After reading the three Mary Wilkins Freeman stories that were assigned for class, I really wasn't sure what to write in my blog. I was going to wait and hope that something in our discussion of them in class sparked my interest and led me to what I would post, like it usually does, but we did not really talk about them today, so I ended up looking a little into Freeman's history and life story.
Something I found pretty interesting in our anthology book was the fact that the man Freeman married, after only a few years together, turned to drinking and became such a horrible alcoholic that he had to be institutionalized. I feel like this makes sense in context of her stories we've read where the men are portrayed as less than great. Freeman continues to put the control of the situations in the hands of her women characters and I can't help but wonder if this has something to do with trying to be in power during her true to life situations where men may not have granted this to her.
I also felt it was interesting to see how much distaste was show towards alcohal in the stories, namely "Old Woman Magoun." The men who the grandmother is attempting to save her granddaughter from were described as drunkards and it is clear how the grandmother feels about this. Is this maybe a reflection of the way that Freeman personally felt about drinking?
Lastly, I'm not sure how I responded to the characters in these stories beside that of Sarah Penn in "The Revolt of Mother." I thought that she was a brave and creative character who deserved the position of heroism that Freeman gave to her. The other women Freeman introduced to us in these stories didn't thrill me. I felt that Louisa in "A New England Nun" was a bland girl who was scared to make changes and take chances. And then we have Old Woman Magoun who lets her sweet grandaughter die becuase of her own prejudices and beliefs. I personally felt that these characters distracted from the idea of women being in control just becasue they were not the types of women I would prefer to see with power.
2 comments:
A lot of women in the nineteenth century had negative feelings toward alcohol, Ruchell, because alcoholism on the parts of their husbands could lead to violence and poverty.
P. S. We'll get to talk about those stories on Tuesday.
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