Abstract

The study discusses traditional gender roles and the resulting behavior in the selected works of short fiction. These gender roles dictate that men must work outside to provide for their families while women are compelled to remain inside the house, taking care of children and doing household chores. These roles are accompanied by different stereotypical traits: Men are thought to have positive traits like rationality and bravery while women are said to possess negative traits like sentimentality and cowardice. As writers are also part of society, we can expect to see the same gendered thinking in their creations. This research takes up five short stories and looks at the behavioral traits of male and female characters and the connection of these traits with the fact that males are outsiders and females are insiders.

Key Words

Insiders, Outsiders, Gender Roles, Stereotypical Traits, Feminist Stylistics 

Introduction

Throughout the world, it has always been thought that men and women should play different roles in society. Tennyson had said that men should work in the field and women should concern themselves with the hearth, otherwise there would be confusion. Men are required to work out of the house and women are required to keep within the confines of the house, cooking food and rearing children. As a result, men are expected to be the providers, and women are expected to be the provided. However, the matter does not end here; different behavioral characteristics are associated with the two genders: Men are thought to be active, brave, confident, rational, and have an interest in serious matters of life. On the other hand, women are said to be passive, talkative, meek, shy, sentimental, and have an interest in trivialities. These differences between the two sexes were clearly expressed by Gray in his Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus (1992). He says that Martians are interested in competency, power, success, and efficiency. On the other hand, Venusians value love, beauty, communication, relations, and support. It is quite natural to assume that these behavioral features are the result of keeping in the house or out of the house. If a person is kept within the walls for most of her life, we cannot expect her to be brave. Similarly, such a person would not be rational as she is only required to perform household chores. She would also become passive because her world is limited to a small house. She would become talkative as well because the best way to spend time at home is to talk. On the other hand, if a person spends most of his time working outside his house, he would naturally turn out to be somewhat brave. As he is required to solve difficult problems, he becomes rational. As he has to provide for his family, he would also become active. His confidence would grow as a result of handling the world outside. So, we can see that the behavior of men and women is associated with their living in and living out.

This study attempts to find this association in literature which, as they say, is the reflection of real life. The research takes up some short stories in which men keep out and women keep in; it looks at the behavior of the characters in these stories to know whether or not they behave according to stereotypical manner. 

Methodology

Five short stories have been selected:

i The Lottery by Shirley Jackson (1948)

ii A Man Called Horse by Dorothy M. Johnson (1950/1990)

iii A Woman on a Roof by Doris Lessing (1963/1990)

iv The Gift of the Magi by O'Henry (1905)

v A Perfect Day for Bananafish by J. D. Salinger (1948/1953)




The stories have been selected in such a way as to mirror different experiences of human life. Thus the study does not focus only on the stories carrying the theme of gender; it checks the representation of women and men in stories that cover a wide range of themes. The Lottery (Jackson, 1948) depicts a village where each year an unfortunate person is stoned to death on the basis of a lottery. The theme of the story is the absurdity of traditions and life alike. The lottery is used as a symbol of life to show the meaninglessness and futility of life. The next story A Man Called Horse (Johnson, 1950/1990) highlights racial biases. It presents a white man getting rid of racially biased thinking. A Woman on a Roof (Lessing, 1963/1990) shows a half-naked woman who is irritated by three men’s gaze. In The Gift of the Magi (Henry, 1905), the writer shows the strength and intensity of conjugal love. In A Perfect Day for Bananafish (Salinger, 1948/1953), we see a war-returned soldier, having suicidal tendencies. He cannot adjust himself to the new world and commits suicide in the end. 

The study uses Mills’ (1995) feminist stylistics as a tool. Mills (1995) stresses that texts should be read suspiciously; she believes that the language which is used in these texts not merely describes reality, it actually shapes reality. In Chapter Six of her book, Feminist Stylistics, Mills (1995) discusses the role of language in the creation of characters that are found in different texts. She claims that these characters are extremely gendered. She says that writers make linguistic choices while constructing different characters. These choices are made in accordance with gender stereotypes. Thus she rejects the common belief that writers imitate real men and women while portraying fictional characters. According to Mills (1995: 123), characters are not "simulacra of humans"; characters are nothing but words. These words bring stereotypical characters before us. In this way, she connects characterization with language and gender. 

