In: Psychology
Story: “Petrified Man” by Eudora Welty
What happens in the story to conventional male and female roles? What is implied about love, marriage, childbearing, and adult sexuality? To what extent have all of the men in the story become "petrified"?
Pertified man is a very unconventional story , exploring the subcounsciousness of human thoughts . The conventional man and woman role are looked at from a different perspective and the selfish side of women is portryaed larger than the normal side of a woman . Woman in unconfoatble in the conventional roles and in the new role of a working women they have a critical view of man as competitors , proving them worthless . The story shows woman as selfish , critical and rebelious . It also shows them as weal insecure people spending time in gossip and beauty believing in fortune tellers .They question the existence of man dominance in all forms and their utility in life . Man are shown as useless , rapists , irresponsible people throving on women.
Love is shown as a selfish low level emotion for alluring women. Child bearing as a burden loaded by men to destroy womens' figure and body . The treatment of adult sexulaity is in how marriages are run with a slavery approach towards woman . All what man want woman for is , cooking and procreation . Marriage is also degraded in the story . Overall it appears that love , marriage and sdult sexuality is all about man scheming to use women to prove his virility and live a confortable life .
All of the men look petrified by a great extent but for Billy . He also quentions Loeta , if she is so good why she is not rich?