Question 4: treatment of women in both novels

Consider both novels. What do you notice about the treatment of women? The characterization of women? Or the omission of women? What might it suggest or signify in either novel?



Both novels characterized women in a slightly different way. In "On the Road" Women were porayed as sex objects and overall very beautiful," Her breast stuck out straight and true;her little flanks looked delcious;her hair was long and lusterous black; and her eyes were great big blue things with timidities inside. I wish i was on her bus."(pg 81). This description of Terry, Sals girl For a short period of time, shows how men desired women in general. The fact the her breast were the first thing he noticed says that hes already trying to picture her naked. The way Sal descibes her body part as delicious looking shows the lust he has for her for her. Theres was little descrimination when it came to an attractive woman, but I did notices that african american women were really mentioned much.In the beginnig of the book, Sal describes Deans wife as a sweet little girl, but was awfully dumb and capable of dong horrible things. It seemed as thought a womans looks came be for her intellegence and suggests that all women really were, were thier looks and nothing more The charaterzation of women veried. On certain instances women were degraded," while some women were concidered whores, others where wife material. In "The Road", women weren't characterized as directly nor does it speck heavily about them leaving room for you to create your own interpretaion. But thier beauty in few cases wre described. When the mans wife committed suicide, it made her appear to me as weak and selfish because she ran away from her problems rather than facing them. She had lost hope in her hsband and with that she gave up on her child. This signified that the man had more strenth, the will power to do something is obtained with motivation.