Under Milk Wood :: essays research papers

The relationship between Tom and Maggie in Books 1 &amp 2I think most of the problems with Tom and Maggies relationship are due to the fact that Tom thinks that females are inferior to males. He therefore thinks that Maggie is inferior to him and he shows this in the way that he treats Maggie.Tom and Maggie both have a strong relationship with their father so therefore he could have influenced Toms thoughts. "Shell find none the bigger price for that", their dad said this, and by it he means that even though Maggie is clever she wont do any better as regards to marriage. This is a very prejudiced way for Tom and Maggies dad to talk about Maggie, as if females are only supposed to get married and puddle children and that their intelligence doesnt matter.If Toms dad thinks like that it could be from his dad that Tom gets his prejudiced nature "I told you girls couldnt learn Latin", this is one of the most openly sexist comments Tom makes in the book. Tom very st rongly gets his point across by using harsh words such as "told" and "couldnt". This shows how inferior he feels females are, he said, "I told you" almost scornfully as if hes trying to say that if he said it, it must be right which isnt the case. Toms complete sexist place is shown by the word "girls" here he generalises about any females ability to learn Latin although Im sure that isnt the case and he just makes the comment stringently because of his sexist nature. Toms sexism isnt just used against his sister, he uses it to put others down as well, "like a girls Tom thought that truly pitiable". The sexism Tom is viewing here is by discriminating against Philip due to his hair apparently looking like a girls. He describes this as "truly pitiable" which shows how strongly he feels. Tom uses the word "girl" as an insult as if by calling Philip a girl he feels he has insulted him. This is a very sexist attitude, as he shoul dnt be discriminating against females in this way.Whenever Maggie acts in a way that Tom wouldnt, Tom automatically says she acts in that way, as she is a girl, " immature way of taking things". This quotation is where Maggie gets agitated and Tom blames that on the fact that shes a girl.