A Closing Thought

At the beginning of this class, "Women in Literature," I was unsure of what to expect. Honestly I thought that we would be reading book about women in their lives and how they became writers. Now, I have come to find out that I was very wrong. Throughout this session, I learned many different things about many different women. We went into depth about enslaved women, women of color, views of motherhood etc. 

      One of my favorite sections was women of color. I feel as if I really liked all of the stories that were covered, but one story that stuck out the most to me was Recititaf.  Within this story, the underlying themes were incredible the way that Toni Morrison presented them. Once agian, within this story she never revealed what race each girl was.  This lead to many different ideas that one may form about the story. 

      Another interesting subject that we covered in class, was the issue of getting past race. Within this section, we learned about "Desiree's Baby", and "Dreaming Ourselves Dark and Deep: Black Beauty".  I really enjoyed the article Dreaming Ourselves Dark and Deep, because it went over many of the myths about African AMerican women even today. Being an African AMerican woman, I could relate to a lot of the ideas that were within the article. I felt as if someone had taken a lot of things that I had heard throughout my lifetime and put them all down on paper. 

       In conclusion, there were many interesting topics and stories that were discussed this session. I gained a better knowledge of what women in literature meant. It was not just about women and their lives, but also about women in society and their outlook of their place in society. Over the time of the class, I learned how to analyze stories and really relate to themes, motives, and messages within all the texts. Overall, I really enjoyed everything about this class!!

Women of Color

"Birth"

     Being a woman and reading this short story written by Anais Nin, I found myself sad by the closing of the story. As I read the title, I thought this story was going to be about a happy birth of a child, one of life's greatest blessing and I quickly came to find out that I was going to be wrong. The first line of the story, when the doctor tells the woman that the child is dead, caught me off guard. The more I read on in the story, I began to feel the woman's pain and how it was so hard for her to have to push this child out. The more I read on into the story, I suddenly became more and more sadden. Here you have this woman, who tried to give birth to a child that was six months old and was unable to succeed. This story brought tears to my eyes, because here it was, you had this woman who had carried another life around another life for six months and at a time she thought she was giving birth, the baby did not make it. The way that the author wrote this story was quite harsh to me. Normally in short stories, they start you off with a little background, as opposing to this one when you find out the plot within the first line. Although I do realize that life is not fair, I wish this story could have had a happier ending. 

Professions for Women

 In Virginia Woolf 's Profession for Women, she analyses how women in society struggle against men in many different ways. As far as the difference between me and women, she expresses how women will never able to be quite as creative as men in many ways. Due to this, women are held back form expressing their inner selves. The idea that i gained from the essay is Woolf is trying to show how women in society want to explore their abilities and use them, but because of all the constraints holding them from achieving this. 

     As we read on further in her essay, Woolf tells the story of when she was a little girl and how she wanted t become a writer. Being a women, and a feminist and trying to become a writer, she had t overcome many obstacles and many males did not support her ideas. As a whole, this short essay was very well written by Woolf. I think the ideas that she discussed are still in effect today in society. In some professions, it is hard for women to express themselves and who they really are, because by males it is simply not accepted. Women today are still viewed as inferior in many professional positions, but give us a few more years and THINGS WILL CHANGE!!

The Yellow Wall Paper

    While reading the Yellow wall paper, I suddenly began to paint a picture of all fo the images that I saw. The more I read into the story, I began to focus on a major theme, that seemed to stick out to me. The theme was female imprisonment, I felt this was because the way that John seems to imprison the narrator into a sort of domestic prison like environment. Just as the narrator sees the woman behind the wallpaper imprisoned. I feel that this idea come from the stereotype in which women are only expected to clean house and take care of the children, the narrator seems trapped within her prison like room, in this lovely mansion. The room she is in is barred away from everything else in the house, which relates to the idea of women feeling like "outsiders."

        Another reason I feel this theme is major is because John, her husband never really seems to take her attacks seriously and always has to give her what he feels is the right prescription to her illness. John, never seems to let her handle thing son her own and try to figure out what is really going on. This relates to the stereotypical male, who believes that a woman can not handle decisions by herself and that they need a mans help for everything. The more I read into the story, I felt the idea of male dominance kept playing a major role. On another note, the ending of the story, I am not exactly in love with, I feel that by John passing out and her going crazy, was a very unique way of ending this short story, but as a whoel, this story was very interesting. 

Desiree's Baby

     The short story Desiree's Baby was very unique in its own way. The story opens with a brief history of the founding, Desiree, who was adopted by the Valmonde family after they found her by the side of the road. The Valmondes were childless, and they took in the toddler and raised her as their own child. When Desiree became a young woman, her beauty attracts the attention of Armand Aubigny, a neighboring plantation owner and bearer of one of the finest families in Louisiana. When Armand shows much interest to Desiree, her father explains to Armand that they are unsure of Desiree's true heritage, Armand said that it did not matter and that he still loved her. 

      After the marriage, they had a child. As the child develops, around three months Desiree started to notice a change on the plantation. Armand had seemed to grow distant from her and the  child. She then one day was watching a young boy who was one quarter black and notice a resemblence to her child. Armand then thinks it would be best if Desiree and the child left the plantation and went back home. Armand had completely gone against what he had told Desiree's father, the fact that it simply did not matter hat race she was he would still love her. 

      Throughout this story, I feel as if there is one major theme and that theme would be racism. The ideas of Chopin's time was to believe that African AMericans were inferior to whites. When Desiree and Armand were married and had the child, Armand did not punish or beat his slaves. On the opposing side, when he believed that the boy had mixed ancestry, he suddenly changed his behavior towards the slaves and was very cruel. This is just one major example within the short story that really stuck out in my mind. 

      In conclusion, I enjoyed the story, but I also felt sorry for Desiree because she just wanted to be loved and it was very sad that the man she loved and had a child with, didn't love her as much as she thought because of the color of her skin. This was a very sad story in my opinion.  

Dreaming Ourselves Dark and Deep Black Beauty

           This story written from the sisters of the Yam: Black Women & Self Recovery was very interesting to me. I feel that by being a young African American woman I could personally relate to a lot of the issues that were discussed within the passage. I feel that this story also goes deeper into some of the perceptions that whites and blacks have of each other, for example, segregation, integration, hair care, self perception etc. By reading this article, I also reminisced on many ideas that I had heard or learned about throughout my lifetime. For example, a major disbelief that many African American women have his the myth that because our hair is a different texture than White Americans, than that means something bad. I have always been taught to love what God has given you and just because things (even a small thing such as hair texture) make you different love what you have because you are different. 

          The more that I read on this short story, the more interested I became. Most of the remarks and studies that people had discussed, I had had some sort of previous knowledge on. I feel that in even as a small child, I was exposed to many of this ideas, as the article states. I strongly believe that this short story was very informing and got directly to the point, which I enjoyed. I also not only learned about the African American culture, but more about myself and my beliefs.