Robert Morgan’s novel Essay Example for Free

Robert Morgan’s novel Essay Robert Morgan’s novel Gap Creek is the story of Hank and Julie Herman and their struggles in life and marriage through things like poverty and natural disaster. It deals with marital issues as well as with issues of finances, death and family loyalty in relation to gender roles. Gap Creek could be considered a simple chronicle of the couple’s struggle to prosper and make their lives better on a poor country farm, but it is also an examination of the gender roles of Hank and Julie. Gap Creek is an illustration of the traditional roles and voices that men and women have in marriages and in life and of what happens when they are forced to step outside of those roles for the benefit or survival of themselves and their families. The character of Julie represents a woman fulfilling male roles out of necessity but struggling to retain her identity as a woman. Julie Harmon’s voice is the one that the reader hears the loudest because she is the character that tells the story. The book deals with the inner and outer strength of the characters against life obstacles and even though Julie is the primary female character her strength and self worth or identity are often displayed through physical strength and manual labor. The jobs that Julie is given to do are left to her because the women around her take for granted that she is as physically strong as a man and capable of doing them. Julie sacrifices a lot of her own wishes and her femininity as the manual laborer first for her own family and later for Hank. From the beginning of the novel Julie’s masculine traits are evident, making her emotionally and physically stronger than her own father. She seems resentful of being the family member that is counted on to do most of the outside farm work: â€Å"I seen what I was going to have to do. I resented it, but I seen what had to be done† (Morgan 12). Although this statement is made about chopping wood, it is also the attitude that Julie has towards all of the responsibilities she has been given, from the work on the family farm to sitting up at night to care for her dying father. She is strong enough to handle it, so she has to do it. Julie is resentful of her masculine role in the family partly because none of her other sisters are willing to help out. She talks about how one of them is too busy cooking and baking and another is dressed in lacy dresses and won’t get her hands dirty. These are things that Julie should also be experiencing as a woman, but has set aside to embrace her farm hand duties. She recognizes that by taking on all of these typically male duties and responsibilities that she is sacrificing some of her female identity. She tells her sister, â€Å"I hope no man ever sees us working like this†¦because he would never think of us as ladies†¦I don’t want to be looked on like a field hand† (Morgan 34). She does display some typically female traits but is quick to set these aside to assume her role as the strong one in the family. Her feminine emotions conflict with her male role. She cries and mourns her little brother when he dies, but then she has to help her father carry the body home because he isn’t strong enough to do it himself. Because of her sense of family obligation, Julie struggles with conflicts between her feminine identity and her masculine life roles. Julie’s gender role conflicts are internal when she’s still living at home with her parents but they become external when she marries Hank and moves to Gap Creek. In many ways Julie is still left to fulfill the domestic household roles that would usually fall to a man, like chopping wood and butchering hogs, because she is once again emotionally and physically stronger than the men in her life. The widower they rent the Gap Creek property from, Mr. Pendergast, is old and sick, leaving daily farm chores for her. Hank is gone working every day so she has to be the capable responsible worker she was for her own family. Later Julie’s outer and inner strength is shown to be superior to that of the men around her when she saves each of their lives. She pulls Mr. Pendergast from a fire and she keeps Hank from killing himself when the property is damaged in the flood. She doesn’t resent this strength the way she did with her family, but she does recognize it as being outside the normal balance of male and female roles. She knows she is again fulfilling roles that should be taken by men rather than her. She says, â€Å"It was strange to think that I was stronger than Hank. He was wore out and I still felt like fighting† (Morgan 336). She realizes that in spite of Hank’s physical size and strength, she is stronger than him in many ways. Julie’s masculine roles and traits conflict with Hank, who seems to rely on her for household duties he can’t fulfill while still wanting to be viewed as the dominant male in the household. He repeatedly tells her that he will be the one to make important decisions for the family when she tries to offer her opinions and he hits her the one time she acts on her own and mistakenly gives their savings away to a con man. He calls her dumb and insults her for not being able to describe the man better. He is as angry at her for doing something without asking him first as he is for her losing their money. Julie acknowledges that part of her role as a wife is â€Å"†¦to make Hank feel good about hisself, to make him feel strong and in charge of things† (Morgan 231). Because she follows this expectation of a wife whenever Hank is around, she ends up doing all the physical labor that Hank can’t do but he still feels like he’s the stronger one. There are two key events in the novel when Julie uses an inner strength that is uniquely female. The first of these is when Julie begins attending church after the flood. She does this as much to meet other women as she does for religious reasons. Hank doesn’t want to go and holds her back for a while, using his discouragement over their poverty and his job loss to convince her that church and God won’t help them. When she does finally get him to attend but he still tries to hold her back. She is walking up the church aisle to devote herself to God and she describes, â€Å"I think Hank reached out to hold me back†¦but I was doing what I had to do† (Morgan 368). She goes through with it because it is what she feels like she must do for herself, not for him. She finds peace in attending church and after making friends with some of the women in the congregation she says, â€Å"I felt like a human being again. A woman has to have a woman friend to talk to† (Morgan 374). She rediscovers a part of herself that she has neglected when she communicates with other women instead of just the men in her life, and the women give her a satisfaction that the men can’t. Julie attends church to reclaim part of her feminine identity that she has lost to Hank and to her marriage. Giving birth to her daughter is the second event where Julie recognizes power within herself that is completely feminine. While she is in labor she realizes that, â€Å"This is the work only I can do. This is work meant for me from the beginning of time† (Morgan 424) and after giving birth she finds that, â€Å"I was so tired I couldn’t hardly stand up, yet I felt stronger than I ever had before† (Morgan 427). These thoughts that she has during labor and delivery show how she comes to realize that not all of her strength is the masculine kind she’s been forced to have. She sees that there are elements to her inner and outer strength that only a woman can have. Julie and Hank Harmon each represent traditional male and female roles of strength and subservience. Much of their struggle comes when Julie is forced to step outside of this traditional role and Hank continues to act as though she hasn’t been. Their struggles with money and land is representative of their inner struggles to be respected for the work they each do, to assert their individual gender strengths and to be considered equal in their efforts and worth. Gap Creek represents the struggle between being what one’s gender says one should be versus what life circumstances forces one to become. Julie Harmon represents women everywhere who wear the pants in the family because they have to and find themselves struggling not to lose their identity as women in the process. Works Cited Morgan, Robert. Gap Creek. Thorndike: Thorndike Press, 1999.

