An ideology is a system of ideas, beliefs, and attitudes. They can lead to motivated reasoning, a subconscious desire not to find the truth, but to defend the version of reality that makes us feel most validated. In truth, an ideology is an umbrella that encompasses several philosophies, which cannot always be considered all true or all false at the same time. As a result, representations of ideologies in literary texts such as Thea Astley's It's Raining in Mango become complex and even contradictory, as they attempt to validate or invalidate entire belief systems such as gender stereotypes and religion. This Australian novel can be seen as a series of short stories spanning four generations of the Laffey family, from when they moved to Australia in the 1860s through to what would be Astley's present in the 1980s. Through various crucial points in each character's life, different aspects of these social ideologies can be seen. Among these are the commonly held perspectives of gender and religion. It's Raining in Mango is intended to demonstrate how women are subordinated in society and how religion has the effect of preserving the patriarchal structure that allows for this subordination. The complexities in the representation of ideologies become clear when compared to other literary texts that complement and oppose them, such as H. E. Bates' The Good Corn and Isabelle Allende's Eva Luna. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay It's Raining in Mango by Thea Astley is often described as a recurring motif of family values. Often overlooked in this book is how it deals with couples who don't have families and how people of different sexes deal with not being able to reproduce or not wanting to be parents. In Mango, Harry Laffey marries Clytie and their marriage for the next four years is depicted as happy as far as Harry is concerned. However this so-called "happy" period consisted of two miscarriages and a child who died of pneumonia in the second year. These sadistic feelings on the part of Harry's character serve to show that he is comfortable impregnating his wife as frequently as possible, but feels uncomfortable having children, and therefore accepts these deaths. After the fourth pregnancy, this ends: "A confusing operation left her childless and made further pregnancies impossible." His reaction is described as: "Harry felt his masculinity assaulted." He is unaffected by the prospect of never having children, but struggles with his inability to impregnate his wife, as he believes it invalidates his masculinity. This focuses on society's expectations of a man being promiscuous enough to impregnate women, but not necessarily take any responsibility towards the child or the mother after the pregnancy. Clytie provides no perspective, so the reader is unaware of any feelings of guilt on her part. This representation of masculinity shows a strong reliance on the ability to reproduce, an idea that is contradicted in The Good Corn, a short story by H. E. Bates. When Joe Mortimer realized that his wife had no children, his reaction was very different: "If there were no children there were no children, that was nature, it was like that." Mr. Mortimer appears to take a logical and mature position, in which he realizes that there is nothing he can do but accept it, and does not see the situation having any bearing on his self-image as a male. His wife, however, falls into depression and self-hatred.