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MudMan & Love Letters

Introduction

The book Come Let us Sing Anyway is a collection of short stories which has 23 short stories. It was published in 2017 and written by Leone Ross. Leone is a Jamaican/British novelist, she was born in England and grew up in Jamaica. She is known for other books such as 'The Mullerian Eminence', 'All the Blood is Red', 'Orange Laughter'. The collection draws on several themes for example Drag and Art for f**K's Sake can be considered love stories, while 'Love Silk Food' is a sad story. Each story has different themes, ranging from science fiction and poetry. `

Gender analysis offers an understanding of the relationship and responsibility of men and women in society. The gender analysis of the short stories 'love letters' and 'mudman' from the book Come Let Us Sing Anyway identify the disparities between men and women. The short story 'Mudman' is about a father’s love for his son, it starts from a preview of Matthew's relationship with his dad and continues with the role he plays as a father. Matthew's father was absent in his life and he was raised by his mother. posits that female- headed households in developing countries range from 10 to 25 percent and it is increasing." This can be seen as a trend for example "Matthew is like all the boys he knows, a mummy's boy because daddies aren't real." This shows the promotion of gender roles in society because Matthew's mom was left to nurture, while his father was being promiscuous. Also, it states Matthew grows to be a squashy boy, this can be analysed by weight or by his personality. Squash means soft or to push in a small space. When a male is considered soft, it is because he may not be in line with the expected masculine traits. argues that boys have more difficulty on the socialization path than girls and this is because the absenteeism of fathers leave boys limited opportunities to model the same gender parent"."This leads to boys struggling to put a definition to masculinity because of limited information provided". They are often thought stereotypical behaviour such as "big boys don't cry."According "Masculinity refers to the social construct of manliness, and the accepted behavior society places." Secondly, this can be seen in the description of Matthew and Leila, where they describe Matthew as soft and Leila hard, which implies she has taken on traits of a man, and women are often rewarded for having masculine traits. Girls have more gender role flexibility than boys. In addition to Matthew's family. he and Leila shared kids, a boy and a girl. Matthew cares for is son deeply (son preference), he would go to lengths to provide for him. "posits that couples preference are to have males over female children." However, the children David and Susan went to a birthday party and on the way back David was kidnapped, this took a toll on the family. Eventually David was reunited with his family, but a lot has changed. David went through traumatic experiences and he was never the same, he hid his emotions, men are often socialized to hide their emotions. David also identify that men are all predators and commit violent acts against both genders. In addition, Matthew tried his best to make his family whole again.

Love Letters is one of the shorter stories. It depicts male expectations. It speaks of women as an Aries moon, which is one who is tempestuous, a great lover and courageous. The story highlights a mans response to a strong feminist woman. A feminist is someone who fights for rights of the oppressed. Describes feminism as the movement to end sexual exploitation. However, the females describes the man as tender which is not often a masculine trait of a man.

Language

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The collection comprises of different genre and theme. The stories combined of the Jamaican dialect and English dialect. However, there could have been some grammar changes. For example spelling 'alll' was spelled incorrectly but it was used to show emphasis. Also 'dentist do you mean' is creole or broken english and should read 'Do you mean a dentist'.

In summary, the stories contain gender ideologies that can be seen in today's society. The males in the story faces negative connotations.