The Dobe Ju/ hoansi Essay example -- essays research papers

The Dobe Ju/' hoansi   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ch 10: The Ju/' hoansi & their neighbors o  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Ju/'hoansi share the Dobe area with the Herero and Tswana pastorals. o  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  They grow crops and have herds yet are all based on kinship and are don't have developed markets or governments. o  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Herero's are the largest groups of in the Dobe area. They are Bantu speaking people. o  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Were influenced by the German missionaries who pushed them out of their land. They attacked colonists and Germany declared war, ultimately killing 60% of them. o  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Working on Herero cattle posts is major source of employment of the Ju. o  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  With the H& T's came major ecological changes. o  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Wells were deepened to ensure water supply for stock and were also fenced in. o  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Has created more sanitary water but less is available. Goats have also destroyed the grass. And each cattle post now has a permanent population of houseflies. o  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Working for the Herero's gives a Ju a donkey to ride as well as an outfit. Wages are minimum but it offers a calf in the long run and ability to offer relatives hospitality. o  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Intermarriage is common with Ju women marry Black men. o  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Advantages- Ju woman are in the ar...

Yeshu

The most important point being that the natural balance in an ecosystem is maintained. This balance may be disturbed due to the introduction of new species, the sudden death of some species, natural hazards or man-made causes. In this field trip we will explore how human population and development affects the ecological balance. Take time to explore this site as your gateway to the world of ecology. It has interesting articles and facts. There are features such as the Environmental Timeline that shows how there were different concerns about the environment throughout istory.The environmental impact of war is an interesting article on how preparation of war and warfare leads to environmental losses. The carpet bombing of the lush green forests during the Vietnam war led to the loss of habitat of many species. Special features on population and the environment show how population has increased from the industrial age and how it will affect the environment. There are additional resource s for higher classes. In the name of development, we remove trees and vegetation, change how we use and, and keep expanding paved areas.All these not only affect the soil ecology, but also the water balance. Increased urbanization also requires more water to feed the city's population and industry, often requiring deeper and deeper wells to be drilled or water to be moved from even more distant locations. Increase of pavement area not lonely lessens the amount of water vapour that transpires back from the vegetation but also contributes to groundwater pollution if the salt used to melt road ice were allowed to runoff into the natural drainage system.Visit this site for a detailed look at water as a precious resource and how human development affects water and its ecosystem. It is dedicated to Water Day. To understand how human population and increased developmental activities affect the ecosystem, there are live examples all over the world. Armenia is one such example of what is hap pening to the ecosystem because of increased population and developmental activities. Over the last 1,000 years human impacts on the land have increased, mainly through deforestation and increased use of pastures.Such problems have intensified over recent years with unprecedented population growth and urbanisation since 1920, resulting in increased human impacts not only on individual species, but also on whole ecosystems. Read the article on this site and you will consciously become aware of what unchecked industrial development and urbanization could do to your region. The fast pace of development has led to many unwanted results. Exotic species get destroyed taster than we can discover them and ancient ecosystems are getting isturbed in our scientific explorations.Find out about amazing facts on human impact on oceans, toxins, and much more as you explore this site for environmental education on the web. It is designed primarily for kids, but the features and articles are good re ading for any grade. There are also handy tips on what you can do to help protect the environment and ideas on how you can start an ecology club in your neighbourhood. Visit the resources given on the Ecology and great Links pages to know more about this science.

A Relationship With The Social Work Field - 1350 Words

I interviewed Kim, a LICSW working in private practice in Providence along with her two brothers. She takes on a person-centered approach to her therapy and is very focused on helping her clients achieve their goals, whether it be overcoming grief or dealing with a large adjustment in their lives. Kim certainly appears to be running a very successful practice and by being able to speak to her directly, I learned much more about the social work field. The purpose of her practice is to help those dealing with concerns such as grief, loss, adjustment, trauma, PTSD, and anxiety. She provides psychotherapy, both short and long-term, in order to enhance her clients’ lives and accept the changes that are occurring. Each day, Kim has many†¦show more content†¦However, she found out that she did not truly want to work with children and entered the hospice care field. While there, she discovered her passion for serving those who were underrepresented and wanted to help a broad range of people. Therefore, she reenrolled at Grant Valley State in the MSW program with a focus on grief and end of life counseling. She chose to enter the social work field instead of psychology because it was very well-rounded and she could help many people. She already had classes in this area from her undergraduate years and felt they were too researched-focused. In addition, she would have to go for her doctorate to become a therapist and was al ready trying to raise a family as a single mother. Therefore, she knew inside that the social work path was the one for her. In Kim’s mind, there are significantly more positives than negatives in the social work field and she mentioned a couple examples of the most important ones. First, she gets to help many people to rebuild their lives and relationships when things have taken a downward spiral. Some days, she even has 12 clients at once, which would be difficult for many, but she is always up for the rewarding challenge. In addition, she feels it is an honor and a blessing to help this large number of people and thinks that it was fate that allowed her to leave her teaching position. Finally, Kim likes that her clients are able to trust her