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The role of women throughout English literature
Female writers in literature essay
The role of women throughout English literature
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Some interesting things I learned about Betty Smith are that she had a mistake with her name when she was born, she had earned many awards, she wrote lots of plays, and she wanted to live life to the fullest. Lastly her family was quite interesting as well. When Betty Smith needed a copy of her birth certificate to get a passport, she was surprised to discover her name listed as Sophia. Her mother could speak little English when she had Smith. When she went to tell about the birth, the doctor kept shouting "name?" at her and the confused mother thought he meant her name so she said, Sophie. Smith was baptized as Elizabeth Lillian Wehner, her mother refers to her in her letters as Lizzie or Littie, her schoolmates wrote to her as Elizabeth or …show more content…
Beth, and when she first began writing she published her articles under the name Elizabeth Wehner. After her divorce, she began calling herself Betty Smith, and, except for her husband Joe Jones (who called her Elizabeth) that name stuck. Betty is short for Elizabeth. Elizabeth and George Smith divorced in 1938, and she began calling herself Betty Smith. An interesting thing I learned about Betty Smith is that she won many awards. The awards were the Avery Hopwood Award, for her play Jonica Starrs, Berkeley Playmakers award for her play So Gracious in the Time. She won the same award in 1938 for Three Comments on a Martyr, and Betty received a $1,200 Rockefeller Fellowship. In 1940, she received a $1,000 Rockefeller & Dramatist Guild Award. As you may have noticed she received many of her awards for plays or dramas. Betty Smith wrote seventy-two one act plays. Some of her plays are Wives-in-Law, A Day's Work, Jonica Starrs, Mannequin's Maid and Blind Alley. Most of her plays have a strong, confident woman. Also most of her plays show an outline of her life even though they are fiction. I have found that her plays are all relatable to a regular person. Smith had a strong belief that she should live her life to the fullest . She stated this quote “Dear God,let me be something every minute of every hour of my life. Let me be gay; let me be sad. Let me be cold; let me be warm. Let me be hungry...have too much to eat. Let me be ragged or well dressed. Let me be sincere - be deceitful. Let me be truthful; let me be a liar. Let me be honorable and let me sin. Only let me be something every blessed minute. And when I sleep, let me dream all the time so that not one little piece of living is ever lost.” She wanted to feel everything possible to feel and do everything possible to do. She didn't want to be sheltered from anything or be completely thrown into everything. She just wanted to live and not let any of her life be wasted. Betty Smith’s grandparents showed a resemblance to the family history of the Nolans in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
They immigrated from Germany and her grandmother was very superstitious like the grandmother in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Betty’s grandfather carved her a church and carved little crosses. In the book Francie’s grandfather carved things that they kept on the altar at her church. Like Johnny Nolan in the novel, John Casper Wehner was one of four sons, each a year apart: Franky, Johnny, Ambrose (Andy) and George (Georgy). John Wehner's father died young, and his mother, Regina, was possessive of her sons. John Casper went to see her every Sunday and her mother wouldn't talk to him when he came home. This information is like the novel, because "The Rommelys ran to women of strong personalities. The Nolans ran to weak and talented men.” Katie Nolan was supposed to represent Smith’s mother, in the novel Francie and Katie do not have a close relationship and Smith and her mother did not have a close relationship. Johnny Nolan represented Smith’s father, in the novel Francie and her father have a strong bond like Smith and her father. Also Smith's father was an alcoholic and he sang a lot. Lastly her father died when he was forty and his death was listed as pneumonia like in the
book. I think that Betty Smith was really interesting. When I was researching her I found out many things that I didn't know about her. I found out that she wrote plays, she had a mistaken birth certificate, she earned many awards, she lived her life to the fullest and her family played a very important role in writing A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
Although her father got her interested in storytelling it was Goodwin’s mother that got her interested in books. She goes on to tell that if her mother was not doing anything else she would always be reading no matter what time it was. Goodwin writes that every night before bedtime her mother would come and read to her. Goodwin’s favorite times with her mother though were when her mother would tell her real life stories about when she was younger. During this time Goodwin liked to believe that her mother forgot about the pain that she went through constantly due to her bad health.
