Life's Gender And Sociological Issue example essay topic

Depending on where someone is brought up they will view the world in two different aspects. Someone who was raised in the city is going to see the world in a totally different light than someone who was raised in a village. A person raised in a village does not mind the notion of hard work, being out in the sun for hours on end with out a break, and not having air conditioning to come home to. A person in the city is not used to hard work, and are used to the notions of television and air-conditioned homes.

The promiscuity and the sudden lack of promiscuity (due to her marriage) of the title character in Bessie Smith's "Life" is the element of the story that keeps it moving along with the social and gender issues that impact her. It is very clear that Life's promiscuity is the only way she knows how to earn money and she acts as if she is oblivious of a better lifestyle. Life comes into the village where no one knows of prostitution and brings this form of living there from the city. When she first comes to the village no one but the beer-brewing women accept her because she comes in and changes the whole state of equipoise. She was the first of her kind in this town. In the village the illiterate women were housewives or farmers, and the literate women were teachers, nurses, and did clerical work.

Life lived this life until she met Lesego and got married and gave up her freedom. Life basically lived a free life. She did what she wanted to do, when she wanted to do it, how she wanted to do it, and who she wanted to do it with. Once, she got married everything drastically changed. Lesego said to her "if I see you with those men again, I will kill you" (Head 353). Obviously, she agreed to this because she even went out and told the beer-brewing women who are always outside her yard "my old ways were over, I am woman now" (Head 353).

This is something that had to be forced upon her. Life was used to being free and now all of a sudden she is being constrained. Life's promiscuity (freedom) was taken from her by getting married and when she was promiscuous no one said anything to the men that she was sleeping with. Gender plays an integral part on Life. Life is seen as a "fuck-about" in the town because of her chosen profession. She sleeps around with different men and does not see anything wrong with it but the residents of the village do.

They look down on her for that as if they are better than her but they say nothing to the men who sleep with her. She is just doing what she can so that she can have money and continue to live the life that she is used to living. She is used to having the finer things in life, in abundance, and at her grasp. Yes, she is a smart city girl and can easily be a teacher, nurse, or do clerical work but that is not what makes her happy. Therefore, Life to settles down and gets married so that she can finally feel accepted by the rest of her community. The sociological issues that are shaping Life and ultimately lead to her demise are domestic.

She is rushed into marriage to gain acceptance. Even though the story does not state it, it is implied. Everyone wants to feel as if they are a part of a whole and this was Life's way of being a part of this whole. So, Life marries Lesego and looses her freedom forever. She feels as if she is a caged bird who cannot spread her wings and fly. She looses the very essence of herself and becomes a housewife (something she never thought she would be).

Life does what she only knows how to do, and that is to be a "fuck-about" and goes back on the vows she made with her husband. In conclusion, it is safe to say that "a zebra does not stray far from it stripes". Life's gender and sociological issue that were hung over her still did not change who she was: a promiscuous woman from the city who knew what she wanted, when she wanted it, and would go out and get it by any means necessary. Work Cited Head, Bessie. "Life". Literature and The Writing Process.

New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 2002.349-355.