Read the excerpt below from a long way gone by ishmael beah and answer the question that follows.

just three days earlier, i had seen my father walking slowly from work. his hard hat was under his arm and his long face was sweating from the hot afternoon sun. i was sitting on the verandah. i had not seen him for a while, as another stepmother had destroyed our relationship again. but that morning my father smiled at me as he came up the steps. he examined my face, and his lips were about to utter something, when my stepmother came out. he looked away, then at my stepmother, who pretended not to see me. they quietly went into the parlor. i held back my tears and left the verandah to meet with junior at the junction where we waited for the lorry. we were on our way to see our mother in the next town about three miles away. when our father had paid for our school, we had seen her on weekends over the holidays when we were back home. now that he refused to pay, we visited her every two or three days. that afternoon we met mother at the market and walked with her as she purchased ingredients to cook for us. her face was dull at first, but as soon as she hugged us, she brightened up. she told us that our little brother, ibrahim, was at school and that we would go get him on our way from the market. she held our hands as we walked, and every so often she would turn around as if to see whether we were still with her.

how does the setting in the excerpt support beah’s characterization?

answer: role of women in family

explanation:

women are the pioneers of nation. indian culture attaches great importance to women, comprising half of world’s population. according to a report of secretary general of united nations, women constitute 50% of human resources, the greatest human resource next only to man having great potentiality.

women are the key to sustainable development and quality of life in the family. the varieties of role the women assume in the family are those of wife, leader, administrator, manager of family income and last but not the least important the mother.

1. as a wife

woman is man’s , partner and comrade. she sacrifices her personal pleasure and ambitions, sets standard of morality, relieves stress and strain, tension of husband, maintains peace and order in the household. thereby she creates necessary environment for her male partner to think more about the economic upliftment of family. she is the source of inspiration to man for high endeavour and worth achievements in life.

she stands by him in all the crises as well as she shares with him all successes and attainments. she is the person to whom he turns for love, sympathy, understanding, comfort and recognition. she is the symbol of purity, faithfulness and submission and devotion to her husband.

2. as an administrator and leader of the household:

a well-ordered disciplined household is essential to normal family life. the woman in the family assumes this function. she is the chief executive of an enterprise. she assigns duties among family members according to their interest and abilities and provides resources in-term of equipment and materials to accomplish the job.

she plays a key role in the preparation and serving of meals, selection and care of clothing, laundering, furnishing and maintenance of the house. as an administrator, she organizes various social functions in the family for social development. she also acts as a director of recreation. she plans various recreational activities to meet the needs of young and old members of the family.

3. as a manager of family income:

woman acts as the humble manager of the family income. it is her responsibility to secure maximum return from every pye spent. she always prefers to prepare a surplus budget instead of a deficit budget. she is very calculating loss and gain while spending money. she distributes judiciously the income on different heads such as necessities, comforts and luxuries. the woman in the family also contributes to the family income through her own earning within or outside the home. she has positive contribution to the family income by the work. she herself performs in the home and uses waste products for productive purposes.

4. as a mother:

the whole burden of child bearing and greater part of child rearing task are carried out by the woman in the family. she is primarily responsible for the child’s habit of self-control, orderliness, industriousness, theft or honesty. her contacts with the child during the most formative period of his development sets up his behaviour pattern. she is thus responsible for the maintenance of utmost discipline in the family.

she is the first teacher of the child. she transmits social heritage to the child. it is from mother that the child learns the laws of the race, the manner of men, moral code and ideals. the mother, because of her intimate and sustained contact with the child, she is able to discover and nurture child’s special traits aptitudes and attitudes which subsequently play a key role in the shaping of his personality.

as a mother she is the family health officer. she is very much concerned about the physical wellbeing of every member of the family, the infant, the sickly child, the adolescent youth, senescent parent. she organizes the home and its activities in such a way so that each member of the family has proper food, adequate sleep and sufficient recreation. she made the home a place of quite comfortable and appropriate setting for the children through her talent. besides, she cultivates taste in interior design and arrangement, so that the home becomes an inviting, restful and cheerful place.

the mother is the central personality of the home and the family circle. all the members turn to her for sympathy, understanding and recognition. woman devotes her time, labour and thought for the welfare of the members of the family. for the unity of interacting personalities, man provides the temple woman provides the ceremonies and the atmosphere.

done

may i ask what topic?