Dawn M Giordano Eng-102
Caged
This story brought forth many realities that still exist in this country and even more so in many others. Charity was viewed as less than a man and punished daily by her husband for having her own ideas. Her recalling the way the other women looked at her as she crawled her way out of the bushes battered and beaten was, in a way, comical. “Obviously she meant to kill them as they drew their water from the well” she was thinking while all the women were wondering what to do about this horrible monster coming out of the woods.
The women would not openly voice any opinion on Charity or her horribly battered body without consulting an elder, who of course, is a man and I’m sure a church leader. The choice to build a prison around her and leave her there as a lesson was a wise one if you are a man in that society of people. Effective? It may have had an effect the first couple of days, though the women already seemed to know their role in their little community. Men were the leaders and women were the followers, made to do what was asked of them and never have their own ideas. The caged Charity became another landmark in their little village. As time passed the women didn’t notice her or even stop to ridicule, it was as if she were invisible. Being a woman in a community as such, they all have their own prisons they are living in. Ideas they can’t express, feelings they’re not permitted to share, orders to be fallowed and no questions asked.
Charity grew up in this village and yet was treated like a rabid dog. Though the elders asked her what happened they did not mention how to handle the assault that had taken place which leads the readers to believe that women in this village get assaulted on a regular basis. The men of this village maintain the women as if they were cattle, even going as far as dictating when it is okay or not okay to smile. The only reprieve for the women seemed to be at...