Traveling the world in eighty days was a great feat in itself during the 1800’s. Yet, Elizabeth Cochrane topped that time with seventy-two days, eleven minutes and fourteen seconds. To add to the already overwhelming awe, she was also a woman. In the 1800’s, women were not looked upon as useful beings, although Elizabeth Cochrane was no ordinary lady. Cochrane (or Nellie Bly, as was her journalist name, taken from a popular Stephen Foster song) entered this world on May 5, 1864 in Cochcran’s Mills, Pennsylvania and died on January 27, 1922 in New York, New York. She influenced the lives of many and impacted the world’s views on the purpose of women.
Although a popular sensation among society, she faced a tough start. Her father died of a sudden illness when she reached the age of six. He was a prosperous man, yet, neglected to leave a will. Bly’s family (including two younger siblings) saw their home and belongings sold. Her mother soon remarried (but quickly divorced) an abusive (drunk) man who often drove her screaming from the house. Bly, now an adolescent, enrolled into a...
Leslie Carter, Carter’s sister, died in 2012 because of drugs and alcohol. Since Carter had dealt with the same addictions and won he couldn’t “shake the feeling that Leslie would have found some truth, hope and direction” in his book “and that it might have helped save her life” (Carter 4). Carter was blamed for his sister’s death because he was never there for his sister. Instead of helping his sister get over some of the same struggles he suffered with, he was furthering his own career. Carter began to think that he was the cause of his sister’s death and that in some way he could have prevented it.The overwhelming feeling of guilt in Carter’s life intensified when he didn’t attend the funeral of his sister because he was afraid that his family members would blame him for Leslie’s death as well. The last time him and his sister spoke they did not end on good terms, which added to his feeling of shame. To appease his guilt, he wrote his autobiography so that hopefully other people could find guidance through his struggles and past mistakes. Walls’ first memories were those of poverty, but when she grew older she became successful and provided a good life for herself. Walls now lives in an apartment in New York City but she “could never enjoy the room without worrying about [her] Mom and Dad huddled on a sidewalk grate somewhere” (Walls 4). At the same time she “was embarrassed by them, too, and ashamed of [herself] for wearing pearls and living on Park Avenue while [her] parents were busy keeping warm and finding something to eat” (Walls 4). Walls has conflicting feelings: she feels embarrassed at the way her parent’s chosen lifestyle but at the same time she feels guilty for feeling this way. No matter how hard she tries, her parents will not accept her help because they took pride in
The childhood of Frances Piper consists of inadequate love, loss of innocence and lack of concern, ultimately leading to her disastrous life. As a six year old child, she encounters several traumatic events, explicitly the death of her loved ones and the loss of her innocence. Over the course of one week, there have been three deaths, two funerals and two burials in the Piper family. “Frances was crying so hard now that Mercedes got worried. ‘I want my Mumma to come ba-a-a-a-ack.’”( McDonald 174). As a young child, there is nothing more upsetting than losing a mother. A family is meant to comfort each other to fulfill the loss of a loved one; however, this is not the case in the Piper family. Mercedes, only a year older than Frances, tries to console her even though she herself is worried. The loss of motherly love and affection has a tremendous impact on her future since now her sole guardian, James, expresses no responsibility towards her. Instead, he molests Frances on the night of Kathleen’s funeral to lessen the grief of his lost daughter. As a result “These disturbing experiences plague Frances with overwhelming feelings of low self worth and guilt that haunt h...
Julia Archibald Holmes was a twenty-year-old prospector. She was a major advocate of women’s rights and wore the “American costume” very proudly as she walked to Pikes Peak all the way from Kansas. She then was named the first Anglo-American woman on August 5th, 1858 when she reached the top of Pikes Peak (Abbott, Leonard, Noel, pp. 45, 2013). Julia Holmes made an impact on others as it appeared she had no limits; climbing Pikes Peak, actively supporting women’s rights, and willing to walk anywhere and everywhere to get to where she needed to be to succeed.
Writing based on their own experiences, had it not been for the works of Susan Glaspell, Kate Chopin, and similar feminist authors of their time, we may not have seen a reform movement to improve gender roles in a culture in which women had been overshadowed by men. In The Story of an Hour, the main character, Mrs. Louise Mallard, is a young woman with a heart condition who learns of her husband’s untimely death in a railroad disaster. Instinctively weeping, as any woman is expected to do upon learning of her husband’s death, she retires to her room to be left alone so she may collect her thoughts. However, the thoughts she collects are somewhat unexpected. Louise is conflicted with the feelings and emotions that are “approaching to possess her.”
