Much fiction perpetuates the belief in the male as dominant figure and the female as docile in human relations. This can be seen in a number of works of short fiction from World Reader, showing how the concept can be found in a variety of human societies and how writers present the issue either as something they believe or something they criticize in the society in which they live.
In some cases, the image of the dominant male is a cultural given, something accepted as natural because of a hierarchical social system that solidifies male dominance. In the story "Maharaja's Elephant" by K.A. Abbas from India, for instance, the dominance of the Maharaja is assured in society, of course, but also indicated is an acceptance of male dominance over women in that the Maharaja has seven wives--indeed, one indication of the power of the maharaja is the size of his harem (1378). In such a hierarchy, there are males who are more dominant than others, while the females are generally presented as docile in the face of males as such rather than only certain males, such as the maharaja. The hierarchy in these societies involves a dominant class and various lower classes, and often the dominant class takes special pains to keep the lower class in its place. In "The Birth" by Pramoedya Ananta Toer of Indonesia, class differences are very important and are felt by those in the small town where the story is set. The narrator's father is a teacher, and his mother tells him why this is something the authorities want to stop: "They don't want too many of us to understand and be able to read and write as well" (1420). In the story, it is the father who takes all the action in attempting to teach and to overcome the oppression of the government, while the mother appears more docile as she stays home and waits. Yet, she has her own way of resisting as well and imparts certain values to her children that are in keeping with the struggle faced by the...