All these stories would be minutely scrutinized, looking at the linguistic choices that a writer makes to construct his/her characters. As Mills (1995) asserts fictional characters are nothing but words, so a character can be analyzed by looking at the words that the narrator uses, which that character himself uses, and which the other characters use about him/her. 

The analysis would be made on two levels. First, the researcher would look for clues that show that men are outsiders and women are insiders in the selected stories. Then the behavioral features of male and female characters would be catalogued to see if there is an association between their behavior and their keeping in and out.

Discussion

Five short stories have been selected:

i The Lottery by Shirley Jackson (1948)

ii A Man Called Horse by Dorothy M. Johnson (1950/1990)

iii A Woman on a Roof by Doris Lessing (1963/1990)

iv The Gift of the Magi by O'Henry (1905)

v A Perfect Day for Bananafish by J. D. Salinger (1948/1953)




The stories have been selected in such a way as to mirror different experiences of human life. Thus the study does not focus only on the stories carrying the theme of gender; it checks the representation of women and men in stories that cover a wide range of themes. The Lottery (Jackson, 1948) depicts a village where each year an unfortunate person is stoned to death on the basis of a lottery. The theme of the story is the absurdity of traditions and life alike. The lottery is used as a symbol of life to show the meaninglessness and futility of life. The next story A Man Called Horse (Johnson, 1950/1990) highlights racial biases. It presents a white man getting rid of racially biased thinking. A Woman on a Roof (Lessing, 1963/1990) shows a half-naked woman who is irritated by three men’s gaze. In The Gift of the Magi (Henry, 1905), the writer shows the strength and intensity of conjugal love. In A Perfect Day for Bananafish (Salinger, 1948/1953), we see a war-returned soldier, having suicidal tendencies. He cannot adjust himself to the new world and commits suicide in the end. 

The study uses Mills’ (1995) feminist stylistics as a tool. Mills (1995) stresses that texts should be read suspiciously; she believes that the language which is used in these texts not merely describes reality, it actually shapes reality. In Chapter Six of her book, Feminist Stylistics, Mills (1995) discusses the role of language in the creation of characters that are found in different texts. She claims that these characters are extremely gendered. She says that writers make linguistic choices while constructing different characters. These choices are made in accordance with gender stereotypes. Thus she rejects the common belief that writers imitate real men and women while portraying fictional characters. According to Mills (1995: 123), characters are not "simulacra of humans"; characters are nothing but words. These words bring stereotypical characters before us. In this way, she connects characterization with language and gender. 

All these stories would be minutely scrutinized, looking at the linguistic choices that a writer makes to construct his/her characters. As Mills (1995) asserts fictional characters are nothing but words, so a character can be analyzed by looking at the words that the narrator uses, which that character himself uses, and which the other characters use about him/her. 

The analysis would be made on two levels. First, the researcher would look for clues that show that men are outsiders and women are insiders in the selected stories. Then the behavioral features of male and female characters would be catalogued to see if there is an association between their behavior and their keeping in and out.

Conclusion

On the basis of the above discussion, it is concluded that the stories having traditional gender roles present their characters with traditional qualities. Women are presented as passive, nameless, shy, sentimental, and meek. They are shown to be interested in beauty, dressing, trivialities, and talking. On the other hand, male characters are presented as active, confident, and brave. They have their own identity. They look at women as objects created for their satisfaction. They are also interested in freedom and serious concerns of life. All these behavioral features are a result of men being outsiders and women being insiders. 

References

• Goddard, A., & Patterson, L. (2000). Language and gender. Routledge 

• Gray, J. (1992). Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus. Thorsons.
• Henry, O. (1905). The Gift of the Magi. https://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/Ubooks/GifMag.shtml.   
• Jackson, S. (1948). The lottery.
• Johnson, D. (1990). A man called horse. In B. Wade (Ed.), Into the wind (pp. 126-139). Thomas Nelson and Sons. (Original work published 1950).
• Lessing, D. (1990). A woman on a roof. In B. Wade (Ed.), Into the wind (pp. 110-118). Thomas Nelson and Sons. (Original work published 1963)
• Mills, S. (1995). Feminist Stylistics: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203408735 
• Salinger, J. D. (1953). Nine stories. Little, Brown and Company. (Original work published 1948)
• Sinderland, J. (2006). Language and gender: An advance resource book. Routledge