Clara Barton’s ‘The Women Who Went to the Field’ describes the work of women and the contribution they made on the civil war battlefield in 1861. Barton highlights the fact that when the American Civil War broke out women turned their attention to the conflict and played a key role throughout as nurses. Therefore, at first glance this poem could in fact be seen as a commemoration of the women who served in the American Civil War as its publications in newspapers and magazines in 1892 ensured that all Civil War veterans were honoured and remembered, including the women. However, when reading this poem from a feminist perspective it can be seen instead as a statement on the changing roles of women; gender roles became malleable as women had the
Once a slave, Nanny tells of being raped by her master, an act from which Janie’s mother was brought into the world. With a
In her autobiography, “The Life of an Ordinary Woman, Anne Ellis describes just that; the life of an ordinary woman. Ellis reveals much about her early—ordinary if you will—life during the nineteenth-century. She describes what daily life was like, living a pioneer-like lifestyle. Her memoir is ‘Ordinary’ as it is full of many occurrences that the average woman experiences. Such as taking care of her children, cleaning, cooking the—world’s greatest—meals. It also contains many themes such as dysfunctional families, insensitive men, and negligent parents that are seen in modern life. The life of Anne Ellis is relatable. Her life is relatable to modern day life, however, very different.
The novel shadows the life of Janie Crawford pursuing the steps of becoming the women that her grandmother encouraged her to become. By the means of doing so, she undergoes a journey of discovering her authentic self and real love. Despise the roller-coaster obstacles, Janie Crawford’s strong-will refuses to get comfortable with remorse, hostility, fright, and insanity.
For centuries, women have acted as men’s hypothetical stepping stones. Their work has been pushed to the back and overlooked; even if they were the ones to accomplish immense breakthroughs or life-altering discoveries. In “Pocahontas to Her English Husband, John Rolfe.”, Paula Gunn Allen argues that this is exactly what happened to Pocahontas. Not only did she helped the settlers by introducing them to the land and showing them how to grow tobacco, she also saved John Smith and his crew's lives. In spite of these things, Pocahontas gets overlooked throughout history. Allen shows how this happened through her poem. Her argument claiming Pocahontas was indubitably overlooked in history is strong considering it lines up with other accounts,
The narrator, Twyla, begins by recalling the time she spent with her friend, Roberta, at the St. Bonaventure orphanage. From the beginning of the story, the only fact that is confirmed by the author is that Twyla and Roberta are of a different race, saying, “they looked like salt and pepper” (Morrison, 2254). They were eight-years old. In the beginning of the story, Twyla says, “My mother danced all night and Roberta’s was sick.” This line sets the tone of the story from the start. This quote begins to separate the two girls i...
Pill, the. People & events: mrs. America: women's roles in the 1950s. Retrieved January 25,
Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher. Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History. New York: Random House, Inc., 2007. Print.
Women in the nineteenth century, for the most part, had to follow the common role presented to them by society. This role can be summed up by what historians call the “cult of domesticity”. The McGuffey Readers does a successful job at illustrating the women’s role in society. Women that took part in the overland trail as described in “Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey” had to try to follow these roles while facing many challenges that made it very difficult to do so.
The androcentric view of history often fails to acknowledge the achievements of notable women who have made profound impacts that have revolutionized the way in which we see the world, as well as the universe. Although the modernized 21st century society is more apt to recognize the achievements of women with an equivocal perspective with men, it was not always so. During the early 20th century, women were consistently denied equality with men due to a perverse androcentric, male-dominated perspective that deemed women as subordinate and insignificant. This androcentric perspective limited the opportunities available to women at the time, leaving them only with domestic occupations that were deemed acceptable for women such as nurses, teachers or clerics. Very few women aspired for higher education, and even fewer achieved it. There were very few colleges that accepted women at the time, save for those erected for women alone. It is because of this, women rarely e...
Aubery Tanqueray, a self-made man, is a Widower at the age of Forty two with a beautiful teenage daughter, Ellean whom he seems very protective over. His deceased wife, the first Mrs. Tanqueray was "an iceberg," stiff, and assertive, alive as well as dead (13). She had ironically died of a fever "the only warmth, I believe, that ever came to that woman's body" (14). Now alone because his daughter is away at a nunnery he's found someone that can add a little life to his elite, high class existence; a little someone, we learn, that has a past that doesn't quite fit in with the rest of his friends.