"...women are used to worrying over trifles.”

                “Well, women are used to worrying over trifles.” This quote is very important in the drama “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell. In the drama, it can be seen how women a discriminated for the mere act of being women. Their opinions are not valued since they are not seen as smart or capable of doing anything. However, the women are the only ones in the drama that are able to solve the mystery that gathers the characters together. Because they are seen as invaluable in the men’s work, they’re able to hide what they found and the fact that they might have solved the mystery.

(Image from https://www.papermasters.com/trifles-susan-glaspell.html)

                As a brief summary, “Trifles” tells the story of three men (George, the county attorney; Mr Peters, a sheriff ; and Mr. Hale, a neighbor) and two women  (Mrs. Peters, the sheriff’s wife; and Mrs, Hale, the neighbor’s wife) who go to a house where the man, Mr. Wright, has been murdered. The man’s wife, Mrs. Wright, is distant and seems very indifferent. The men are there to investigate the crime and are not able to find any incriminating evidence throughout the whole drama. The women, however, are left alone and they find a dead canary hidden in a box. With this finding, they imply that Mrs. Wright is the killer. They decide not to tell the men of what they found and hide the evidence. The story ends with the men thinking there is no incriminating evidence.

                The irony of the story is that the women, whilst worrying over trifles, i.e. looking for some scissors so as to fix Mrs. Wright’s bad sewing, are the ones that find incriminating evidence towards who the murderer is. The women chose to hide their findings. They chose to “stick with their own.” Both women understand that Mrs. Wright was living under hard conditions and they also understand her decision to kill him, if that was the case, since women were oppressed. Mrs. Hale even feels sorry for not being there for Mrs. Wright and offering emotional support. She says “We all go through the same things… We live close together and we live far apart.” This line represents how women knew they were not alone in their problems pertinent to their husbands and female subordination. It also represents how there wasn't an organized women’s rights movement at the time. However, the two women chose to protect a fellow woman in a time when they were not valued.

(Image from https://dramachicks.wordpress.com/2011/11/18/playwright-spotlight-susan-glaspell/)

                It is this same fact (that women are not valued) that causes men to reject women’s opinions and overlook women’s actions. This allows the women to hide the dead canary without anyone noticing. George, the county attorney, even says “a sheriff’s wife is married to the law” about Mrs. Hale. This is done when Mr. Hale asked if George wanted to take a look at the objects (among which was the dead canary) that Mrs. Hale was taking with herself. Thus, the women are able to conceal the incriminating evidence thanks to the fact that the men thought that women only cared about things that where unimportant, which made them think that the objects that Mrs. Hale carried were unimportant.

                Summing up, the women were overlooked for “worrying over trifles.” Ironically, they find incriminating evidence to Mr. Wright’s murder by “worrying over trifles.” The fact that they are overlooked allows them to hide the evidence of Mrs. Wright as the possible murderer. The women thus form a pseudo-group so as to protect themselves from their oppression.

Click here a definition for the word "trifle."

The '60s (Part 2)

The second part of the documentary started with the song “Sunshine of Your Love” by Cream on the background. This immediately got me “pumped.” I love that song. I played it on drums a couple of times a few years ago and I remember the amazing energy between my band mates and myself when we played it. So you know what I’m talking about, play it on the link below.

Now, this part of the documentary is seldom free of discrimination. I mentioned on the first part of this entry how the hippies did not discriminate against black people. However, black people discriminated against the hippies. They saw them as pot smoking freeloaders. It is seen in the documentary how black people even discriminated against black hippies. But black people were not the only ones that discriminated against the hippies. White people participated in this discrimination as well and saw them the same way. There were violent engagements between hippies and policemen during the hippies’ protests against the war effort.

Another type of discrimination seen in the documentary is towards the gay community. Gays were not allowed to participate in the military even if they wanted to. Some white men even pretended to be gay so as to evade going to war when they were called upon for mandatory service.

Yet another type of discrimination was seen between religions. This conflict is veiled between the love story of a young couple throughout both parts of the documentary. The girl is Jewish and the boy and his family are Catholic. It is not until the end of the documentary that we see how this conflict is solved when the boy’s family accepts her and they all play football in the house’s front yard.

This ending provided an unrealistic sense of accomplishment, giving the era a feeling of a “happy ending” when this is not entirely true. There has been great progress towards equality, yet discrimination is still existent today, 50+ years later. Since then, more types of discrimination have emerged and others have become less intense. There is still a long way to go towards an equal and discrimination free world, but we are on our way and it is up to us to make it happen.

The '60s (Part 1)

For the next two entries, I will be writing about the documentary “The 60s.” It is a two part documentary, so logically, I will divide my entry into two parts. However, I might mention things from the second part on this entry or from the first part on the second entry. But I digress, the documentary is very good. It portrays the essence of that period in time, the 60s.

(Image from http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/doblaje/images/b/b5/The60sposter.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130227110523&path-prefix=es)

The time and people might have been optimistic, but it wasn’t all perfect. There was a lot of discrimination. Some of that discrimination even led to violence. For example, white people, even police men, discriminated and were violent towards black people. It is seen in the documentary how a group of black people is peacefully protesting and claiming their equal rights, when a white police man comes in to end the protests and, after peaceful opposition from the group’s “leader,” he threw a punch at the “leader.” Most black men did not respond violently by the hate crimes directed towards them. However, they didn’t all feel that way. In the documentary, it can be seen how a black kid wishes to reciprocate violence with violence. His father, also a black man, explained to him that peace was the way to obtain their equality. His father was later killed as a result of a hate crime. This did not cause the son to steer away from the path of peace. It can be seen on part 2 that the black kid (the son) grew up to be a charitable man who made a difference without the need for violence.

Discrimination from white people to black people was not the only one present. Black people also discriminated towards white people. Some blamed all of their misfortunes on every one that was white. A black man publicly stated that everything that happens to black men is because of white men. This is certainly not true. It is seen at the beginning of the documentary how some white people support the equal rights movement of the black people. As another example, the hippies (predominantly white) did not discriminate towards black people. However, the hippies did receive discrimination as well. I will discuss more on the hippies on part 2 of this entry.

There was also discrimination towards new ideas and new life styles. For examples, one of the girls in the documentary starts taking birth control pills and his father doesn’t agree and frowns upon his daughter. Another girl has a “one night stand,” after which she becomes pregnant. Her father is irrational when he learns the news. He says that she brings shame upon their family. She ends up running away from home and joining a hippie commune. She has a hard time surviving on her own and taking care of the baby. At the end, the girl and her dad mend fences and “live happily ever after.”

This ending gives the story a false sense of accomplishment. This type of discrimination is still seen today; but more on the ending on the next entry. I will finish by summing up how the era was essentially full of discrimination from and towards many demographics. Other types of discrimination will be discussed on the second part of this entry. Stick around.