Essay - The Lamp at Noon - Sinclair Ross 'The Lamp at...

The Lamp at Noon - Sinclair Ross

"The Lamp at Noon" by ***** Ross is a story *****s bleak as the dust th***** forms the setting. Ellen and Paul live on a f*****rm where draught ***** dust storms have prevented their earning a living and made life nearly impossible to bear for the wife. The couple is trapped in a miserable existence because of the strict gender roles in their marriage. Ellen is the weak woman and Paul the strong man, and only ***** ***** the man of the family can make the decision to leave the farm ***** a better life. Paul's character prevents him from making that decision. In this paper we will discuss his sense of masculinity, his stubbornness and pride, and his persistent optimism that eventually the land will yield abundant crops.

Paul's ***** of masculine identity is bound up in society's idea that a man must be strong or he isn't a real *****. A strong man endures whatever hardship comes and doesn't complain, for to complain would imply *****akness and fear, or unmanliness. In *****der to uphold this sense of himself, his male identity, he is unable ***** empathize with ***** *****'s suffering: "There was too much grim endurance in his nature ever to let him understand the fear and weakness ***** a woman"(Ross, 112). Likewise, he refuses to see that breathing dust is unhealthy for ***** ba***** ***** accuses his wife of selfishness. At the same time he trivializes her need to escape from their poverty as merely a desire ***** more clothes and less work. Because of his ***** to be strong and a real man, he blinds *****self ***** her pain and says, "I've troubles enough of my own..." as though she were a nuisance with all her complaints: "...responding to a kind of instinct that he must withstand her, that it was ***** self-respect and manhood against the fretful weakness of a woman, he ans*****d unfeelingly, 'In here safe and quiet you don't know how well off you are'" (115). Being a "big strong man" also requires him ***** hide his true feelings, especi*****y those ***** are tender: "Careful, despite his concern, not to reveal a fear or ***** that she might think capitulation ***** her wishes, he watched a moment through ***** window, ***** then went off to the tool shed to mend h*****rnesses" (116).

Paul is ***** stubb*****n and proud. One of ***** reasons he refuses to leave the farm ***** because he cannot bear the ***** ***** "living off ot***** people..."(Ross, 114). A real man doesn't fail or admit defeat. Hi stubbornness also makes him resistant to change and suspicious of her arguments: "The pleading in her voice now, after its shrill bitterness yesterday, made him think that ***** ***** only anot***** way to persuade him. He answered...'I told ***** this morning, *****, we keep on right where we are" (113). Even when the terrible devastation of the storm forces him to face reality, at least momentarily,