Siew Yue Killingley

Synopsis
the mother of the house is blamed by the father because her dowry land gave by the father in law is disvalued to sell to prepare dowry for their daughters marriage.

The mother is giving the ideas that they should persuade the future son- in-law to saving money for his own new family.
Woman is seen as property, whereby for them to get married to a fine husband, their parents need to give a big amount of dowry.

Cultural criticism
- believe that the dominant class defines "high" and "low" culture in order to reinforce its own image of superiority and thus its own power - A culture is a collection of interactive cultures, each of which is growing and changing, each of which is constituted at any given moment in time by the intersection of gender, race, ethnicity, etc.)

Perception towards women

By analyzing cultural forces (such as the importance and value of womens roles in a given society), critics who emphasize this area of study investigate how society shapes a womans understanding of herself, her society and her world.

( Charles E.Bressler, 1994)

 Man is the subject, the one who defines meaning: women is the object, having her existence defined and determined by the male. The man is therefore the significant figure in the male/female relationship while the female is subordinate

( Charles E.Bressler, 1994)

 Silly boy! Dont shout those fibs. Why, your sister has been hard at work in the kitchen(this very loudly). Just because she looks so fresh and tidy, it doesnt mean she wasnt working. Do you think shes so lazy as to sit and not do anything? Go out and play. (Page 33)

 Sivasothie is the type of daughter that adherence to a code of conduct defined by the family or Indian community, which mean she only married the person chosen by her father as her life partner.
Sivasothie is portrayed as very quite, dutifully, obey her parents and never go beyond the Indian community traditions. There is nothing much information given about her physical appearance or education background.

Evidence 1
Rukumani was too spiritual to know anything about sex and that topic was never mention at home.

 Men asserted that only the women who have qualities such as simplicity, virtuous, religious, obedience, patience, tolerance and well-versed in house management and the rearing of children are appreciated as ideal. By having attributed themselves to such qualities, women never had a chance to express their true identity and feelings.

 In most cultures, men led, made decisions and provided for the basic unit of society, the family. Womens role however, was only considered as secondary regardless of her hard work and sacrifices for her family.
In a womans youth, ideally, she prepared for the day when she would become a wife and mother.

 In her adult life, the homemaker role comes first while her own interest and desires come later.
The daughters marriage life is decided by the father, whereby he choose and decide the person that going to be his son-in-law. The daughter does not have any rights to choose their own life partner, only arranged marriage allowed.