English language and literature – Individual oral – Example 1 – Outline
Introduction
Global issue: Women’s rights to vote. Why Charlotte Perkins Gilman? Why
‘America when feminized’. Both show a side of a debate. Suffrage
movement.
Thesis statement: Both texts, despite their differences in structure and purpose,
use imagery, analogy and direct narration in order to persuade their
audience on their viewpoints on the women’s suffrage movement in the
early 20th century.
Imagery/analogy and ‘Females’
Example 1: Eagles, fox, whales à appeal to natural world
Example 2: Wives and ‘little ones’ à address guilt and responsibility
Example 3: Women as parasites à womanhood is below humankind
Imagery/analogy and ‘America when feminized’
Example 1: Hen and rooster à caricatures of people, shift of power
Example 2: Suffrage sash à overzealous women
Example 3: ‘Sissies’ à feminized men are perceived as weak
Direct narration and ‘Females’
Example 1: 5th stanza: ‘I’ first-person, “no parasite am I” à defensive tone
Example 2: 5th stanza: “wife” and “children” à irony parasitic relationship
Example 3: 5th stanza: Question: “Why should I?” à lack of ambition
Direct narration and ‘America when feminized’
Example 1: Hen’s speech bubble: “set on them... old man!” à independence
Example 2: Rooster’s speech: “eggs get cold” à responsibility
Example 3: Quote by Dr. William J. Hichson à appeal to authority