In her essay, Lauren Onkey reveals how colonialism and nationalism have victimized women in the past. Traditionally, women are considered inferior and weaker while men are superior and powerful. This sexist characterization of gender is based on the assumption of sexual dominance. During the period of colonization, the colonial power deliberately describes the colonies as feminine “to justify its 'civilizing' mission” (160). Since then, women have become the symbol and property of the nation. The nation therefore claims the right to "supervise" its behavior. Richard Kearney suggests “the symbol of woman as nation as a somewhat benevolent response to colonial conquest” (160). The “elevation” of women as a symbol and property of the nation is problematic at least for women because it makes self-determination inapplicable to women. In Ireland specifically, women's issues are defined as trivial compared to the more important issues of nationalism. The Field Day group that is supposed to “rethink ideas about the nation, literature, politics and culture” fails to include women's issues in its agenda. Onkey argues that Field Day simply ignores creative works produced by women, and that themes of women, sexuality, and gender are absent from most literary discourse. Women writers are also marginalized as “of the over 300 writers included spanning a period of 1500 years, only 39 are women” (162). Onkey also believes that Translations by Brian Friel – Field Day's first theater production – has been misunderstood by most critics as being largely about colonialism. and nationalism. Critics rarely mention the women's issues that are essential in the work. Onkey disagrees with most critics who interpret the female characters – Maire and Sarah – solely on the basis of a nationalism… middle of paper… happens and because the problems are ignored. I would present literary analysis statistics relevant to feminist issues and draw a conclusion based on the data. Beyond that, I would compare Onkey's interpretation of the work with other critics' interpretation and criticize them to strengthen Onkey's point. In conclusion, Onkey's disagreement about the lack of attention to women's issues in most literary analyses, particularly in Brian Friel's Translations, is well founded. Furthermore, I totally agree with you that translations should not be seen only from a nationalistic point of view. While it is obvious that the British colonization of Ireland and cultural erosion inspired Friel to produce the work, the larger theme in Translations seems to be the misinterpretation of the woman as a symbol of the nation based on the size and significance of the question..