The Female Question: Envision Emancipation, or Sustain “It is like the case of a caged bird: of course there is no freedom in the cage, but if it leaves the cage there are hawks, cats, and other hazards outside; while if imprisonment has atrophied its wings, or if it has forgotten how to fly, there certainly is nowhere it can go” (Fong & Lan, 177). In Lu Xun’s essay on “What Happens After Nora Leaves Home,” I find it imperative to open our eyes, minds and hearts in order to refine our worldly perspective. In this, I mean that we must shed our narrow view of the acceptable, and awaken our senses to the new order. There exists an unfair and unequal differential between the genders within our traditional bureaucracy. It is here that women are initially pushed beneath the surface of equality and denied independence and dignity. Due to the compelling influence of social programming, women must first learn to escape the trap, or cage so to speak, to which society has traditionally confined them. I believe women will then be capable of forming the necessary collective to address issues of resistance and revolution. Here I raise my voice for a new culture, for a new people, for a new understanding. With this voice I hope to awaken the unaware that find themselves lost beneath the littered layers of history.In Lu Xun’s depiction of “What Happens After Nora Leaves Home,” we are given two scenarios. The first denotes a negative scenario in the assumption that she will fall prey to the ills of prostitution. In order to fulfill her economic necessities, however, Nora, or any newly independent woman, must coerce the situation into utilizing any and all of her limited resources. “To remedy this drawback and to avoid being puppets,” (Fong & Lan, 179) Nora’s only other option would have been suicide, according to Lu Xun. While she could have taken the option of returning to her husban...
