Glass Half Full with Regret

These two passages had a very strong point; the voice of a woman has been repressed by their community and society. There were two examples of this, one from a black women and the other from Laos. They both talk about how they were discouraged from speaking when they were young, and in turn, this way of living became habitual and eventually, the women basically became afraid to speak. The women from the first chapter said that she had not completely let go of the fear of saying the wrong thing, of being punished. Even though she is a published author, she is still afraid to talk. This has probably come from her suppression as a young girl. No matter the strength of a character, when he or she grows up in a world where the ability to speak and say what one believes is suppressed, it is unlikely that that person would ever be able to blossom into a confident man or women. In The Handmaids Tale, Aunt Lydia tells Offred that she is part of a transition phase. Offred in her old world is a very strong woman who is not nearly as introverted and controlled as she is under The Eyes. The next generation of girl though, will be completely different. These girls would have grown up in a world where their being quite is looked at as the right thing. Their role will be so domesticated that to us it will seem far-fetched, but to them, it will seem normal. All of this goes back to what we know. In the story of the North Korean Gulag, Shin does not know that there is anything different than the horrible world he is living in the concentration camp. Because of this, he had no real reason to want something else. The next woman who writes has a similar story. She grew up in a world where women were subjected to the order of man. Her mother did whatever her father said so and she went as far as to tell the author, “Nod your head and say yes even if you don’t agree. It’s much easier.” The girl could be easily manipulated because of the world she grew up in. “(She) was a cup, continuously filled, half with anger, dissatisfaction, and anxiety, and the other half with emptiness.”