The Liberator Periodical

The article I chose was from The Liberator published in Boston on January 25, 1834, and the article is titled "The Marshpee Indians". After looking through several different periodicals, I chose this one because it was created for abolitionist purposes and I thought that was really interesting, especially given the time it was started. 

Even though I thought this newspaper was really inspiring and revolutionary, the article lacked that spice I was looking for. The article discussed how the Marshpee tribe was seeking independence from the United States government. They wanted to freely work their own land and abide by their own laws, and not of the state of Massachusetts or the country. The article describes who all attended this meeting, and what all was discussed. As I was reading, it felt like I was reading an official court transcript, rather than a newspaper article. Maybe that's a new invention for columnists, to add more excitement to the stories or just anything to keep the reader enthralled. It was just so hard to want to read this article and even finish it. Although it was really interesting subject matter, it was presented so blandly that I wanted to flip to something else immediately. That could also just by my own mind set when it comes to reading, but I expected more drama rather than just a play by play. It was not until the end that the writer came in and expressed his view on the matter he was writing about. That was when things finally got a little more exciting. He used words like "unfortunately" and "cries", more expressive language the rest of the article. If I would have read this at the time it was published, I don't think the pleas from the writer would have reached my ears, because until the end I did not even know the journalist had any interest in the matter.

The Yellow What?

So this was definitely the weirdest, most absurd story we have read all year. The Yellow Wall-paper by Charlotte Gilman is not something I could not fully understand just reading it one time. At first it seemed like some psychological thriller that was about the effects of postpartum depression, since she kept mentioning her baby randomly. But then after reading her biography, I saw it as more a feminist piece. It really made me think she was satirizing the lives of women at this time. They were expected to do all the house chores, take care of their children, and all the other womanly duties, but the narrator in this story finds it "too tiring" to do anything. The only thing she has enough strength to do is write, which her husband has forbidden her to do. It seemed like she was supposed to do all the things she was not physically able to do, but then not allowed to do the things she yearned to do. Although this woman went completely insane, to some degree many other women in these positions would go a little bit crazy also. After being cooped up in a house all day, talking to no one else but small children and not being allowed to be creative, it is hard to imagine not going a little bit coo-coo.

The whole idea of the resting cure also felt a little bit overdone. Everyday the narrator would do the same thing, eat and sleep. Obviously that was not helping her get better since she started to see things move in the wall paper, but her husband was stuck in his ways and would not try other things. I think that was another criticism on the medical community. At the time they were not as willing to try other things that could help, especially in psychiatric care. They thought they knew what they were doing, and refused to see any other way.

Desiree the Wronged

In this story by Kate Chopin, Desiree has a child with Armand Aubigny. Everything is wonderful after the birth of their son, and it seems everything in their life is amazing that nothing can go wrong. Yet, of course it did. As the baby grows, his skin starts to change its color showing that there is some African American blood that runs through his veins. Armand basically forces Desiree out, accusing her of not being white. Little does she know that Armand is fully aware that he is the one who is in fact not fully white. I just thought it was interesting that it was her that had to leave the house, the town, everything she had known and loved behind. All because she might have been black. As soon as I was done reading this, I could not help but think how things would have been different if she had suspected him of having African American blood. Would she have tried to force him out too? Or would she have just accepted her fate and still been happy?

I think this text plays with gender and race issues at the same time, and since it is such a short story, really causes you to go back and reread the words to find the deeper meaning. It was my first time reading Chopin, and I have to say that I was not disappointed!

Mark Twaining

After reading The Diaries of Adam and Eve, I wish Mark Twain would have been around in this generation, because he probably would have had a twitter account and his tweets would be hilarious. Throughout the entire reading of the diaries I was smiling and sometimes laughing out loud at the ridiculousness of this story. It almost did not feel like the same author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn or The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

After thinking about it for awhile I do not think this piece of writing would have been received well by the audience of his time. Although they were probably not as Puritan crazy anymore, many, especially in the South, still held onto the Bible near and dear to their hearts. They would have seen such writing as this to be blasphemous and cruel to taint a story from the Word of God. But if they would have been able to see past the mocking and the all the irony, they would have seen that nice ending he gave to Adam and Eve's story. It may have started off as something that looked nothing like love, except for a nagging wife and silent husband, but it ends compassionately with the two realizing how much they need each other. I think Twain purposefully chose to have Eve die first and say that she would be nothing without him. Is that not what many Christians of the time (and now) believe too? Just saying that if they would have tried, they could have laughed and taken something from it too.