Gender Roles

Gender roles is a major and dominant theme in the novel Big Breasts and Wide Hips by Mo Yan. Gender roles involves the responsibilities, influences, and power of the sexes illustrated in the novel. Mo Yan sets up a China that is dominated by men who are quite masculine and even animalistic, who engage in war, rape, power struggles, and other unscrupulous activities. China is renowned for repression of women, but the novel dramatically reverses the roles and appearances of most of the major male characters, including the main character, Jintong.

Jintong's grandfather on his mother's side embodies traditional Chinese manhood, and dies in combat fighting foreign troops. Jintong's paternal father and grandfather are the exact opposite. Jintong's father is impotent, abusive, and worthless. Jintong's grandfather is the same. Both men are equally disparaged by Jintong's grandmother, who is annoyed and unhappy with the weak men in...