ENG 1141
Creative Writing
Formal Critique
Reviewer’s Name: Sarvinoz Erkinova
Title of Piece: “Whatever Happened to____?” Author’s Name: Anonymous
In this piece of work, the author describes in detail the life of female writers or at least herself. I like the set up of the work, the flow of ideas, and the vivid imagery she used in the context. I felt as if I was there experiencing everything while reading the story. It was interesting to me how when the author was listening to the driver’s story of a woman writer and when he described her as “so talented”, she imagined her as a passive woman. The driver said that she got married and then he never has seen her writing again. We can assume from this, that after she got married she stopped doing what she enjoyed, and probably got consumed by all the household chores and responsibilities and an abusive husband.
Being from a different culture myself, having friends from different cultures, and living in America made me realize that in many cultures if not all, women are preferred not to have a career and to be house wives, and it is a normalized an widely accepted expectation. The author stated that how women she knew were discouraged to attend to grad schools because they were expected to get married and that education was an impediment to marriage. She also mentions that she struggles to make writing possible sometimes because she’s a mother, a wife, has a career, and also experiences violence and hostility from her husband.
Even though the author was still able to have a career and a writer she was experiencing undo maltreatment from her partner. One question I have for her is that what is one great advice she would give young women to overcome male dominance that is inherent almost in all societies and cultures?
Hi Sarvi,
great critique!, I see your point about the society’s expectation for women and I think the piece delivered many strong emotions and unresolved issues in our society even here in the U.S. Being from a different culture and country myself as well, I never have imagined that limiting women in gender roles and maltreating them would be still practiced in many other countries regardless of how educated or powerful the population is.
Hey Sarvi, I really like how you talked about what expectations women face in other cultures. By comparing American culture with other cultures, it just goes to show that women can never escape the patriarchy no matter where they come from.