FREE ESSAY ON EXPOSITORY WRITING

EXPOSITORY WRITING

The relationship between language and image provides us with the means to seek the roots
of our own ideas. In the essay, When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-Vision, written by
Adrienne Rich, she uses varying images in her poetry to describe women and the voice open
the window into her self-perception and how cultural ideologies change. John Berger
writes in, Ways of Seeing that the relationship between the image and the person is an
individual interpretation. Hunger as Ideology, by Susan Bordo, tells how the image is
used to show cultural ideologies, especially for women. In art, literature, and in the
media, images that are perceived visually or through the images produced by language are
used as a form of expression that quite unavoidably reflect cultural ideologies that
impact us in intentionally strong and deliberate ways. Cultural ideology affects how we
perceive images; both visual and those produced by language. These images impact our
perception of reality. 
The images that infiltrate our lives appear to focus on maintaining the status quo or the
norms of society. They are designed to show what is expected in life. Berger states,
Images were made to conjure up the appearance of something that was absent(107). Berger
argues images are conjured up or imagined to represent what is absent or what the
individual wants to see as reality. There used to be a tendency to over exemplify the way
in which women were thought to be, but today, that opposition no longer seems to hold
quite as rigidly as it once did (women are indeed objectified more than ever, but, in
this image-dominated culture, men increasingly are too) (156). Regardless of society's
attempt to be politically correct, and despite the changes that have occurred in rigid
gender identity, our society still maintains many of the old stereotypes that have always
been a part of established culture. In order to assist in the destabilizing of images
Rich states, A change in the concept of sexual identity is essential if we are not going
to see the old political order reassert itself in every new revolution (605). Rich
believes a change in the concept or the way people are viewed is essential if the past is
not going to reassert itself in the future. The images imagined is the change needed to
be taken in the future. However, the images that surround us seem to do nothing more than
maintain and sustain the traditional gender ideology.
Although Rich tried to have Aunt Jennifer in Aunt Jennifer's Tiger, be a person as
distinct from herself as possible, she portrays Aunt Jennifer as being oppressed by her
marriage. Rich reflects the same oppression through the use of images such as, The
massive weight of the Uncle's wedding band (608). The massive or extreme burden caused by
the wedding band or the marriage to suppresser. She is being oppressed by her husband.
The image of Aunt Jennifer portrays the traditional ideology of the women under the
control of a man. Bordo discusses the ideological construction of service as a woman's
natural role, states, It is this construction that it reinforces in the representations I
have been examining, through their failure to depict males as 'naturally' fulfilling that
role, and - more perniciously - through their failure to depict females as appropriate
recipients of such care (161). Women have an ideal role of subordination to men, and men
have the oppressive role to be in charge and to provide for the female, though how ideal
that role may be is questionable. Bordo means Rich's poetry depicts the current role of
women in society and strives to express the need to fight the oppression and
victimization of women. Her poetry creates a strong image of the position of women in
society. Berger claims that, Every image embodies a way of seeing (107). Because of our
own personal history, we may or may not recognize the image of Jennifer as negative. It
is possible to look at Jennifer as living in a way that is the accepted function in our
culture. This is an image, however negative that it may be, that is culturally accepted
as how gender roles should be and therefore reinforces its stabilization.
Berger considers that The way we see things is affected by what we know or what we
believe (106). Our beliefs often have subtle and unconscious basis and influence how we
see or interpret images. When we look at an image, we bring our background, past
experiences and beliefs to that image and see more than what is there. As a result of
what we bring to our perception of images, the media can use images to influence us in
very subtle ways. In constructing the images, of course, continual use is made of
knowledge (or at least what is imagined to be knowledge) of consumer's lives (Bordo143).
These images of what we are, what we should be, what we are expected to be bombard us
daily. We are surrounded with expectations that we somehow must try to achieve. These
expectations however are in actuality no different than the expectations or cultural
identity that has been placed on us, both male and female, through history. Rich says
that A lot is being said today about the influence that myths and images of women have on
all of us who are products of culture (607). The essential phrase being products of our
culture. We do not live in isolation, therefore, we are all products of our culture
regardless of how individualistic or independent we may believe ourselves to be. We can
slowly attempt, through our own personal growth and development, to rise above this
cultural ideal and to develop an equal living environment, and as a culture rise above
the oppressive nature that is presently in existence.
