In conflict, it is women who suffer most

Plan:

Interpretation of prompt: Generally throughout the majority of conflicts especially physical conflict, it is the men who are at the forefront fighting the battle. However it is the mother, the wives, the daughters and the sisters of these men who are the ones who suffer most.

Paragraphs/Ideas

• Picassos painting “the weeping woman” depicts a grief stricken lady, experiencing the true devastation of losing a beloved male to the horror of the Spanish civil War. In the quiet American, it is Phuong who suffers throughout the text, being torn between both men when having to decide who she wants to be with as a result of the conflict between the two men.
• Essay: History has proven to the world that no matter gender, race or religion, conflict will always arise. Not always but generally it is the men of the world who stand up for what they believe in, resulting in the battle of conflict between men. Frequently ending physically, men attempt to prove dominance in their competitive race through conflict, while women are forced to take a back seat.

Despite the result of a male dominated conflict, the deeper consequences show a suffering and pain that is caused to the women who are affected most from the outcome. Famous painter Pablo Picasso’s early 1900’s painting of the “Weeping Woman” presents the severe suffering that is caused to women through conflict. Representing a woman devastated by the effects of the Spanish Civil War, Picasso displays a face that is etched with a universal pain felt by all women who have been affected through the loss of men to war. The tears treaming down her excoriated face shows the suffering caused by a woman who has clearly felt the true effect of a conflict. Although millions of men have lost their lived and been damaged physically through war, it is clearly devastated through the Picasso’s painting that the emotional suffering that impacts on women is much more severe. Women have very little impact when it comes to conflict, especially when it is male dominated. Being forced to be a bystander like the weeping women, causes adverse emotion affects on women, such that is more traumatising to them than the conflict to the man.

They may not always display it, but women always feel the pain of conflict more harshly than men. The harsh suffering that women experience through conflict is similarly exemplified in Grahem Greene’s text The Quiet American. Greene’s female main character Phoung and her sister represent two Vietnamese women who are affected differently by the horrors of the Vietnam War. The conflict of the war mixed in with the rivalry of her two lover’s for her affection tears Phuong apart and inflicts emotional pain on her.

Her love for main character Fowler combats against her will to be married to protagonist Pyle, causing her to feel a world of hurt as a result. With Phuong unable to truly decide between her original lover and the man who can provide her with what she needs, we see the sorrow that slowly confuses and destroys her throughout the text. The pain of seeing her younger sister unhappy and unmarried also tears at Phuongs sister, with her main priority of doing what is right for Phuong impacting her every decision.

Phuong’s sister can clearly see the happiness experienced when her sister is with fowler however she knows that they are unable to marry. The need for Phuong to marry a man who can provide for her inflicts suffering upon Phuong’s sister as she forces herself to convince Phuong to make the appropriate choice. This conflict of influenced by the war presents just how women are always at the deepest end of suffering emotionally compared to men. It is the women such as Phuong and her sister who experience the unfathomable pain and suffering that is forced upon them by the conflict which only affects men to a certain level.

Paragraph 3:

Regardless of whether it is emotional or physical, the battle of supremacy within a conflict shall always end with suffering. What is not always seen on the surface of a conflict is the deeper pain that is thrust upon those who are not directly involved. Generally, it is the women who suffer the most throughout conflict, the women who are bystanders and experience the conflict on another level. Men are usually at the front line of a conflict, doing what is right by their beliefs however it is there beloved female family members who bear the grunt of the painful result of a conflict.