Gender Roles in “The Woman From New York” (Oct. 3 Class)

In Ha Jin’s story, “The Woman From New York,” traditional gender roles are shown very soon into the narrative. As talked about in class, and as many people likely know by now, it is traditionally the woman’s job to be a housewife and keep everything clean, everyone fed, and everyone happy. In the story, after she returns from New York, she starts cleaning almost immediately. I found it interesting how much detail Ha Jin goes into, calling her husband a messy man and describing the weird pieces of trash in random places, like eggshells under the beds. I found it interesting that this story fits in with the stereotypes that men are messy and sloppy, and that it is okay for them to live like this because their wife will clean up after them eventually. In modern day, of course there are some couples who still live with this dynamic, but get on any social media and you will see people complaining about destroying these social constructs, saying that men can be the clean one in the relationship and women can be the slobs, or that cleaning and housework can be a team effort. I think it is interesting to see these traditional roles and how they have changed not only over time, but from culture to culture.