On Motherhood and Mother Earth-hood Ecological Constructs in A Mercy and Silent Spring - Literature Essay Samples

Environmentally conscious writing can depict gender constructions in so many different ways depending upon what point the author tries to make. For instance, in Silent Spring, Rachel Carson focuses on how the environment impacts women much more than men. In Toni Morrison’s A Mercy, the environment acts as a symbol and a metaphor for many different aspects of womanhood and motherhood throughout the novel. Perhaps these authors chose to focus on women so explicitly because, due to the fact that women carry children and are often the primary caretakers, the state of the environment and environmental concerns affect most women more than most men. Motherhood brings about an entirely new set of environmental issues for women that Morrison and Carson are careful not to overlook. In the article â€Å"The Place of Women in Polluted Places,† author Lin Nelson sets up a valid argument about motherhood’s importance in terms of those who become most concerned about the environment. At this point in time, it may seem obvious that environmental health and women’s health are inextricably linked. For instance, Nelson elucidates that, â€Å"there are many poorly researched, unanswered questions regarding the impact of environmental contamination on breast cancer, reproductive health, neurological functioning, and allergic diseases† (Nelson 176). While Nelson makes a great point about women’s health over all, she goes on to focus on the â€Å"reproductive health† aspect of environmental concern, and the ways in which motherhood and the state of the environment are connected. Later in her article, Nelson explains how, â€Å"one of the most sobering aspects of the ecological degradation we endure is the impact on our capacity to bear healthy children† (Nelson 177). Because women are the gender who carries children throughout pregnancy, women have to make many choices about where they spend their time in the environment the moment they know that they will become a mother nine months down the road. Nelson refers to motherhood as a â€Å"sobering† aspect of â€Å"ecological degradation† because once someone becomes pregnant it all seems clear: she now needs to protect the environment and be wary of environmental issues not only for herself, but for her children as well. It can be easy to disregard one’s own safety, but it becomes more difficult to be willfully ignorant about the safety of loved ones, especially one’s own children. From pregnancy to raising kids, Rachel Carson covers all the bases as to why mothers should be especially environmentally concerned. As a woman, Carson’s words in Silent Spring focus primarily on women’s issues, which naturally includes issues of rearing children. Carson’s narrative has a unique scientific lense to it that many authors cannot achieve while keeping an interested and keen audience. However, Rachel Carson has such relatable subject matter that people especially mothers keep reading. For instance, Carson writes in length about the scientific fact that, â€Å"children are more susceptible to poisoning than adults† (Carson 21). This fact brings a mother’s environmental consciousness into a new plane of importance because as a mother, one has more to worry about in terms of the environment’s health and future than just themselves. Therefore, if children are even â€Å"more susceptible to poisoning than adults,† mothers will immediately take extra caution to avoid environmental poison for their children. However, as Carson points out in Silent Spring, poison is so much more present than one would think, especially as humans continue to pollute the environment with chemicals that, for some absurd reason, are often still legal in America. After mothers realize that their children were exposed to certain environmental toxins that are not known to the public, a natural rage occurs. In terms of the overwhelming hormones in milk, one mother asks, â€Å"why were not special precautions taken to protect our children who drank milk from local dairies?† (Carson 91). Women with children tend to take every precaution to keep their children safe, but this proves impossible when people in control of companies such as large scale producers of dairy products keep their product’s dangers a secret. While mothers could feel disproportionately guilty about their choices, many tend to become environmental activists, because these environmental problems suddenly feel very close to home. This happens again because suddenly, the mothers themselves are not the ones being hurt, but rather those more important than themselves: their children. One mother who had so many children wronged by environmental factors is Rebekka in Toni Morrison’s novel, A Mercy. Rebekka has a handful of children, and they all die before they even reach their preteen years. Morrison does a great job of matching the novel’s perspective to that of Rebekka’s. Children do not just drop dead for no reason, so Morrison lets one assume that the environment these children were raised in played a role in their death. She does this through weaving nature imagery into the entire narrative about Rebekka’s children’s deaths specifically. For instance, Rebekka refers to her daughter, â€Å"Patrician’s accident [as caused] by a cloven hoof† (Morrison 94). Morrison could have written this child’s death in any way. Kids die from household accidents such as falling down the stairs all the time. However, Toni Morrison made a crafty choice and decided to have a â€Å"hoof,† part of an animal, part of nat ure, kill Patrician. This is no coincidence. Morrison actively wanted nature to