For July 16

"As Children Together"--Carol Forche

The first time I read this throuh, I had a much different interpretation than my fellow class mates. I read it in a much more aggressive, emotionally damaging tone. Then, after reading the blogs, I went back and read it again and felt the tone to be much different. The two friends once ran away together but now have drawn apart. They grew up and grew apart and this author is remember older days and missing and old friend. But the line that stands out the most to me is when she writes,
"Your mirror grew ringed
with photos of servicemen
who had taken your breasts
in their hands, the buttons
of your blouses in their teeth,
who had given you the silk
tassels of their graduation,
jackets embroidered with dragons
from the Far East. You kept
the corks that had fired
from bottles over their beds
their letters with each city
blackened, envelopes of hair
from their shaved heads."
This, like someone else posted, is very similar to the scene in Grease when that girl is describing the silk robe she got from the one of many soldiers she writes back and forth with. They both want independence, Victoria wants independence with a man, the narrator wants true independence. I think the narrator, in a way, wishes she had the same attention that Victoria does but also knows that is not fitting for her.


"Trifles"--Susan Glaspeli

County Attorney: "You're convinced that there was nothing important here--nothing that would point to any motive"
Sheriff: "Nothing here but kitchen things."

As a feminist, this was a frustrating reading for me. It speaks of how superior men were to women which allowed men to make all decisions and then dictate them to the women, regardless of how the women felt. I also noticed how interesting it was that Glaspell used gender sterotypes throughout the play. The men's superiority is so important that it can not be lowered even to find the true motive for murder. It is the nuances of the woman's daily life that the real evidence is found.


"The Revolt of Mother"

This writing obviously focuses on the oppression of women as Sarah Penn fights for equality in treatment. There's also a demonstration of the lack of power women had.

I know you be, as well as I want to. Now, father, look here” — Sarah Penn had not sat down; she stood before her husband in the humble fashion of a Scripture woman — “I'm goin' to talk real plain to you; I never have sence I married you, but I'm goin' to now. I ain't never complained, an' I ain't goin' to complain now, but I'm goin' to talk plain. You see this room here, father; you look at it well. You see there ain't no carpet on the floor, an' you see the paper is all dirty, an' droppin' off the walls. We ain't had no new paper on it for ten year, an' then I put it on myself, an' it didn't cost but ninepence a roll. You see this room, father; it's all the one I've had to work in an' eat in an' sit in sence we was married. There ain't another woman in the whole town whose husband ain't got half the means you have but what's got better. It's all the room Nanny's got to have her company in; an' there ain't one of her mates but what's got better, an' their fathers not so able as hers is. It's all the room she'll have to be married in. What would you have thought, father, if we had had our weddin' in a room no better than this? I was married in my mother's parlor, with a carpet on the floor, an' stuffed furniture, an' a mahogany card-table. An' this is all the room my daughter will have to be married in. Look here, father!”

This excerpt is very powerful and gave me chills because she finally steps up and speaks her mind, she puts her foot down and says what I feel, she's been wanting to say for a long time. It's a demonstration of her fight for earned recognition. She says how hard she works and there's little to show because he doesn't put forth effort to help or contribute they way she feels he should, as a team. I loved this reading and think the point is very clear and made well.