Monday, April 2, 2012
The Street Part One- Parzyck
I found this reading to be very interesting and I enjoyed it a lot. I found one particlular passage very interesting and it came up 2 more times during the reading, "It's best that the man do the work when the babies are young. And when the man is young. Not good for the woman to work when she's young. Not good for the man," (Petry, pg. 33) and it reappears on pages 53 and 65 as well. Mrs. Pizzini seems to find this very important but it also frustrated me. Lutie was only trying to support her family and since her husband could not get a job she had too, and he didn't even thank her for doing so. I was so mad when I read that he had a new girlfriend and she was using the money that Lutie sent for food. I was also very shocked by her husband's reaction when she returned home, it seemed like a typical response from a man that you see in movies, it was like a "well what do you expect," type of response and he took no credit for his mistake. I found this to be a very surprising role for Lutie, we have discussed a lot about women having a hard time finding jobs outside of being a maid and a nanny but Lutie was able too but her husband was not. Did this have something to do with the fact they were black? Was the stigma for black women and finding jobs different than white women at this time?
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I also thought this was interesting, this repeated passage, as I think it kind of embodies the accepted concept of family structure and gender roles in the time period. Perhaps it can also be drawn from this, that by saying it's not good, it's like Mrs. Pizzini hints at what Jim could and does eventually do, which is to say it was common enough and if a woman had to work when she was young, e.g. if she was poor, if she was black, she will inevitably be put in a negative position.
ReplyDeleteI agree completely. Furthermore, I found it admirable that she'd consider a divorce, though it'd likely bring judgements from a society disproving of women leaving their husbands. Nevertheless, Lutie could be considered an embodiment of a "new women" as she works independently to support her family, makes decisions thinking solely of herself and her children (Not the judgements of her husband or society) and also encourages a better life for her son, wanting him to refrain from shoe-shining and stay off of the streets because she wants more than this for his life. Lutie's ability to act on her desires and her morals despite what people think make her an admirable character thus far in "The Street."
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