| ||||
|
|
|
||
| ||||
|
| |
|
|
|
||||
Theme:
the Role of feminism in Baptiste's voyage D'Auvergne
Argument:
I am going to argue that rather than giving a straight-forward account of the peasant life, Baptiste has used this piece as a forum for focusing the reader on his disdain for the male peasant attitude toward women. I believe that Baptiste does so using three methods:
1. By describing female daily activities in such a way as to make them seem more challenging than men's work.
2. word choice: he uses adjectives with negative connotations (i.e. idle, savage,etc.) to describe the men's activities.
3.sarcasm: this will be exemplified in the example of evidence below.
Evidence:
1. "It is the women who are burdened with all the details of the housework... Thus they get up earlier and go to bed later than the men." (147)
2. "These mountain yokels have a deep contempt and despotic disdain for women, which is proper to all savages and semi-barbarous peoples." (147)
3. "During this time the master of the stable sleeps in his box, but since, after all, it wouldn't be right that he give the women a place to talk and pay the cost of their pleasures as well, the women have a special lamp for their night gossipings, the cost of whose oil is shared among them." (148)
Connections:
Bonnie Smith seems to be implying that women are over-burdened with regard to the daily work load as well as Baptiste. She explains on pages seven and eight that in addition to the household duties, women had a number of other responsibilities year round, including tending to the animals and assisting with the harvest.