The effects of the influence of our culture are so deeply ingrained that it is difficult
if not impossible to remove ourselves from this influence. Images can be so powerful in
inducing emotions that they can Seduce us into believing whatever the creator of the
image may want us to see (Berger 111). Rich is very aware of this when she states that,
Until we can understand the assumptions in which we are drenched we cannot know ourselves
(604). She uses the rich language of her poetry to create powerful, distinct images of
women that are living the roles and the life that society has not only created, but
preserves. In her poem Orion, the final line you with your back to the wall produces a
strong image of despair. This is how Rich sees women in our society. Unfortunately, our
society is not so different today than it was in the past. Bordo believes that Even more
examples could be produced, of course, if we cast our glance more widely over the globe
and back through history (142). While we believe that we have evolved and are more
liberated now than we were in the past, we are still as strongly influenced now as people
were in the past by in the way women are seen and the way in which we see ourselves.
Our knowledge, beliefs, and expectations are the outgrowth of our interaction with our
society. Berger professes that The way we see things is affected by what we know or what
we believe (106). A great deal of this interaction is through the images produced by
language and the images that we react to visually. Whether we acknowledge that society
has placed limitations on us or that we have placed limitations on ourselves, the
limitations are there. It is the created image that has the hold on our most vibrant,
immediate sense of what is, of what matters, of what we must pursue for ourselves (Bordo
143). What women can pursue is often with its limitations because of the established
culture. Rich states that Both the victimization and the anger experienced by women are
real, and have real sources, everywhere in the environment, built into society, language
and structure of thought (615). These limitations are seen in the culturally ideal images
that are used in so many aspects of life. 
One of the strongest sources of the victimization of women is the media. When referring
to advertising, Bordo claims that They must also be considered as gender ideology - that
is, as specifically (conscious or unconscious) serving the cultural reproduction of
gender difference and gender inequality, quite independent of (although at times
coinciding with) marketing concerns (148). Advertisements are there to serve not only a
commercial aspect, but a cultural ideal as well. The media through its use of images
maintains and supports society's view of women and their place. Advertising may not have
dictated gender ideology, but it uses it to present and sell their product. These ideas
of gender roles are presented and repeated images that we encounter continually. Berger
believes that, there is a language of images. What matters now is who uses that language
and for what purpose (127). It is important to use the image, as well as the language
associated with it to promote a personal statement. This is what makes poetry so
effective. The language can instill an internal image that can make the message so
meaningful and effective. While describing a poem of hers, Rich explains that I thought I
was creating a portrait of an imaginary women (608). Her goal was to show a unique women,
yet is the end she is simply showing how all women are suppressed. Unfortunately, the
language of images is used to maintain the idea of gender roles. 
There is also the possibility for images to change our perception of the ideologies that
have been attached to women for years. Berger feels that If the new language of images
were used differently, it would, through its use, confer a new kind of power (127). That
is if people were to rework the images in a way to project a need for individual
standards of acceptibilty for what it best for the individual. With that in mind, instead
of maintaining cultural assumptions, it is possible to use the images that bombard us
daily to change our theories of the position of women in our society. While Rich
questions ... whether an oppressive economic class system is responsible for the
oppressive nature of male/female relations, or whether, in fact, patriarchy - the
domination of males - is the original model of oppression on which all others are based
(604). Using images to change the perception of gender relations and gender roles poses
an interesting possibility. Using the images may be the only way to shape any change at
all in our society. Rich has used her experiences to grow and evolve. Her poetry gives
voice to her pain, to her victimization, to her past and to her future. She uses the
images in her poetry to shape awareness if not change. This all may be very difficult
because, We have inherited some of these representations from of former era (Bordo 156).
The timelessness of these images may be hard to eliminate or alter. There is hope though,
because if images have been used to maintain cultural ideology, then images can also be
used to change our perceptions. This would have a destabilizing effect and as a society,
we are resistant to such a drastic change.