Bias

“Writers write to influence their readers, their preachers, their auditors, but always, at bottom, to be more themselves,” Aldous Huxley once said.  Everything we do is a reflection of our experiences and observations.  As a writer, one will write about what one knows, relates to, believes in, or learns about.  
        In “The Story Of An Hour” by female author Kate Chopin, it is undeniably clear that the creative writer is very biased towards women.  A clear example of being biased towards women in the story is when Brently, Louise Mallard’s husband, passes away and her sister informs her of the news.  The heart troubled Louise Mallard does not respond in a way that one expects; instead, she gazes into the distance and joyfully cries and repeats the word “Free!” to herself over and over again. The author here implies that the man in this relationship has been oppressing the woman, Louise, and now that Brently has passed, she can finally be free.  Louise cheered her husband’s death; Kate Chopin, therefore, is biased against men because she paints the woman as the oppressed figure in the story.
        In the short story, “A&P” by John Updike, three teenage girls wearing only bikinis walk into a grocery store.  Sammy, an opinionated young man with a strong interest for sex observes and profoundly analyzes the situation and creates conclusions of the girls, specifically Queenie, who he is attracted to and describes as the leader of the crew.  In this story Mr. Updike is a bit biased towards men.  For example, he makes the female in this case, Queenie, a combination of precocity and innocence.  She tests the boundaries of permitted behavior when she ignores the sign at the entrance of the store that reads “No swimwear.” Still, she decides to put on a performance that can be described as sexual, distracting, and desirable for the men.  Poor Sammy is so into Queenie that when Lengel, the store manager, challenges the skin flaunting teens of the offense and puts them... [continues]

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