Blog Wrap up and Reflection

Overall, we enjoyed working together on this blog project. From the beginning we were very organized and decided that we would alternate weeks for writing the blog post--this made it a fair distribution of the work load. A few times we would ask to switch with another group member because they were really busy that particular week or were really interested in a certain book or short story we read. Unanimously, we agreed that we enjoyed the aspect of our blog. It gave us the opportunity to expand on ideas or themes that we liked or wanted to explore further. Initially, our blog theme was to look at how gender and identity was portrayed through literature in the 19th Century. Looking back at our posts (we had to switch a few blogs in from Tumblr to Blogger because the comment issue was too complicated!) we started off sticking to this theme of gender and identity in our readings, but as the semester goes on we veer off from this idea and start writing about whatever interested us. We actually think that this made our blog stronger because by not sticking to the original theme of the blog it allowed us to freely write and explore various topics that the "gender and identity" theme would have restricted us from pursuing that.

This semester long blog project was definitely one of our favorite aspects of the class because it allowed us to express our opinions each week on our readings and, most importantly, to ask questions. Using the blog as a medium allowed us to ask questions regarding the text in a "safe" way. We really appreciated that Dr. Campbell took the  time to read and comment each week on our posts--she generated some real thought to her questions and helped us further our understanding and critical thinking into our readings each week. Also, by having to comment on another group's blog it allowed us to read what other groups had to say--this aspect of the blog assignment was fun and interesting. One blog in particular that I (Hayley) enjoyed commenting on was "Bower Tree"--Floricel Gonzales, Holly Matteson, and Corinna Thornton--because they were always on top of things and had their post up early rather than waiting until 8:55pm to hit the "submit" button. On a deeper level, I felt that they really  took the time and effort into their posts each week, which made it interesting to read and comment on!

British Lit For The Win was a success and we learned a lot about 19th Century British Literature.

The Awakening, and modern contexts

Conveniently enough, this blog manifesto spoke of how we would be using the relationship of the texts we are reading for class and the conversations had in class with gender and society and how it is all interrelated. This specific text, The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, has many, many more reflections of gender, specifically women, and how they were cast in society of the time period, the nineteenth century. It was said to be a “landmark work of early feminism” (wikipedia). It has also been compared to a modern day novel, Fifty Shades of Grey in its sexuality and promiscuity. But why is this book important? We see a woman, Edna Pontellier, who is trying to figure out who she is. She very mistakenly chose a life for herself that she wasn’t prepared for, a life that society wanted for her, that her parents (for the most part) wanted for her, and that perhaps even she had at one point wanted for herself. A life that required her to devote herself to her family, namely her husband and children. And as branded by the title, Edna wasn’t fully “awakened” until she was already so deep in her life that there were very little ways for her to escape her then current living situation, without ruining her life. Edna was awakened to this sexual being and independence that she had never discovered before or even realized was inside of her. It really was unfortunate for her how late she realized this part of her being. But through her eyes, we as readers got to see multiple different roles that women played during the nineteenth century in the American south. We see Edna’s friend Adele living this “ideal” life as a mother-woman who devotes her entire life and time to her husband and children. And we see the opposite, her friend Mademoiselle Reisz, as the spinster character who lived life as a single woman without children. Edna is stuck somewhere in between. She is stuck in this life as someone who is “supposed” to be a mother-woman, yet she now wants the freedom to live her individual life. And she is literally trapped in this situation because her reputation would be soiled for good if she ever took herself out of it. The sad part of her story is that she is just one of many women who were born or thrust into lives that they didn’t particularly like or want to live, but had no other options. Edna’s only option to be free from her life, in her eyes, was to, what we presume as readers, commit suicide. It really makes me wonder what the suicide rate looked like for women in America during the nineteenth century. I actually tried to look up some statistics but couldn’t find anything useful. My guess is that, women have always been strong, and I imagine that most women in these situations, whose lives were put together for them in a way that they didn’t want, just sucked it up and did what they had to do. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case for Edna Pontellier. However, even though women’s rights have been significantly increased in a positive way to this day, I still think about the amount of trouble both women and men have to go through these days in regards to marriage and family. The divorce rate is significantly higher today than even ten years ago, but divorce hasn’t always been acceptable in society, so of course it is hard to compare divorce rates now to those of even 20 to 30 years ago. That being said, it seems to be more common nowadays for couples to get married because of having children than it is the opposite. Casual sex for men and women is more acceptable in society which leads to higher percentages of children being born out of wedlock, and many people still have the mindset of if they have a child with someone then they have to get married to that person. What I’m essentially saying is that, although women have more rights, I don’t think happiness in marriage has changed a lot since the book was written or the time period it was placed in, which is very saddening. It only makes this novel more relevant than ever in our society today. 

Discrepancies in Pudd'nhead Wilson

I'd like to discuss some of the attributes of Pudd'nhead Wilson that were talked about in class today. One of particular interest to me that was mentioned in the discussion was the idea of having any relation of African descent, associates you as such, as it should, but of course that was a negative thing during that time period, or could be considered to many. This, known as "one drop", it seemed that Mark Twain intended on making some fun of it with nutlike of the characters. Roxy, who was one sixteenth African American, yet looked like she was white physically but still was a slave because of her heritage. And then her son, who was one thirty second African American and her slave owner's son who was white, looked so much alike that the only person who could tell them apart was Roxy because she took care of them both. So the irony that they could both be considered white if no one knew of Chambers' (Roxy's son) background, he could pass as any other white child and eventually man. Which is exactly why Roxy switched Chambers and her owner, Percy Driscoll's son, Tom, in hopes that her son wouldn't end up sold down the river. To me, it appears that Mark Twain is making fun of the idea of "one drop". And along with that idea, there was a notion as well that the "whiter" someone was, the smarter they were. But Twain contradicts his making fun of "one drop" with the idea that the whiter you were the smarter you were and somewhat agreeing with that, at least in his writing. Because he made the real Tom an actually good person with lots of potential, and also being fully white. And the fake Tom, aka Chambers, stupid and mean and a bad person, and also of African descent. So with that it seems like Twain does agree that whiter equals smarter. Does Twain believe some of the racial stereotypes that go along with African Americans and white people or is he trying to make fun of those stereotypes? This book kind of shows him doing both. But then if you think about where he is coming from, the time period, both could be possible. It is just tough to read, the whole book, because it is full of controversial and contradicting ideas. And the ending almost makes it feel like the whole book was pointless because it screws over the real Tom, and even though it gives Chambers a chance at not being disadvantaged, in turn it completely disadvantages Tom and Chambers gets "sent down the river" anyways. I just feel like, why even read this? I mwan we get to have these discussions but with no answers. Which is how a lot of things are, I know. It is just frustrating.