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Prompt: Based on the lives of female characters in the works 'The Gatherer Wife' (Kim Lan) and 'The Husband and Wife A Phu' (To Hoai), express your thoughts on the fate of women in the past and present.
Exploring the Destiny of Women: A Comparative Analysis through 'The Gatherer Wife' and 'The Husband and Wife A Phu'
I. Outline of the Fate of Women in the Past and Present through 'The Gatherer Wife' and 'The Husband and Wife A Phu' succinctly
1. Introduction
- Introduction to the works 'The Gatherer Wife' and 'The Husband and Wife A Phu'
2. Main Body
a. The Fate of Vietnamese Women in 'The Gatherer Wife' (depicting Thị and Old Lady Tứ):
- Thị: An unnamed woman, ageless, without family or preferences, only identified by the general term 'Thị.'
+ Unpleasant appearance, ragged and miserable, resembling any other hungry person in the famine, frail, and desperate.
+ In the midst of hunger, Thị struggles alone and eventually agrees to become the 'gatherer wife' of a stranger, marrying after just two brief encounters, with a dowry of four rice cakes => A painfully low price for a woman's fate during the famine years.
=> The fate of women in those famine years, especially Thị, was incredibly harsh and tragic.
- Old Lady Tứ's portrayal: Represents the preceding generation, complementing the image of Thị, completing the picture of women during the famine years.
+ A frail, widowed mother, living with her son in a dilapidated house in the settlement. Her life is truly pitiable.
b. Mị's Fate in 'The Husband and Wife A Phu':
- Setting: In a remote highland area in Northwest Vietnam, dominated by landlords and French colonialists. Life revolves around servitude to the ruling family, and Mị - the woman in the midst of turbulent events.
- Mị: A beautiful girl forced to marry A Sử - the son of the local lord Pá Tra.
=> 'Debt-dodging' daughter-in-law, Mị loses all freedom, happiness, and her future is stolen.
+ Physically tortured, toiling year-round, treated like cattle or horses.
+ Mentally oppressed: Every New Year, when Mị wants to celebrate, A Sử ties her to a post all night, leaving her in both physical and mental agony.
=> Mị becomes indifferent to life, convinced she will endure perpetual suffering until death.
c. Women Today:
- Today, women enjoy more rights and equality with men.
- While some still hold traditional views, the majority of women have proven their abilities in crucial roles in politics, economy, and diplomacy.
- Women can now take control of their lives, striving for personal development (reflected in Đào's character in 'Season of Rains').
- Accomplished women have gained global recognition, such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, outstanding diplomats like Nguyễn Thị Bình, Nguyễn Thị Hồi, and others.
3. Concluding Remarks
- Reaffirming the Issue
II. Exemplary Essay The Fate of Women in the Past and Present through 'The Gatherer Wife' and 'The Husband and Wife A Phu' Best Illustrated
1. Essay Exploring the Destiny of Women in the Past and Present through 'The Gatherer Wife' and 'The Husband and Wife A Phu' - Top Short Essay
1.2. Model Essay: Fate of Women in the Past and Present in the Works 'The Wife Collector' and 'A Phu's Husband':
From ancient times to the present, humans have always been the main theme in literature, especially women. The fairer sex is often portrayed as those with unpredictable and harsh destinies. Particularly, women in feudal society like Thúy Kiều, Vũ Nương,... Although not completely exposing the life of a woman, in Kim Lân's 'The Wife Collector' and Tô Hoài's 'A Phu's Husband', we see the image of a girl pushed by the currents of life, bound by circumstances, quite different from modern women today.
