Passages - July 16 Reading

"THE REVOLT OF MOTHER"
"It took no more genius and audacity of bravery for Wolfe to cheer his wondering soldiers up those steep precipices, under the sleeping eyes of the enemy, than for Sarah Penn, at the head of her children, to move all their little household goods into the new barn while her husband was away" (37).

This passage was wonderful. I touched on a wide range of emotions and thoughts on Sarah Penn's part. I could feel her growing agitation through the text, and when she packed up their house and moved it to the new barn, where the new house was supposed to be, I couldn't help but feel a strange sense of pride for a fictional character. I could completely understand why she was upset with her husband, so much so that she actually let her actions speak louder than her words. Because he wouldn't so much as listen to how upset she was about the new barn, I think it was brilliant of her to take matters into her own hands. This passage was so important to this text, in my opinion, because it relates Sarah Penn's actions to hose of a military. She was so frustrated with her husband that she used a military tactic, gathered her army (her children), and just took over what she fel was hers. (Good for her!)


"TRIFLES"
MRS. HALE: I might have known she needed help! I know how things can be - for women. I tell you, it's queer, Mrs. Peters. We live close together and we live far apart. We all go through the same things - it's all just a different kind of the same thing. [Brushes her eyes; noticing the bottle of fruit, reaches out for it.] If I was you I wouldn't tell her her fruit was gone. Tell her it ain't. Tell her it's all right. Take this in to prove it to her. She - she may never know whether it was broke or not. (404)

I understood this passage to be an important one in explaining the relationships between women, even those who do not speak much. I found it very interesting that these two women pretended to be stupid about the situation to protect their neighbor. Because Mrs. Hale felt so bad about ignoring the bad things that went on in her neighbor's house, she tried to protect her neighbor from so much. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters don't want the men in the house to know they found the strangeled canary, but they want to prove to the neighbor (Mrs. Foster) that her fruit is not frozen. It is as if because they could not protect her from the evils in her house, they wanted to protect her from all the small things that could send her over the breaking point.


"AS CHILDREN TOGETHER"
"You were ashamed of that house/its round tins of surplus clour,/chipped beef and white beans,/relief checks and winter trips/that always ended in deer/tied stiff to the car rack,/the accordion breath of your uncles/down from the north, and what/you called the stupidity/of the Michigan French" (309).

I really liked this passage. It says so much about the narrator's friend and her life growing up without obviously saying that the girl was a little poor and a little country. I felt like I could feel the girl's shame and irritation with her family and situation. I think it is a beautiful way to describe the life that this girl loathes and desperately tries to escape by growing up quickly. But, she just ends up right where she started. I think this image is central to the poem as a whole because the narrator is first jealous of what her friend has and does because she does not have those things. But, in the end, the narrator is the one who escapes to Paris, who has the life that the Victoria (the friend) wanted.