Self-Empowerment as Revealed in the Two Canadian Women Characters Lou and Maria: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Self-empowerment has been achieved by women at various levels and under various circumstances. These circumstances are not naturally made where as it is the construct of the male chauvinistic society. Despite the social pressure and circumstances, emerging out as independent women autonomously from the social bondages such as women suppression, physical abuse, etc. is the real growth of women who hail from all walks of life. These social pressures and bondages which have impacted greatly in the lives of Lou the protagonist from the novel Bear and Maria Campbell from the memoir Halfbreed have been widely studied and analyzed in this paper. Tracing out the similar and contrastive characteristic features of the two characters Lou and Maria, their different social backgrounds, their reaction to the social pressure are the major premises of the paper. Further, it deals with how feminism has worked in the two different contexts and their emergence is brought to the light.