Raise The Red Lantern Essay Example For Students

Raise The Red Lantern Essay Anthropology of WomenRaise the Red Lanternâ€Å"All the world’s a stage; all of us are taking the elements of plot, character, and costume and turning into performances of possibilities†(Ward1999: 5) Raise the Red Lantern tells a compelling and sorrowful story of a young women whose life is destined to be ruined in a male-dominated society. This can be an awakening of some sort to any woman. As Ward states in her text, women learn the rules of our half of the world as well as those of the other half, since we regularly move in and out of the male world. There she defines women’s culture. The term has also been used in its anthropological sense to encompass the familial and friendship networks of women, their affective ties, their rituals. It is important to understand that woman’s culture is never a subculture. It would hardly be appropriate to define the culture of half of humanity as a subculture. Women live social existence within the general culture. W henever they are confined by patriarchal restraint or segregation into separateness, they transform this restraint into complementarily and redefine it. Thus, women live a duality- as members of the general culture and as partakers of woman’s culture. (Lerner 1986:242)Much like the quote stated, Raise the Red Lantern is set in Northern China in the 1920’s. For thousands of years the people of China have formed family life around patrilineal decent. The assessment of traditional China life was patriarchal. A basis of this set up would be from Confucius. In childhood, Before marriage, Obey your fatherIn adulthood, During marriage, Obey your husbandIn widowhood, After marriage, Obey your sonStates in the text, the lowest moment of a woman’s life was her wedding day. Cut off from her natal family, the young bride was an outsider and the object of deep suspicion in her new husband’s household. The only was to earn a place for herself was to have sons. Songlian quits college after her father has passed away and becomes Zuoquian Chen’s fourth wife. When Songlian, who chooses to walk from her house to Chen’s house instead of riding in the wedding carriage, arrives at Chen’s house, there is no sign of a celebration, an omen of things to come. Bound by tradition and inflamed with jealousy, none of the three wives come out to greet the new bride. An old housekeeper welcomes and acknowledges the arrival of Songlian, and he guides her to her new room through the house’s elaborate structure. To her surprise, in a long walk from the front door to her room, she doesn’t see a single person. The lack of human presence couples with the absence of a wedding reception to create an impersonal atmosphere that prevails throughout the film. Songlian must as Ward mentions in her book, â€Å"swallow such customs as breaking and binding little girl’s feet.† Every evening, a red lantern is lit in front of the courtyard of the wife Chen chooses to sleep with. Contrary to it’s traditional symbolism red is anything but festive. There is no love among the wives only hatred. The relationships between Chen and his wives are purely sexual. Rather than helping each other out and raising their status within the family, the wives are constantly fighting among themselves to win favors from Chen. The wives who live in separate houses must compete for the affections and privileges of the master in accordance with his customs. Jealousy abounds between the wives and the scheming keeps the tensions high. Each night a lantern is lit in favor of whom the master will be with. Shortly afterwards all the lanterns of the wife’s home and courtyard are also lit and the privileges begin. In all human cultures most women marry and bear children regardless of what women personally want to do. Ward states, â€Å"We live our lives against a backdrop of the social structures, rules and expectations from a particular point in history and with in those cultural framework. Through the four wives they portray types of work. The number one way a woman can become powerful through work is reproduction. Having and raising children as well as care for others, is a way to develop a mask of some sort that can imply power. Another type of work would be work as status enhancement. These activities promote prestige and social worth. To further explain the text states, conspicuous consumption, effective consumerism and social climbing are still work and are often highly valued. A final type of work could be work as moral, caring, repairing and integration. Women often create community, build bonds that hold groups of people together, and provide crucial services to others in time of tr ouble. This is very much displayed throughout Raise the Red Lantern. They also had body-work. Their concerns were in areas of sexuality and reproduction, that which would bring status. Everywhere in the world women’s bodies are controlled, but in a community of women restricted by customs of a master, what better tactic then use your body. Drug Abusing Fathers EssayIn the text Ward had quoted, I have taken a female perspective; treating women as political actors who employs strategies to achieve ends. Women’s strategies are directly related to the structure of power and authority in the domestic group and to a woman’s position with relation to the developmental cycle†¦Women quarrel with or dominate other women when it is n their interest to do so; they share and exchange with other women when it suits their own goals. Cooperation and conflict among women in family or in-groups cannot be understood without references to domestic power structure, to women’s place within it, and to the factors that shape the relationship between the family and the larger society. (Lamphere1972: 111)Within days of her arrival, Songlian’s relationships with her â€Å"sisters† are established. The first wife an aging woman with a grown son, does her best to ignore Songlian’s presence. The thir d concubine, beautiful ex-opera singer, is fiercely jealous of Songlian, worried that the master will find his new wife enticing. On Songlian’s wedding night, Meishan, the third wife, pretends to be sick and calls Chen away for the night. And whenever Chen spends the night with Songlian, Meishan wakes them up by singing opera on the roof early in the morning. Although Meishan outwardly displays her dislike, she does not plot against her. On the other hand, second wife Zhuoyun displays her affection for Songlian, but secretly plots to destroy her. According to Meishan, Zhuoyun has a Buddha’s face and a scorpion’ heart. Songlian struggles to be as cold and calculating as her â€Å"sisters† in playing the game until tragedy destroys her composure. Raise the Red Lantern establishes a view of life within a closed, dictatorial social community. Much as the film was, as it was structured, this film could be a parable of some sort. Songlian would be the individual, the woman. The master would be the government and the customs of the house are the laws of the country. It is an archaic system that always rewards those that play and pay but destroys those who violate. One thing I found appealing about Red Lantern is that while the film portrays a brutally patriarchal system in which women are clearly very oppressed and dependent on their lord and master for everything, it does not idealize the women or turn them into doe-eyed, sweet, saintly victims. The wives and concubines are resourceful, smart, competitive, and very determined to make the best of their situation in any way they can. They can even be cruel and downright evil. Forget the cliche that men are interested in power and women are interested in love. These women are definitely interested in power and status though, of course, the only way they can obtain it is by winning the husbands favor. Yet their power struggles are just as ruthless as anything that happens in the male world of politics, business, or war, and just as fascinating to watch. Anthropology