Name : Ramadhani Widita Andini P

NIM : 195110507111004
Class : Introduction to English Literature A

Social Issues from Story The Woman on the Roof

After read the story and some references, I got various perspective about this story.
Actually, we can see multiple interpretation inside the story. The story from Doris Lessing has so
many moral value. As an art, literature might be described as the organization of words to give
pleasure. Literature also functions more broadly in society as a means of both criticizing and
affirming cultural values. Like in this story, many people has several perspective. I found some
of those point of you

Firstly is about feminism. The feminism demands that the female could be equal in rights
and independence as human being with the male. Confronting the three men's whistles and yels
again and again, the woman showed her utter indiferrence to the men watching her and looked
up at them. Without respect and tried her best to ignore them completely. By not responding to
the whistle, the woman has begun to have power over the men. Throughout the story we see how
the woman begins to gain more and more power by using her nonverbal communication. By
wearing the color red and being half naked, the woman sunbather is symbolically representing
she has confidence in her sexuality. In addition, the color red symbolizes that she is a woman of
power.

Secondly is about economical class between the woman and three men.

"Her roof belonged to a different system of roofs, separated from theirs"

This quote illustrates that the woman sunbather is in a higher economical class than the three
workmen are. Daily out on her roof she bathes in the hot, hot sun, proving the theory that she
does not need to work, she has a luxury that the three workman are envious of. The woman
clearly was financially secure and money equals' power in our society. Or this situation can
called the contradiction from Marxism’s Class Theory. Marxism divided the whole society into
different classes, basically the upper class and the lower class.
 The three workmen symbolically represent the value system of the early 1960's, in which
men had attitudes that were domineering and sexist toward women. From early on these attitudes
were illustrated

"They made jokes about getting an egg from some woman in the flats under them, to poach it for
their dinner"

The men in the story obviously are assuming that all women should be home in the
kitchen ready to cook. A sexist comment such as this demonstrate the value system of men's
beliefs about gender roles the man will supply the family with everything it will need the home,
food and source of income. The woman will bear the children, take care of the home, and any
other external need whether it be cooking, sewing or cleaning. This ignorance about women and
their roles in society is what has kept women repressed throughout the centuries.

Then there's sexual harassment. Men shouldn't flirt with girls. We as women feel annoyed
and afraid of being catcalled. We want to feel safe even when we are alone. Many women feel
traumatized, they don't want to walk alone in the crowd. So please let us as the women have the
opportunity to feel safe in society. That is all my opinion about social issue on Woman on The
Roof story.