be the murderer here, because although A Mercy takes place in a time closer to the Civil War than present day, Morrison is an environmentalist who wants to make the point that not taking care of nature affects mothers. Morrison goes on to weave environmental imagery into Rebekka’s story to further her point. She uses snow as a common image to depict the coldness and cruelness of Mother Nature when she feels scorned. For instance, after Patrician passes away, Rebekka says to Lina, â€Å"I chastised her for a torn shift, Lina, and the next thing I know she is lying in the snow. Her little head cracked like an egg† (Morrison 92). The word â€Å"snow† has a lot of different connotations to it. Snow stops everyone in their tracks, the world stops for a day when there is too much snow. Snow is still, more peaceful than rain. Snow is cold and unwelcoming. Snow isolates people in their homes. Perhaps these connotations are why Morrison chose this natural event to surround death. They suggest that nature has the power to emotionally inhibit mothers. Morrison continues to reference snow in this way when she writes that, â€Å"at dawn, in a light snowfall, Lina came and arranged jewelry and food on the grave †¦ telling her that the boys and Patrician were stars now, or something equally lovely: yellow and green birds, playful foxes, or the rose-tinted clouds† (Morrison 93). In this quotation, Lina suggests that the environment can be good too, once one has control over it. She suggests that if Rebekka’s children are now part of the environment as â€Å"foxes or the rose-tinted clouds,† they can be at peace with it, and nature will no longer hurt them because they are nature. Morrison, Carson, and Nelson agree that the environment can wreak havoc on mothers when left to its own devices. Nelson and Carson acknowledge this from a biological standpoint, while Morrison turns it into a metaphor suitable to her novel’s plotline. Due to the added consequences for mothers, Nelson, Carson, and Morrison prove that mothers have added reason to be concerned about the state of the Earth’s climate. Perhaps that is one of the many reasons why Earth has always been associated with women.

Conflicting Duties The Choices of Elesin and Pikings - Literature Essay Samples

In Death and the King’s Horseman, Wole Soyinka tells the dramatized version of true events that happened in the Yoruban city of Oyo in 1946. A Colonial District Officer interrupted a traditional ritual suicide which then led to the death of both the original man committing suicide and his son who committed suicide to take his place. Although Soyinka changes some of the details, such as changing the year and adding a wedding, the heart of the story remains the same. Because of the interference of a colonist who didn’t truly understand the culture and the significance of the suicide, two lives were lost instead of one. The actions of each character, major and minor, in the play are motivated by the sense of duty. Neither Elesin Oba nor Pilkings appear to be fully committed to fulfilling their duty, but they attempt to do it nonetheless. The minor characters all also have opinions on the resolution of the two main characters’ resolution to fulfill their duties. In the opening act of the play, Elesin Oba (here out referred to as Elesin) stands in the marketplace as he discusses life, his imminent fate, and a new bride with his praise-singer . According to Moses Adebayo Aremu, a scholar published in the Journal of Pan African Studies, the play opens with the praise-singer â€Å"warning or rebuking Elesin to beware of his hedonistic attitude, carnal lust, and Epicureanism† (121) in the back and forth proverbs about the cockerel. The praise-singer and Iyaloja express their doubts about Elesin’s willingness and readiness to go through with the ritual suicide many times throughout this first act. Iyaloja expresses her doubts most bluntly at the end of the act when she says, â€Å"The living must eat and drink. When the moment comes, don’t turn the food to rodents’ droppings in their mouth† (Soyinka 17). She continues in this vein for several exchanges, requesting that he be kind to the living spirits when he is gone, and to be sure â€Å"the seed you leave in [the earth] attracts no curse† (18). Elesin is offended at her doubts and implications, but he pretends that he is not. It is not simply the praise-singer and Iyaloja, however that have doubts. The women of the market question Elesin when they call out, â€Å"You will not delay? Nothing will hold you back?† (10). The praise-singer and Iyaloja both sense Elesin’s apprehension at the upcoming task, and they reprimand him for traits that they feel might jeopardize his willingness to go along with the ritual. On the other hand, Elesin is eager to show off how honorable he is and how eager he is to perform his duty, but there is tension. When the praise-singer and he are discussing how the presence of white colonialists interfered with Yoruba before, Elesin is adamant that he will not let them interfere. The praise-singer says, â€Å"If that world leaves its course and smashes on boulders of the great void, whose world will give us shelter?