LITR 4232: American
Renaissance
Online Student's Assignments
Assignment 4
The narratives by Sarah Margaret Fuller and Elizabeth Cady Stanton are very interesting, especially considering the time period in which they were written. Reading them as a woman in 2003, it makes me very proud that idealistic women were crusading during those times to make the changes for women’s rights that I take for granted every day. However, it does make me wonder how I would feel if I were reading these narratives during that time period.
Objective 3 is highly indicative in both of these narratives. Believing in rights for women was very progressive thinking
during this time period. This is
indicated through Fuller’s conversation with the irritated trader.
The trader believes that his wife is happy with the way things are and
that there is no need to change them. Especially
since he is content with the way things are at home with his wife not having
equal rights. In this exchange, the trader is afraid that his wife will be
“taken away from the cradle and the kitchen hearth to vote at polls, and
preach from a pulpit”. It
is really strange when comparing this to housewives during the 1950’s whose
husbands did not want them to work because it would take them away from the
cradle and the kitchen hearth.
Both narratives also reflect Objective one.
The stories that Fuller tells within her narrative are memorable.
Even though I had never read this narrative before, there were passages
and phrases in it that I have heard used many times.
In Stanton’s “Declaration of Sentiments”, her language is
memorable. Since she bases it on
the Declaration of Independence, the language is highly recognizable.
There was a presentation by Jessica Hayman in 2001, where she brings up an interesting point. She says,
The women encountered in this
course so far have slowly gained their voice. In "The Legend of Sleepy
Hollow" the women do not speak. Katrina has a clandestine conversation with
Brom Bones that ultimately leads to Ichabod's fateful ride through the woods and
his encounter with the headless horseman. However, the readers are not privy to
Katrina's words. We are left to wonder what she might have said, and her lack of
voice leads to the ambiguous nature of the story. In this story, the men speak,
not the women.
With the emergence of Cora in Last of the Mohicans, a woman does finally speak. However, it is in a fictional work and Cora is a mere character. She is not speaking for or by herself; a male author gives her words to her.
This is an interesting
observation. I had not really
thought about this issue until I read this passage.
I had thought of Cora as a more contemporary woman since she had a
progressive view of the Native Americans. However,
I really have to agree with this take on the narrative voices.
Cora was more progressive than Katrina or Alice because Cooper wrote her
that way. Cora is also in many ways
a character that is there so that Uncas can have a love interest.
This really is the first time in the course where women have their own
voice.
Harriet Ann Jacobs also finds her voice.
Although she is born into a situation where she is essentially voiceless
and choiceless, she does not entirely remain so. She does everything that she can to keep her master away from
her and tries to make a better life for her children away from slavery. Even
though it is painful for her to write her story, she does it so that others can
read it. By doing this, she informs
people about her life and slavery and allows new generations to read first-hand
experiences of a slave. By telling her experiences first hand, it makes the
reader more aware of the situation that she was in.
If this were a story that was told in third person, it might not be as
memorable.
The women who wrote these narratives were crusaders in their time.
They dealt with issues that were modern in their time, and some issues
pertaining to women that are still modern in today’s society.