The Broom Tree

Revised

The Broom Tree deals largely with the expectations that men place on women as their wives.  Genji sets out looking for the "perfect woman" having his expectations set as far as how their potential wives should behave and the numerous qualities a women should possess. Some of those qualities are a good personality, jealousy, being able to run the household and doing what their husbands ask of them. I think that in this story the men have over expectations of how women should be.  No where in the story does it mention how men should be for their wives which means one thing, that women were not looked up to in society.  The men seem to over analyze what womens behavior should be like.  They want their wives to be jealous, but not to jealous and possessing that type of qualitiy could either be a good thing or a bad thing to them. During this time it seemed as if women were merely just an accessory to men and had no real value other than to make the men happy. I interpret this because the men never discuss doing anything nice for their wives.  It is all just about what is good for the men.  There does not seem to be any equality mentioned of men and women in  this story. Throughout history it has always been about the men having all the power. To some extent this outlook on women has changed today in some areas of the world, but I'm sure that in some places there are men who act much like the characters of The Broom Tree.  I think that many of those types of men live in America today. Today men look for women who can cook, are supportive of them, loyal, respectful, and someone they can get along with. Women are looking for many of the same qualities but women tend to look more for stability in a relationship and honesty and loyalty.  In today's age almost half of all marriages end in divorce. There are so many various reasons why these marriages may end but I believe the top two reasons are infidelity and money. We are seeing an age where divorce rates are at there highest and more and more people tend to be unhappy in their marriage. Everything always varies from different peoples views, but it seems to me that my generation has been so de-sensitized that men do not respect women the way they should and are treated unfairly. Today women have a higher place in society than they did one hundred years ago or even one thousand years ago, but men will always be struggling to be the ones in total control of everything.

Original

The Broom Tree deals largely with the expectations that men place on women as their wives.  Genji sets out looking for the "perfect woman" having his expectations set as far as how their potential wives should behave and the numerous qualities a women should possess. Some of those qualities are a good personality, jealousy, being able to run the household and doing what their husbands ask of them. I think that in this story the men have over expectations of how women should be.  No where in the story does it mention how men should be for their wives which means one thing, that women were not looked up to in society.  The men seem to over analyze what womens behavior should be like.  They want their wives to be jealous, but not to jealous and possessing that type of qualitiy could either be a good thing or a bad thing to them. During this time it seemed as if women were merely just an accessory to men and had no real value other than to make the men happy. I interpret this because the men never discuss doing anything nice for their wives.  It is all just about what is good for the men.  There does not seem to be any equality mentioned of men and women in  this story. Throughout history it has always been about the men having all the power. I am glad to see that this outlook on women has changed today for the most part, but I'm sure that in some places there are men who act much like the characters of The Broom Tree.