The emphasis on existentialism in Lispector's work due to the traditional roles of women The human mind often creates traumatized and distorted beliefs about the world after catastrophic events occurred. 1920 image: The world has just been ravaged by bullets, bombs, and evil butchers with evil intent. The aftermath of World War II leaves the country of Ukraine surrounded by terror, anguish and famine. Imagine being hungry enough to consider devouring a rotting relative and then putting this consideration into practice. Imagine a country where pogroms – violent attacks against ethnic groups, mainly Jews, that included the destruction of homes, businesses and churches – are not only regular occurrences, but unsurprising. Imagine the suppression, the repression, the oppression, all the “ions-”… Now throw in a nine-year-old girl struggling to live in this madness, add the rape and death of that little girl's mother, and there you have it. childhood of the famous Brazilian author, Clarice Lispector. These experiences, which would alter anyone's outlook on life, influenced and helped develop Lispector's existentialist way of thinking. In these past cases, gender inequalities were very evident, which explains why Lispector focuses on the fate of women in her writings. Due to the oppressive government, women were confined to their traditional roles and in displaying the lack of freedom, both mental and physical, that this imposes on them, Clarice Lispector justifies her existentialist views through her writings; life is pain, misery and inevitably death. These views are evident when discussing the general lack of freedom in Lispector's stories "The Chicken", "The Smallest Woman in the World", and "Preciousness". giving birth, her obedient stay after being captured, and her sudden but unsurprising death describe, from Lispector's perspective, the natural course of an average woman's life. Although Lispector wrote these stories in the 1940s, reflecting on then-current gender inequalities and life difficulties during the post-World War II period, these themes are evident across all time periods, for, as Lispector has demonstrated, the innate traditional roles of women along with the pre The idea that men are more significant than women is evident even today. These limits reflect Lispector's existentialist views in showing that a woman's life is contained; women's lives are full of pressure, sadness and, ultimately, death. The Gender Gap at School Analysis by David Brooks - 977