"The Revolt of Mother" by Mary Wilkins Freeman
An excerpt that caught my attention was when Sarah states that "However deep the resentment she might be forced to hold against her husband, she would never fail in sedulous attention to his wants." / "Nobility of character manifests itself at loop-holes when it is not provided with large doors." I reacted to the passage where she was religiously making her husbands favorite pies because even though she disagreed with her husband and his decisions, she still played her role and did what was expected of her faithfully and was not one bit rebellious. I thought of this and my own maturity. When I was little and got into an argument with my parents, I'd purposely be a mess and do whatever I could do not to please them until I grew up and released that the way to get people to listen to you is to be mature and do what's expected of you. I think this line ties in with the rest of the text because it seemed like the minister, hired workers, and everyone in the town expected her to be punished for her actions but since she maintained her character and took good care of her husband it's almost as if she was rewarded for sticking to her faithful chores and responsibilities. By being noble, she found the loophole through her husband and got what she wanted.
"Trifles" by Susan Glaspell
The passage where Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale are looking through the house and find the dead bird in the box stood out to me because at that point I was wondering what a dead bird was doing in a box, it just seemed really strange to me and was definitely unexpected which is why it stood out to me the most. I think the bird in the story represented Mrs. Wright's happiness or voice in some way. The bird being locked up in a cage is similar to her being confined to her house, responsibilities, and her loss of freedom when she got married. Mrs. Hale stated that Mrs. Wright used to "sing real pretty herself." which I took as even though she was unhappy in her "cage" she would still sing just like the bird. I think the husband got fed up with the singing of the bird or of his wife's voice and some conflict must have arose where he either put a stop to the bird's voice by strangling it or his wife's by punishing her in some way. Overall, I believe the bird is a sign that something happened between Mr. and Mrs. Wright and represented a prelude to Mr. Wright's death.
"As Children Together" by Carolyn Forsche
"You hummed blanche comme la neige and spoke of Montreal where a quebecoise could sing, take any man's face to her unfastened blouse and wake to wine on the bedside table" This line stood out to me most because I was picturing two innocent little girls having fun together and didn't expect Victoria to know so much about the quebecoise from Montreal. The line almost alludes to what Victoria's becomes later in life and was almost like her childhood dream. The narrator states after this line that "I always believed this Victoria, that there might be a way to get out." I took it almost as if the two girls had completely separate dreams, Victoria's being to become someone similar to a quebecoise and the narrator's to "get out" of where she grew up (which is why she state's later that she is in Paris). It seemed to me like the narrator was blind to the fact that maybe her friend and her didn't want the same lifestyle for their future.
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2 comments:
I totally agreed with the way you looked at "The Revolt of the Mother" and how she handled her maturaty when she disagreed with her husband. I was the exact same way you were when i was younger and when I didn't get my way I was determinded to make everyone's life as miserable as mine. That just got me in more trouble and got me less things. I slowly learned and looking back on mother in this situation, it would still be very hard for me to handle it in that mature manner. I would be tempted to yell and tell point out to him everything that I did for himas his wife and tell him that i deserve more, but she just patiantly showed him this.
I never thought of the dead bird in "Trifles" that way. I think it could very well represent Mrs.Wright herself, after getting married and being trapped, unable to "sing really pretty herself". It's really sad to picture it that way, but after reading your reflection it makes sense.
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