Something I've noticed in my reading as well as in the notes that Cindy sent all of us is that this novel is very feminist in nature...Duh!! But I guess I want to point out what I see in the readings that support this idea.
First of all, Linda's grandmother always had something for her to eat while she was running errands for her master and mistress. Even when she couldn't stop for the sake of time, Linda got a morsel of food on her way back because her grandmother didn't know when her baby would eat again. This is not only supporting the theme of family unity, but also the idea of a woman's plight. We never see any male figure caring for Linda. It is always either her grandmother or a female friend that helps her.
I think this is significant to the plight of woman because women are always expected to be the caregivers, nurtures for children. In this book, the women in Linda's life are mostly safe figures for her, with the exception of Mrs. Flint.
What do you guys think? Do you think this book applies to the plight of woman because of the plot, or simply because it falls into the category of feminist writing due to the author being female. Remember, slaves narratives of the time usually only covered the lives of male slaves.
Happy writing!!
I agree with you wholeheartedly Emily! I do think it seems to be feminist in nature. I wonder though if (during the slave era) that's just how life was. I don't think that the women could trust men at all, especially the men in which they served. All too often they would treat their women slaves like animals and sometimes worse. They couldn't rely on men because the future was uncertain (what I mean is that they never knew if their husbands would be sold or killed). There was no guarantee that the men in their (female slaves) lives would ever return. So I wonder if perhaps the feminist style in which Harriet Jacobs wrote was simply because there was no other view to be had...
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This is an interesting point. I actually read an article on the "Cult of Womanhood" for my writing project. I basically said that, even though these women were slaves, they were still trying to maintain some Womanhood. The "Cult" is basically the virtue of women to want to stay pure and be domestic; it's also called the "Cult of Domesticity." They were, in essence, trying to hold onto what society was telling them they should be. They didn't necessarily have "homes" or "hearths" to tend to except for their masters, but they still tried to be as womanly as possible. It is interesting that they held onto that. It almost seems as if they were holding onto some type of humanity while being treated as animals. I think that Harriet Jacobs watched what a women "should be" and realized that her grandmother and her and other women in her life were trying to be like "the angel at the hearth." I really agree with you on this one, Emily, and I think it could fall into feminist writing. However, I think it would be more conservative in nature simply because she was not "fighting" against the status quo of women of that era; she was simply trying to emulate it.
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