Comparison / Contrast to“How the Americans Understand the Equality of the Sexes” by Alexis De Tocqueville&“Where I Come From Is Like This” by Paula Gunn Allen
... man and woman. In America men have diverse roles from women but each with their own function for a better society. Tocqueville observes that even though men and women have their own “pathways” they keep up with each other. Women in the United States have a domestic role, they are to take care of the family and house work. In America there is no way for women to avoid the domestic role, every job for women revolves around the domestic role. Women of America show they can have the same knowledge as a man but still show a fragile facade. Even though they are able to have the same intelligence as a man they always show the etiquette of women. Tocqueville never saw a woman in America who felt it was degrading by having to show submission to men. He felt as though the women held a dignity by having to willfully relinquish their resolve. American women never distinguish themselves as being useless or fearful. The United States holds a high opinion of a woman’s honor and independence. According to Tocqueville men in America are seen as the stronger sex, the head of their family, and the one who works. Even though men show how much they value women they rarely compliment them, as do the Europeans. But American men demonstrate a comprehension of their wives and have admiration for her freedom. Americans have shown there is a need for a “natural authority” described by Tocqueville in a marriage and a family just as it would be in any business. The United States is about democracy even in a marriage to be able to regulate the powers of each sex to become successful. Illustrated by Tocqueville Europeans and Americans have various roles for each sex in their own society. America has established a way of living by showing the separate but equal roles of each sex without demoralizing one another. In “Where I Come From Is Like This” Paula Gunn Allen describes how she was raised as a Laguna-Pueblo-Sioux-Lebanese woman but has to conform to the position American Indian women are to have in the United States. Allen expresses some of the traditional images of women and the definitions women possess in the society of America compared to her knowledge of tribal people. Allen describes how tribal women get their sense of self from the tribe, which also will describe their destiny. Tribal women are seen in various ways but their femininity is never devalued nor are they ever depicted as helpless or oppressed. Tribal women were always seen as strong, with common sense and knowledge as Allen remembers all the women in her life growing up. Each tribal ritual depended on the specific balance between men and women, neither sex was held in a higher regard than the other in rituals. According to Allen American Indian women define themselves by the way of their tribe before anything else. But American Indian women are in a conflict to redefine themselves because of the conflicting definitions of who they are suppose to be. The American legends of women are that of being passive challenged by the cruel distinctiveness to encourage cultural beliefs. Allen distinguishes herself as “being torn between the life she lives to the life she was raised to live”. Alle...