Examining the destinies of two women in Kim Lân's work 'The Wife Collector,' we find them in the backdrop of a famine inflicted by French colonialism and Japanese oppression. Thị, living amidst chaos, is introduced vaguely with no background or identity. 'Thị' serves as a generic term for women. Jobless, she relies on Tràng, who 'picks her up' to be his wife, depicting a fate akin to discarded scraps. Hunger affects Thị's appearance, making her 'thin and ragged, clothes tattered like a rat's nest,' with a face marked by poverty. Despite hardship, her inner kindness and hope endure, showcased as she narrates the Viet Minh's triumph over Japanese granaries, instilling hope for a brighter future.
In 'The Wife Collector,' the character Thị stands alongside another woman, Bà Cụ Tứ, Tràng's mother. Despite old age and poverty, Bà Cụ is loving and compassionate, advising her children with phrases like 'who is rich, who is poor, is predetermined.' She represents traditional virtues of a Vietnamese woman: humble, resilient, and hopeful.
Transitioning to Tô Hoài's 'A Phu's Husband,' the setting shifts to the Northwest mountains among the Mông people. Mị, a once carefree girl, becomes a victim of her family's debts, forced into marriage with a landlord. She endures laborious exploitation, physical abuse, and a loss of basic human rights. Mị's life becomes a hellish existence, yet her latent vitality yearns for freedom and happiness.
2. The Destiny of Women in the Past and Present through Two Works: The Wife Collector and The Couple A Phu in Short Number 2
Writing about the theme of human life before the August Revolution, there were many successful works depicting the life and fate of people, including Kim Lan's The Wife Collector and To Hoai's The Couple A Phu. Both works paint a picture of humanity under the oppressive rule of the French colonialists before the major changes of the Revolution. Both write about people in distress in that society, although one work is about the people in the lowland, and the other is about the people in the highland of Northwest Vietnam. Moreover, the two writers vividly describe the fate of women - the most vulnerable in that society through the images of Mi - the debt-ridden bride, Thi - the wife collector, and Grandma Tu. Comparing their fate with that of women today reveals significant changes!
Women from the past to the present are still the ones who suffer the most in society, so many writers and poets have incorporated the image of women into their works to speak up for their fate. In the two works, The Wife Collector and The Couple A Phu, the image of women becomes even clearer due to the talent and favor that writers give them.
In The Wife Collector, writer Kim Lan set the scene in a famine-stricken rural area in 1945. That horrific famine robbed our nation of two million compatriots, a dreadful past of pain and suffering where every time you went out, you saw 'corpses falling like withered grass.' This was the consequence under the rule of the Japanese fascists.
During that time, the plight of women became even more dire than ever, exemplified by Thi. Thi - this is not a given name, just a pseudonym, as even a proper name is absent, and no one knows Thi's age or relatives. Thi appears in the work as an anonymous figure in society, amidst that famine. And if it weren't for that famine, surely no one would care about someone like Thi in life.
Moreover, Thi is not favored by life for her beauty, living in the midst of those years of hunger and thirst, turning Thi into a pitiable character of fate. 'Today Thi is too tattered, clothes as worn as a rat's nest, Thi's thin and bony, only two eyes visible on the plowed face.' If it weren't for that famine, Thi wouldn't have suffered so much! Thi is the embodiment of countless farmers, people in poverty seeking sustenance, standing on the brink of impending death.
If not for that famine, perhaps Thi could still fend for herself, like when Thi used to sit gathering fallen grains to sustain herself. But when that horrific famine arrived, it turned Thi into a desperate person, a wretched woman. Because Thi accepted the proposal to become the wife of a stranger, someone she had only met twice, and the second time, it was when Thi shamelessly demanded someone to treat her to a meal of banh duc - a luxurious food for Thi at that time. 'Four bowls of banh duc' was the price, the offering that Thi used to exchange for her own self with a man who was not only ugly and uncouth but also miserably poor, living in a makeshift settlement. That price, one can say, was too cheap for the status of a girl!
