Close Company, Stories of Mothers and Daughters, A Visit From the Footbinder
Women during the time that A Visit from the Footbinder was written were willing to accept pain to fulfill society's concept of beauty and to keep their position in society. Women's role in this society was one in which they lacked any sense of power and they were therefore fully dependent on men. Hence, they were willing to suffer through the excruciating torture of crushing their toes under the weight of their own bodies in order to make themselves desirable enough to attract a wealthy husband. The roles of men and women in this story are quite rigid, therefore allowing women little room to go against society. This is due in part to the economy, which does not permit much movement for neither race nor gender. Therefore, when one is born into a class they must conform to its standards. Women are generally given more rights and freedoms if they provide a direct economic function in society, such as owning and managing property to produce goods. Most of the property was passed down from father to son, though, an
In the case of Pleasant Mouse, a girl like any other of her class, she must conform to society's standards if she wishes to continue her comfortable life. She must suffer the pain of bound feet in order to live in a life of luxury. She really has no choice, for she is of the upper class. Only the lower classes in which women have to work are feet left unbound. These were the ways of time in which this young girl lived. Society can be harsh, and in this case the victims were the women. Women are restricted to these roles because the idea of what a "good" woman or man should be becomes so ingrained into the culture. Society condemns that which is different, mainly due to fear, making it difficult for anyone to go against its belief systems. In the story, both the men and the women are really against the idea of the footbinding deep down. When asked if it will hurt, Tiger Mouse tells Pleasure Mouse that perhaps "the pain is so great that one's sentiments are smashed like egg shells"(Prager 50]. Warm Milk, the co
Some common words found in the essay are:
Visit Footbinder, Pleasure Mouse's, Pleasant Mouse, Pleasure Mouse, Fen Wen, Warm Milk, Mouse PromisePrager, Tiger Mouse, pleasure mouse, pleasure mouse's, roles women, women rights, class conform, suffer pain,
Approximate Word count = 689
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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