† and Elesin replies, â€Å"It did not in the time of my forebears, it shall not in mine† (6). He also implies several times during the conversation that it is the gods will that the whites will not interfere. He moves on to manipulate the crowd with the knowledge of what the night will bring. He snaps at them, â€Å"Stop! Enough of that! †¦ I am bitterly offended† (11). He turns it into a joke, laughing as they bring him rich cloths to wear. After spotting a young woman and essentially demanding that he be allowed to marry her before he dies that night, he claims, â€Å"I deserve a bed of honour to lie upon† (15). The women, multiple times throughout the act, say, â€Å"We know you for a man of honour,† (11). Elesin is boastful throughout the whole act. He describes himself as having eyes that are hawks, as being the master of his Fate, and as having an honor that is a legacy to the living. According to Summer Pervez in her article Performing British Power: Politics and Perfromance Space, by the end of this act, â€Å"Elesin’s hesitations are evident to the reader† (65). The second act takes us out of the sphere of the Yorubans and into District Officer Pilking’s bungalow, â€Å"a colonial site of power† (Pervez 65). In this act, Pilkings receives news of the upcoming ritual suicide, bemoans possibly missing the ball, and harasses his Yoruban servants. He exerts his power over Amusa, a native policeman, by attempting to force Amusa to deliver news to himself and his wife while they desecrate sacred masks. He says, â€Å"I order you to report your business at once or face disciplinary action† (19). Amusa refuses, and eventually writes down the report after they’ve left the room. After showing that Pilkings has absolutely no respect for the culture of the Yoruban people, he misinterprets Amusa’s note to mean that they will be doing a ritual murder. His wife, Jane, is immediately disappointed. â€Å"Oh. Does that mean we are not getting to the ball at all?† Pilkings responds, â€Å"No-o. I’ll have the ma n arrested†¦ I’ll send Joseph with instructions† (20-21). Instead of doing his duty and investigating what’s going on, he decides that he would rather go to the ball because the prince will be attending. His wife guilts him into at least asking a few questions before arresting Elesin. â€Å"But don’t you want to talk first to the man? †¦ It seems hardly fair just to lock up a man-and a chief at that-simply on the†¦ uncorroborated word of a sergeant† (21). Pilkings is determined not to miss the ball, but Jane reminds him of his duty. â€Å"You know this business has to be stopped Simon. And you are the only man who can do it† (25). His sense of duty catches up with him, though, and he apologizes for severely offending Joseph, his steward-boy, because he wants Joseph to deliver a message to Amusa. The apology is very difficult for Pilkings, but he does it because he needs the job to get done. This whole act is a balancing act bet ween showing that Pilkings has no respect for anything and showing that when it comes down to it, he will do his duty. In the fifth and final act of the play, Pilkings has stopped Elesin from committing suicide and locked him up in a cell for the remainder of the night. It is in this act, mostly clearly, that the audience can see the two men’s conflicting senses of duty. Pilkings has succeeded. Elesin has failed. Elesin blames everyone but himself for his failure to complete the ritual. â€Å"First I blamed the white man, then I blamed my gods for deserting me. Now I feel I want to blame you†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (53). He does eventually admit that blaming everyone else won’t solve the issue, but it is not until Iyaloja enters and severely reprimands him that the audience can see his full shame at his failure. Elesin says, â€Å"I more than deserve your scorn† (55) and Iyaloja gives it to him. For three whole pages, she lays into him because he has neglected his duties. He has failed. He attempts to redeem himself by committing suicide after finding out that his son has committed the ri tual suicide in his place. In this way, he ends the play by fulfilling his duty, but he is too late. Pilkings experiences the opposite situation in that he feels successful at the start of the final act, but by the end of it, he has failed. He begins the act by attempting to be in camaraderie with Elesin, but Elesin is having none of it. â€Å"You did not save my life, District Officer. You destroyed it† (50). Still, Pilkings continues to feel successful. â€Å"I did my duty as I saw it. I have no regrets† (51). He feels righteous in his interference with a man and a culture that he does not understand. As more and more people arrive at the prison cell, Pilkings becomes more irritable. The play culminates in the double suicide of father and son. Pilkings has failed. Instead of preventing the death of one man, he has caused the death of two. Death and the King’s Horseman is a powerful drama that deals with many complicated issues including death, colonialism, right to die, and self-determination. The characters in it are complex and have their own reasoning for each action that they do or do not take. Soyinka’s skill as a playwright allows the audience to know that he dislikes Pilkings and still form their own opinions. Both men in the play inevitably fall from grace largely from their own faults. Pilkings felt that he had the right interfere with a suicide he didn’t understand, and Elesin didn’t have the willpower to go through with the suicide. They both attempted to do their duties, but when the heart isn’t in it, they fail. Works Cited Aremu, Moses Adebayo. Proverbs As Cultural Semiotics In Soyinkas Death And The Kings Horseman. Journal Of Pan African Studies 8.5 (2015): 115-125. Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 Apr. 2016. Pervez, Summer. Performing British Power: Colonial Politics And Performance Space In Soyinkas Death And The Kings Horseman. Philosophia Africana: Analysis Of Philosophy And Issues In Africa And The Black Diaspora 11.1 (2008): 61-73. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 2 Apr. 2016. Soyinka, Wole. Death and the Kings Horseman. London: Eyre Methuen, 1975. Print. 1 Apr. 2016.