Monday, April 11, 2011

Ji-young HONG_HW4

Christopher Moore, uses for his humor stereotypes of male and female behavior. Please explain. I will be looking in particular for the quality and sufficiency of your evidence and analysis.

 

People can be divided two kinds. That is male and female by biological sex distinction. From this, there are some stereotypes of male and female behavior. So let us start with figure out what stereotypes mean first. The meaning of stereotype is a fixed idea or image that many people have of a particular type of person or thing, but which is often not true in reality.

In the first chapter of the book (You suck; A love story by Christopher Moore), there are some examples about stereotypes of male and female behavior are shown. There are two main characters. Male character is Tommy and female's is called Jody. From their behavior, stereotypes can be found.

For stereotype of male behavior, the indicators are followed. When Tommy was recognized he turned vampire, he felt hunger and even though Jody tried to help him and advise him, he did not listen and just did action what he wanted. For instance, he pulled a burrito out of the freezer, tried to have it. Jody said, "You don't want to eat that." However, Tommy did not care why and just did what he usually does and Jody warned once again. She said, "Put the burrito down, and back away, Tommy. I don't want you to get hurt." After all, Tommy took a big bite and he got hurt.

The other indicator for stereotype of male is followed. Tommy says hurting words without consideration to Jody. For example, he told Jody "…you're not even human. You're just some foul dead thing." And he regretted saying it. Moreover, when he found his skin cleared up he was really happy and he said, "If I had known my skin would clear up, I'd have asked you to change me a long time ago." At first he did not like what he became but when he found a little good thing of it, he liked what he was. From these indicators, it is found that male is childish.

For stereotype of female behavior, a manipulative character can be found. The indicators are followed. From one scene, Jody sniffled, completely for effect. Actually she was relieved that Tommy was now on the defensive. However, she sniffled and pretended to cry to get sympathetic feeling of Tommy. Finally, he walked into her arms and held her just like what she wanted. The other example is that. Jody told Tommy, "… I'll get naked. You can look at me in the dark. Naked. You'll like it." Jody wanted to make Tommy feel good at turned vampire so she tried to persuade him by experiencing the good thing of vampire. But he did not respond to that. This made Jody anger so she just answered Tommy's question careless. For instance, Tommy did not react to the naked persuasion and wanted to eat something. In response to this, Jody said, "Okay, I'll find you a bug or something." Here is one more thing Jody wanted to make him like turned vampire. She said, "You're in great shape from working in the grocery store. Wait until you see how you can run." Also, at the end of the chapter, Jody had not thought about whether or not Tommy would retain his incessant horniness after he turned, she just wanted a companion who could understand what she was, what she felt, etc.

Is not it humorous? It is found that Christopher Moore uses his humor stereotypes of male and female behavior. Male is childish and female is manipulative.

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