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(2016
midterm assignment) Sample Student Midterm Answers 2016 #3: Web Highlights |
LITR 4328 |
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Cassandra Waggett
Opinions About Religion and Gender in
The Wide, Wide World
In reviewing the model assignments, I wanted to learn about other
students’ opinions on the role of religion and the characterization of women in
Susan B. Warner’s The Wide, Wide World. I reviewed Jennifer Robles
“Mundane America Reexamined”, Britini Pond’s “Religious Influence in American
Renaissance Literature”, and Valerie Mead’s “The Negative Perception of Strong
Female Characters in American Renaissance Literature”. Each of these students
focused on a different facet of Warner’s depiction of religion and gender. My
review of these works had given me a deeper insight into the historical context
in which Warner wrote and has opened my eyes to facets of Warner’s depiction of
religion and gender that I was previously unable to see.
Robles’s paper gave me a greater appreciation for the historical and
cultural atmosphere in which Warner wrote The Wide, Wide World. Robles
reports that she was pleasantly surprised by the ability of American literature
to personalize historical events that she had already learned about. Robles
describes the Second Great Awakening, which “called spirituality to activism”.
Robles asserts Warner was strongly influenced by “the rise of evangelical
religions”. She says that Warner “wrote in The Wide, Wide World how a
relationship with God is like having a friend that will never disappear”. While
I was generally aware of the Second Great Awakening, I hadn’t considered how it
might have influenced Warner. Robles’ mention of The Second Great Awakening has
given me a new way to read The Wide, Wide World as a celebration of an
intimate relationship with God.
According to Robles, the characterization of God in The Wide, Wide World
is resoundingly positive. Robles also writes that “Warner is adamant that even
if everyone else abandons Ellen, God never will.” In Robles’s interpretation,
religion is an enduring source of comfort for Ellen when everything around her
is in flux. She focuses on the idea expressed by Mrs. Montgomery that Ellen’s
relationship with God is that of a friend, rather than a follower. The word
‘friend’ implies that there is little austerity or fierceness about God, only
gentle, constant care unobstructed by fear and formality. This view directly
corresponds to the teachings of the Second Great Awakening. I feel that with
this understanding of the role of religion in Warner’s life, I am better
prepared to analyze the role of religion in her work.
Next I read Britini Pond’s “Religious Influence in American Renaissance
Literature”. Like Robles, Pond expresses a wonder at the power of literature to
bring history to life. She says “Literature and its works have the ability to do
what history cannot do – express the intimate, sensitive and private thoughts
and reactions to the circumstances of the time period”. She goes on to argue
that The Wide, Wide World is a work of “religious sentimentality”, which
reflects Warner’s own views about religion. Pond states that “I think that
readers can easily assume that the feelings that Mrs. Montgomery has towards
religion and her unmovable faith in the grace of God – are similar to the
feelings that Warner herself may have towards religion”. Pond’s belief that Mrs.
Montgomery was the mouthpiece of Warner’s own religious views is the inverse of
my own initial assumption. At first, I viewed Mrs. Montgomery as a helpless
victim, over-reliant on both mortal men and a male God. In contrast, I saw Aunt
Fortune as a celebrated secular independent woman. This view led me to conclude
that Warner was opposed to women relying on a divine patriarch. However, Pond’s
analysis has opened my eyes to the fact Mrs. Montgomery has her virtues, and
Aunt Fortune has flaws.
Reading Mead’s paper helped me better understand Aunt Fortune’s flaws,
which I glossed over in my tendency to romanticize feminist figures. Mead said
that “Aunt Fortune was perceived negatively because of the way she chose to live
her life, but she may have been redeemed at least somewhat in society’s eyes if
she did not have such a steely, unpleasant demeanor”. According to Mead, Fortune
is stigmatized because she deviates from social norms. She is a “negative
obstacle” that “Ellen has to overcome in order to become a better person”. Mead
contrasts Montgomery and Fortune, saying “Ellen’s mother is more of an angelic
presence, while Aunt Fortune’s presence is a tribulation that Ellen must
endure”. Mead’s use of the words ‘angelic’ and ‘tribulation’ ties into the fact
that Montgomery is pious and Fortune is secular.
Mead took the stance that Warner’s goal was to depict Fortune as the
“antithesis” of the virtuous woman. Mead said that Fortune “may
have been redeemed at least somewhat in society’s eyes if she did not have such
a steely, unpleasant demeanor”. I believe that Mead is asserting that Fortune’s
unpleasantness is what villainizes her, and that Warner’s choice to make Fortune
unlikeable demonstrates that Warner was opposed to Fortune’s life choices, and
favored the “angelic” Montgomery. I think that Mead makes a good point, but I
would qualify this assertion by saying that Warner
presents a spectrum of piety and independence, not necessary declaring for one
or the other, but depicting the real struggle women in her time faced with
adapting to reduced hierarchy in religion and increasing independence.
In conclusion, I feel that my review of other students’ works has given
me a more well-rounded understanding of the religious context of the American
Renaissance, and what impact that might have had on Warner as an author.
Conducting these reviews has broadened my perspective by making me more open to
a positive interpretation of religion in The Wide, Wide World and has
helped steer me away from the critical perils of selective reading to affirm my
initial interpretation of Warner’s intent. I feel that after completing these
web highlights, I am much better prepared for my research project, in which I
hope to perform an unbiased analysis of Warner’s characterizations of religion
and women, giving due recognition to positive depictions of religion.
