Men in American Literature

Paper Summary:

This paper describes the differing perspectives of men presented by male and female authors in the late 19th century. The author bases this discussion on Mark Twain's "Roughing It", Hanna Crafts' "The Bondwoman's Narrative" and Susan Warner's "The Wide, Wide World. The paper concludes that the perception of characters reflecting an author's own sex is wish fulfillment.

From the Paper:

"Men and women have always perceived the opposite sex in ways that differ from the perceptions of that sex. The joke about men being resolute, while women are obstinate has some bearing in cultural expectations. Behavioral traits that are perfectly acceptable to one sex are not always valued in, or by, the other. Cultural expectations related to these traits are often reflected in literature. However, the interpretations of these expectations are often expressed differently by different authors, particularly between the sexes. Clearly, although both men and women authors acknowledge the authority that men had in this era, they focused on its effects in different ways."

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