Arriving home, Thi looked at the tiny, desolate house and 'suppressed a sigh.' A woman's life desires to have a husband for happiness and tranquility throughout her life, yet with this house, this man, will Thi find happiness? Perhaps Thi asked herself that when she stepped into the house and sat on the rickety bamboo bed. Being a daughter-in-law, being a wife, why does Thi only feel worry, only experience such tragic sorrows? Getting married is supposed to be a happy event, so why does Thi not have even the ceremonial offering to follow her husband? Surely, Thi must be very sorrowful, but who cries on their happy day? And that cry was stifled in the heavy sigh of Thi!
The fate of women in this situation is truly pitiful, extremely ordinary, and their happiness seems distant, unreachable! In the past, a man's dowry for marriage had to be three cows and nine buffaloes, but now it's merely a meal sufficient to fill a woman's stomach. That fate is truly agonizing, the woman even has no right to choose, as the thin line between death and life is as fragile as a thread. Kim Lan wrote about the fate of women with immense compassion. And here, Kim Lan doesn't give a name to Thi, perhaps he wants Thi to represent hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese women in that dark situation? When they have to reluctantly degrade themselves to be cheap commodities just to survive?
The image of the second woman in the work The Wife Collector is that of Grandma Tu. She is a complementary piece that completes the picture of the fate of women before the Revolution. She is the typical rural woman of Vietnam during the French colonial period, gentle, simple, and very compassionate.
Grandma Tu appears as the image of an old mother, a widow, living with her son in a dilapidated house. Perhaps for many people today, at that age, she should enjoy her old age with grandchildren, but in those circumstances, she couldn't make any choices when facing hunger and death every hour. Grandma Tu's fate may have been tragic since she lost her husband, enduring widowhood to raise her son to adulthood. Her fate is tough, laborious, like a stork wading through the riverbank:
'The stork wades through the riverbank
Bearing rice to feed her husband, the cries of children.'
However, fate can be bitter; she remains an extremely loving mother, a woman with a gentle and simple soul. When she noticed Thi at her home and was introduced by her son, 'This is the new friend at my place,' she suddenly fell silent. She felt sad because she couldn't afford a wedding for her son, worrying about her daughter-in-law having a proper wedding. Therefore, when dealing with Thi, she treated her with sincerity, friendliness, with love and compassion. In that famine, all fates were equal, yet Grandma Tu believed that her son was not worthy of Thi, not the other way around. She thought, 'People only marry my son in times of difficulty, in hunger and suffering, only then they come to my son, and my son gets a wife.' How many in the face of imminent death can still be compassionate, rich in that given love?
That is the fate of the women in the work The Wife Collector; they are victims of hunger, poverty, and sometimes the cheap, ordinary nature of certain destinies when death lurks, encircling them. In The Couple A Phu, with Mi, her fate is on a different side.
Set in the highlands of Northwest Vietnam, among the Hmong people, Tô Hoài paints a picture of the lives of the people here under the rule of the landlords and the colonialists. It particularly depicts the life of Mi, a life full of ups and downs.
Mi is the most beautiful girl in the Hmong village. She lives with her parents and has a beautiful love with a young man in the village. However, following her life is hardship and poverty. Her parents, marrying without money, had to borrow from the village's overseer Pá Tra. Then, when her mother died, Mi replaced her mother working in the fields, working hard but still unable to repay that debt. Then, a twist of fate came, completely changing Mi's life, all due to the Hmong people's tradition of forced marriage.
Life for women in the highlands is even more challenging and arduous than those in the lowlands. Here, women must adhere to village rules, outdated customs, sometimes robbing them of a future, an entire lifetime. Mi is a victim of these traditions. On a festive night, amidst the melodic flute sounds, Mi was taken to Pá Tra overseer's house, becoming the wife of A Su, a 'debt-settling bride,' and from then on, a soulless being. Married to the richest man in the village, but devoid of love, Mi pretends to live day by day, without a future, without happiness - 'every night Mi cries.'
