassment and assault. In the story of the summer during the turn of the twentieth century, there were strict social prohibitions that were against a man giving a woman any gift. In the story a unmarried lady who accepted a gift from a man was considered by the society as a “no better than she should be” which actually meant that the lady was of loose morals. Men who had married could display their wealth by showering their wives with precious gifts like expensive clothing and jewelries. These acts were part of the rigid system adopted by the 19th century societies. The system worked against women having self-rule both within marriage bonds and outside the marriage bonds. The young women in the society like Charity Royall are against these cultural beliefs and they want to an independent woman. However, her dreams are shuttered by the lack of a feminist role model. Charity is quite anxious to have her independence so that she can escape from the small closed society , which is evident in the statement “My child, you must never cease to remember that it was Mr. Royall who brought you down from the Mountain.” (Wharton 9) Charity is inspired by a young man who appears at the library Lucius Harney the nephew of one of the upper class citizens in the society. Lucius was an architect studying some of the old buildings in the small town. He walks in the library and requests for an architecture book but due to the lack of knowledge in education Charity is not, conversant with the book she is so disappointed with herself. This part of the story has reflected the different education ranks between the male gender and the female gender. Most of the old societies did not support the female education in the 18th century. The lack of education among the women in the society has proven to be a hindrance in the society’s economic development. This is because there are many jobs in the modern society that best fits women rather than the male gender. The availability of jobs such as receptionist, clerk, modeling and airhostess. Some of these jobs are well paying but due to the old traditional state of the economy in most the societies with cultural rules and laws that prohibits women from working they have shuttered the development of women and also the economy’s growth. This is revealed by the statement, “I mean, I can’t see that you have any books on the old houses about here. I suppose, for that matter, this part of the country hasn’t been much explored.” (Wharton 12) The encounter between Lucius and Charity develops a love relationship, which later develops to complications. Charity’s crave for affection and passion yearns to escape the village while Harney an educated although personally weak can come and walk out of town as he pleases. Charity’s society according to the story prohibits women from moving out of the village but allows the men to freely move in and out of the village. This has denied women the right of movement, which has hindered their dreams to develop or shift from the old cultural ways. However, as the evolution of centuries occurs women have been able to acquire and fight for their freedom of movement (Bencivenni 107). The freedom of movement among the women has enabled most of them to pursue their dreams and also made a dramatic change in the economy of most societies globally. In the story of Charity, we also find that the society members do not allow unmarried women to get pregnant. In the love life between Charity and Lucius they found themselves in a situation that was hard to evade when charity got pregnant. This was caused by the unexposed nature of the society, which did not have the technical knowhow of how to protect women from unwanted pregnancy. In the Modern society, the rights of women have been protected from the unwanted pregnancies through the knowledge and awareness of using the contraceptives as method of preventing pregnancy. According to the story, Charity’s option was to opt for an abortion to protect her from the society members. The unenlightened societies have cultural beliefs that do not allow women to have children before marriage. When a woman got pregnant before marriage this was referred to as an immoral act. Most of the societies in the earlier centuries would chase away women who got pregnant before marriage but in the modern times, everything has radically changed where women who get pregnant before marriage in the society are welcomed and educated on how to take care of their children. According to the story if Charity had considered an abortion as away to avoid the society discrimination, she would have risked her life. The society members sticking to their old cultural beliefs caused all this. According to research, in the modern society birth control, use of contraceptives and family planning methods has been allowed to protect the unwanted pregnancies. Researchers have proven that the increase in birth rate of unwanted pregnancies has also affected the economy of the nation. This is evident in the presence of large number of children in homeless caring homes, individuals living in slums and others homeless. The government has bee enforced to set aside funds to take care of these individuals, which in turn has greatly affected the gross national income. Therefore, with the help of contraceptives and family planning campaigns the government’s burden will be eased (Dickson 72). The author Wharton has used seasons to symbolically reflect the developments of the relationship between Charity Royall and Lucius Harney from their early period of love life and their full passion of their love. This love brings reality to Charity who has lived all her live in the mountain with her fellow society members who are afraid of making improvements in their lives. The society’s culture to prohibit most of his members from improving their life style has largely affected the society’s economy (Rosen 45). In the story “Tender is the Night” the character rosemary has been used as a symbol to reflect the radical changes of women in the society and how they have affected the economy of the nation in the modern world. The chapters of the short story have been used to show the reader and introduce him to another world. The novel has involved the rich description of the individuals that come from the rich Mediterranean coast of France (Rosen 45). The novel mostly tackles the ideological differences of the society of the Americans and the Europeans. The author from the beginning of the novel refers Europe as amore ancient continent than America. The story takes place in a critical time for the society (Dickson 102). “He opened the gate to his amusing world. So long as they subscribed to it completely, their happiness was his preoccupation, bit at the fist flicker of doubt as to its all-inclusiveness he evaporated before their eyes, leaving little communicable memory of what he had said or done."(Scott 28) In the story the presence of the divers have been used to symbolize the perfect harmony with the Europeans despite being a modern society. The story begins with Rosemary Hoyt who is a native from America and brought up in France straddles in two different worlds. The two worlds according to the author have been represented by the Murphy and McKisko society. Rosemary’s response to both societies reflects a judgment, which is expressed in the form of a love affair when she decides to falling love with Dick and neglects McKisko. You're the only girl I've seen for a very long time that actually did look like something blooming "(Scott 22). This reflects how most of the women in the modern world have neglected going back to the old cultural ways and have planned to stick to the modern ways where gender equality is observed and respected. According to research the modern cultural ways have accepted both the female and the male genders in various sectors like education, work related issues where women are freely to work (Dickson 162). “ Works Cited Bencivenni, Marcella. Italian immigrant radical culture the idealism of the sovversivi in the United States, 1890-1940. New York: New York University Press, 2011. Print. Dickinson, Torry D.. Community and the world: participating in social change. New York: Nova Science, 2003. Print. Fitzgerald, F. Scott. Tender is the night. New York: Wildside Press LLC, 2011. Print. Ruth , Rosen . The World Split Open: How the Modern Women's Movement Changed America. New York: Tantor eBooks, 2013. Print. Wharton, Edith. Summer. London: Interactive Media, 2012. Print. Read More