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Representations of Masculinity and Femininity in Miguel Street


It has been said about V.S. Naipaul's novel Miguel Street that "One of
the recurrent themes... is the ideal of manliness" (Kelly 19). To help put into
focus what manliness is, it is important to establish a definition for
masculinity as well as its opposite, femininity. Masculinity is defined as
"Having qualities regarded as characteristic of men and boys, as strength, vigor,
boldness, etc" while femininity is defined as "Having qualities regarded as
characteristic of women and girls, as gentleness, weakness, delicacy, modesty,
etc" (Webster). The charcters in Miguel Street have been ingrained with the
pre- conceived notions of the roles that Trinidadian society dictates for men
and women. Naipaul not only uses these notions to show the differences of the
sexes, but takes another step in telling anecdotes of characters showing their
anti-masculine and anti- feminine features. This will lead to the discovery......

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Approximate Word Count: 1998
Approximate Pages: 8 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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