In that life, Mi wants to die, to be liberated, to start a new life on the other side of the world, in a different existence. However, for Mi, death isn't easy when her father is still there, the debt is still there, 'Even if you die, my debt still exists. Officials force repayment. If you die, there's no one to work in the fields, repay the debt. I'm too weak and sick.' These words touch Mi's soul, unwillingly, she repeatedly returns to the overseer's house, living the life of a pretending shadow.
At the overseer's house, bearing the title of a daughter-in-law, Mi is essentially a lifelong slave, a servant for that family. Throughout the year, Mi toils - 'After Tet, I go to the mountains to harvest opium; in the middle of the year, I wash and weave; in the season, I go to the field to husk corn. And whether cutting wood, planting corn, always with a bundle of straw tied to my arm for punishment. Always the same, all year, for a lifetime.' Tô Hoài vividly highlights the extreme hardship of Mi's life with a simple comparison: 'Horses, buffalo sometimes take a break, at night, they stand and graze, women and girls in this house bury themselves in work all day and night.' Clearly, one can observe the contempt for the fate of Mi and the girls in the overseer's house, all reduced to lowly beings, inferior to the domesticated animals. This is a deeply ingrained male-centric mindset, a thought that has caused suffering to countless women from the past to the present.
Not only physically tortured, Mi's spirit also endures unimaginable hardships. A beautiful, graceful, gentle girl like her should have a happy life with someone she loves. However, her life is a string of days and months 'slow-moving like a turtle kept in the door slit.' Mi no longer knows love, hasn't tasted the flavor of happiness. Anyone who reads the work is impressed by the image 'for those coming from afar, entering Pá Tra overseer's house, often sees a girl sitting spinning thread on a stone platform in front of the door, beside the horse shed. Always the same, whether spinning thread, weaving grass for horses, weaving fabric, chopping wood, or carrying water under the stream. She always bows her head, face filled with sorrow.' This image is etched into the reader's soul, making them feel the profound sadness hidden within Mi's heart.
In the wealthy household, Mi felt like a beast, a horse, laboring all year round, her sleeping chamber 'sealed tight, with only a square hole to look out. Death seems the only way out.' She wishes for death but is trapped by customs and superstitions, believing, 'As a woman, my spirit has been caught by a demon, only waiting for the day to rot here.' Mi herself feels her womanhood holds no meaning; then who in that house values her?
Moreover, on Tet days, when everyone in the village gathers outside to play flutes and spin tops, Mi has to stay home because 'A Su never lets Mi go out on Tet.' Mi also wishes to join the festivities, but A Su restrains her by 'using a belt to tie both of Mi's hands. He brings out a bundle of straw and ties Mi standing to a house column. Mi's hair hangs down. A Su wraps her hair around the column, and Mi can't bow or tilt her head anymore.' A woman tormented by her husband, her in-laws, stripped of all freedom and the right to happiness. A Su goes out in silk clothes, seeking another wife, leaving Mi in humiliation and agony!
Perhaps living too long in the darkness, people often fail to recognize the light. Mi, living in chains, in prolonged imprisonment, any resistance within her seems to have faded. Mi thinks that way until death, as her life is too cheap, too scorned, devoid of any meaning. She exists like a ghost on the earth's surface until that night by the fire when she sees A Phủ's tears and reflects on her fate. 'Why should the other person die,' Mi thought so, then cut the rope for A Phủ, escaping with him to Phieng Sa - where the light of the Revolution shines. Here, with A Phủ, she truly became a human being, a rightful wife.
In the feudal society, women have never enjoyed a bit of justice, due to the 'respect men, belittle women' ideology. They always live in the shadow of men, being cheapened, looked down upon, having their freedom and happiness taken away. Their space is only the kitchen, the house where they devote their entire lives to their husbands and children. Their fate is too painfully exhausting, too pitiful, just like Mi, Thị, and many other women. Many talented women want to contribute to society, but they are cruelly driven away by outdated customs.
