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The Story Collector


From the international bestselling author of The Lost Bookshop!
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What role does societal expectation play in shaping the actions of the characters?

Created: 08/14/24

Replies: 16

Posted Aug. 14, 2024 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
kimk

Join Date: 10/16/10

Posts: 1160

What role does societal expectation play in shaping the actions of the characters?

What role does societal expectation play in shaping the actions of the characters?


Posted Aug. 15, 2024 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
LindaMonaco

Join Date: 04/13/22

Posts: 62

RE: What role does societal expectation ...

During Anna’s time, a woman who had been sexually assaulted was “ruined”. This societal norm prompted Harold to make a false confession to save Anna’s reputation. These norms also caused the community to regard the pregnant house servant as a loose woman. Actually, she was the victim of a predatory male who believed he could sexually assault lower class women with impunity. And, basically he could.


Posted Aug. 17, 2024 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
cathyoc

Join Date: 04/26/17

Posts: 287

RE: What role does societal expectation ...

I agree with Linda that the shunning of ‘loose’ girls without looking at the men was very prevalent and is still ingrained in some societies. The belief that women or girls need to be present to hold a family together is a major reason Anna stayed in Ireland after her mother died. Another expectation is that couples should recover from the birth of a child quickly by replacing it with a new birth.


Posted Aug. 19, 2024 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
tillieh

Join Date: 04/28/11

Posts: 93

RE: What role does societal expectation ...

After her mother's death, Anna was more or less expected to stay and "raise the family" and is still pretty much an expectation today. The stigma of girls who are raped as being loose or promiscuous is still prevalent today, as is the idea that you can replace one lost child with another one.


Posted Aug. 19, 2024 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
Patricia Ann

Join Date: 05/24/21

Posts: 113

RE: What role does societal expectation ...

I agree with the comments above. Because Sarah lived in the twenty-first century, she could fly to Ireland on a whim and was able to leave her husband and begin a new life. She could also pursue art as a career.


Posted Aug. 22, 2024 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
dorothyh

Join Date: 01/23/15

Posts: 237

RE: What role does societal expectation ...

I agree with above comments.


Posted Aug. 24, 2024 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
angelaw

Join Date: 05/26/22

Posts: 101

RE: What role does societal expectation ...

where a huge part of this story including the treatment of 'peasant', Anna by her aristocratic neighbors.


Posted Aug. 24, 2024 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
AmberH

Join Date: 05/09/18

Posts: 100

RE: What role does societal expectation ...

Not unusually, this story shows women being perceived as "less than" men and pushed towards more traditional roles. This is certainly reflective of our society.


Posted Aug. 25, 2024 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
BJHB

Join Date: 02/05/20

Posts: 41

RE: What role does societal expectation ...

I think we need to understand that social expectations have changed a great deal since the 1910 time period to current years. I’m thinking about the chapter where the Hawley twins were killing animals. This wasn’t so abnormal to kill rabbits and chickens many years ago, but today it is prosecuted, thank goodness.


Posted Aug. 25, 2024 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
gracew

Join Date: 06/13/11

Posts: 37

RE: What role does societal expectation ...

I loved how Tess and Anna collaborated to create a dress for Anna to attend the Hawley party. Societal expectations were that Anna was not worthy to be at a Thornwood party.


Posted Aug. 25, 2024 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
shirleyl

Join Date: 06/01/11

Posts: 83

RE: What role does societal expectation ...

Society has certainly become more obviously supportive of women in relation to predatory men. However, the subtle ways that women are still discriminated against can be even more insidious because they are less obvious.


Posted Aug. 28, 2024 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
cathyt

Join Date: 08/14/22

Posts: 43

RE: What role does societal expectation ...

I agree with shirleyl. Expectations have changed over the years, while some are still the same. My sister and I took care of my mother while my brothers went on to school, new jobs, new locations. More importantly, the single mother who chooses to raise her child through rape is much more accepted in society, but definitely eyed as lesser than the married woman. Society imposes it's own concept on us.


Posted Aug. 29, 2024 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
ScribblingScribe

Join Date: 02/29/16

Posts: 236

RE: What role does societal expectation ...

The entire story rested on the class separation between the Hawleys and the village. They got away with anything. The lower class were always at fault. Anna's mother tried to warn her, but it didn't work. Harold understood what it would mean for everyone to find out what had happened to Anna and took the blame. Then Anna was stuck by family obligation. Sarah, in the modern world, had none of those concerns or restrictions. She was free to go where she wanted and seek solace for herself on her own terms.


Posted Aug. 30, 2024 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
katherinep

Join Date: 07/16/14

Posts: 405

RE: What role does societal expectation ...

I cannot add any more to the comments already very well stated above


Posted Sep. 04, 2024 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
beckys

Join Date: 08/12/16

Posts: 273

RE: What role does societal expectation ...

the caste system, where Anna did not feel worthy to go to a party at the Hawthornes, the treatment of women, when Anna was assaulted, she was the one that felt shame, in some ways we have come a long way from this and in other ways, I feel we are moving backwards.


Posted Sep. 05, 2024 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
Muse48

Join Date: 12/27/18

Posts: 86

RE: What role does societal expectation ...

Just one example is Sarah. She does what everyone expects of her when she meets and marries Jack and after they lose their daughter to the point of losing herself. Anna does the same, giving up the love of her life to take care of her father and family. I was sad at how that part of the story ended. But in 1911 in Ireland, to do otherwise would have been considered selfish. To do so today would be considered "co-dependency."


Posted Sep. 26, 2024 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
taking.mytime's Gravatar
taking.mytime

Join Date: 03/29/16

Posts: 443

RE: What role does societal expectation ...

We are always on guard as to what others think. We react to what do, which is an action of their thinking. No one is left on their own to do as they will, without the influence of others.


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