After reading Life, i feel extremely conflicted about the idea of prostitution in the story. Society has taught us to carry a negative connotation with prostitution, and it is normally looked down upon. But as one reads the story, they begin to almost look up to Life, and root for her to keep doing what she is doing. I believe Head made the "village" so narrow-minded and naive to kind of mirror society as a whole. By using prostitution, and have the reader almost agree with the idea as a business, the readers an people of our society start to become more open minded. Even though it seems contradictory, Life's prostitution was her sense of freedom. Even though she was judged by the "village," she felt as if this was the one thing she had control over in the story. She decided what she wanted to do with her body and who would get to use it. It might have been a false sense of control, but it still satisfied her and her freedom. Though i wouldn't normally support prostitution, Head makes the reader believe it was just a proud way to express a womens sense of power, sexuality, freedom, and individuality. When Life does get married, the reader see's all those qualities disappear.
By this story, I believe Head was was trying to reflect how women in society carry false senses of power in almost all we do. Though Life thought she was free by using her body as a business, she was still being controlled by a man, but at least it was her own decision. Once she got married, her freedom really did come to a close. Life and all the women of the village ran their lives under the man's rules.
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