Lust Susan Minot Analysis
A.
English 1C
B. Spears
4 March 2015
Stereotypical Perceptions In “Lust” by Susan Minot the narrator reflects upon sexual encounters and the responses that follow from herself and the opposite gender. For the time period of 1984 the responses are stereotypically accurate based on the narrator’s perceptions of the situation. Many times it is our own perception that creates the reality that one lives. In the case of our young narrator it is her own self worth and perceptions that are creating a stereotypical response to the genders and how they should respond to having sex. However, to push that idea even further it is society that helps mold the perceptions that we should have and the types of responses that we are supposed to have to such …show more content…
Men show love to women to gain something from them, “You stare into their eyes. They flash like all the stars are out…. You do everything they want” (237). Once a woman gives into her own desires and the lies that were fed to her to give the man what he wanted the one who always gets hurt is the woman and left with this guilty feeling of being betrayed, “You’re gone. Their blank look tells you that the girl they were fucking is not there anymore. You seem to have disappeared” (237). In the end women are left with an empty feeling of giving themselves to a man that pretended to “love” them just to get what they wanted. Stereotypical of the narrator to feel this way or have her perceptions of sexual encounters lead her to believe this idea that men only have one thing on their minds or has society ruined all women into believing the worst in men? How can ladies believe men when they use lines like, “‘I’ll Love You Just For Now’” (235) and “‘Why won’t you go out with me? I’m not asking you to get married’” …show more content…
Girls tend to seek the advice of their elders when it comes to matters of the heart. However, in a more progressive day and age getting advice from a woman who, “got married when she was eighteen” to “her high school sweetheart” (236) may not be the most subjective source for reliable information. Mrs. Gunther still holds the traditional views of sex and marriage and that idea is that women are meant to deliver “babies” (236). This type of advice is only good in a society where marriage and commitment are valued above just the physical action of sex and the world that the narrator lives in is not that
English 1C
B. Spears
4 March 2015
Stereotypical Perceptions In “Lust” by Susan Minot the narrator reflects upon sexual encounters and the responses that follow from herself and the opposite gender. For the time period of 1984 the responses are stereotypically accurate based on the narrator’s perceptions of the situation. Many times it is our own perception that creates the reality that one lives. In the case of our young narrator it is her own self worth and perceptions that are creating a stereotypical response to the genders and how they should respond to having sex. However, to push that idea even further it is society that helps mold the perceptions that we should have and the types of responses that we are supposed to have to such …show more content…
Men show love to women to gain something from them, “You stare into their eyes. They flash like all the stars are out…. You do everything they want” (237). Once a woman gives into her own desires and the lies that were fed to her to give the man what he wanted the one who always gets hurt is the woman and left with this guilty feeling of being betrayed, “You’re gone. Their blank look tells you that the girl they were fucking is not there anymore. You seem to have disappeared” (237). In the end women are left with an empty feeling of giving themselves to a man that pretended to “love” them just to get what they wanted. Stereotypical of the narrator to feel this way or have her perceptions of sexual encounters lead her to believe this idea that men only have one thing on their minds or has society ruined all women into believing the worst in men? How can ladies believe men when they use lines like, “‘I’ll Love You Just For Now’” (235) and “‘Why won’t you go out with me? I’m not asking you to get married’” …show more content…
Girls tend to seek the advice of their elders when it comes to matters of the heart. However, in a more progressive day and age getting advice from a woman who, “got married when she was eighteen” to “her high school sweetheart” (236) may not be the most subjective source for reliable information. Mrs. Gunther still holds the traditional views of sex and marriage and that idea is that women are meant to deliver “babies” (236). This type of advice is only good in a society where marriage and commitment are valued above just the physical action of sex and the world that the narrator lives in is not that