Margaret (Peggy) O’Neal (who preffered to be called Margaret) was born in 1799 in Washington DC. She was the daughter of William O’Neal, who owned a thriving boarding house and tavern called the Franklin House in that same town. It was frequented by senators, congressmen, and all politicians. She was the oldest of six children, growing up in the midst of our nation’s emerging political scene. She was always a favorite of the visitors to the Franklin House. She was sent to one of the best schools in Washington DC, where she studied English and French grammar, needlework and music. She also had quite a talent for dance, and was sent to private lessons, becoming a very good dancer. At the age of twelve, she danced for the First Lady Dolley Madison. Visitors of the Franklin House also commented on her piano playing skills.
She is very close to her father so this impacts her deeply. She feels the need to step up and care for her family. This turns Antonia into a very hard worker. She begins working with Ambrosch, her brother, by plowing the fields. She takes on the responsibilities of a man. This makes her stop going to school. This worries Jim until he finds out that Antonia is actually very hurt by the event of her father dying. Antonia cries in secret and longs to go to school.
In the book Spare Parts by Joshua Davis, there is a chapter for each character in where it gives a brief description of them and their family. The
It is the day Cali will remember for the rest of her life, for it is the day Cali Millhouse discovers her uncle was murdered by a family member. It is Two o'clock and half of the town of Rosewood is piling inside the local funeral home. Mrs. Dunham pays her respects to everyone except Cali’s father, Steve, for Mrs. Dunham finds him to be evil. Maybe she is right, and he killed Cali’s uncle? Whether he was or not, it is still a sad day and she needed the comfort of her father. That morning the sheriff came by and informed Cali and her family that someone related to Keith killed him. Surprisingly, her father made a comment that he believed it was her Aunt Audrey. Audrey was a money hungry, mean, gold-digger who dated men for their money, and she knew Keith had a two billion dollar company that would be left to someone if he passed.Steve felt much animosity towards his older sister, and would vituperate her name any chance he got. Audrey blamed Steve as much as her blamed her, nevertheless you could feel their acrimony towards each
After her grandfather’s death in 1687, 16 year-old Kit feels that she must leave and sail to the only relatives she knows of, her uncle and aunt in Wethersfield, Connecticut. She desperately travels there on a ship called the Dolphin, where she meets a gentleman named Nat. She and Nat have a very playful relationship, Nat always has a mocking grin on his face and Kit occasionally flirts with him on the boat. When she arrives in Wethersfield, Connecticut, she is taken by surprise at the dull landscape and endless fields. Kit meets her uncle, a strict and sometimes grumpy man named Matthew Wood, her aunt, a sweet and caring woman named Rachel, her cousin Judith, a picky and vain young lady who’s otherwise kind, and her other cousin Mercy, a tender and loving girl who lost one of her legs when she was young due to a fever. Judith likes a rich boy named William, but one day at church, William sees Kit in her fancy clothes and starts liking Kit. Judith then decides to go for John, a very caring young man who secretly likes Mercy. Mercy also secretly likes John. Soon, Kit is comfortable wi...
Being essential to the characteristics of a few of the main characters, Evelyn Couch, Ruth Jamison, and Idgie Threadgoode. While during one of Evelyn’s usual nursing home visits, she happens to strike a conversation with an old kind card of a woman (Ninny Threadgoode) who happens to brighten her day with the telling of stories from the past. As she begins Ninny recounts tales of her sister-in-law Idgie a young free spirited girl who always seemed a cut above the rest, but however, differed from others in the sense that after her older brother Buddy’s untimely death she began to close herself off to others around her. While before then was always different as she was a girl who enjoyed rough, noisy activities traditionally associated with
She was a teacher at a few schools, and when she was smaller in Walnut Grove for the second time, she ran errands for her mother and other town folk. When Laura first settled in De Smet, two brothers and their sister came to Laura’s house during the hard and cold winter, the Wilders. They agreed to help the Ingalls until summer and then went off to start their own settlements. After Laura started teaching, one of the brothers, Almonzo, started bringing her home from her job on the weekends, which was a long way. Almonzo had a team of fast driving horses and a buggy. On one of the rides, they talked about their names. Laura found the nickname Manly, and Almonza found the nic name Bessie, from her middle name Elizabeth. Soon the two were married and two miles north of her parents home Manly had built a home for the two of them to live in together. Like her parents, Manly started to farm on his new land. His crops failed, and they moved to Missouri, Mansfield in an area called the Ozarks. They bought some new land in a very rocky estate that came with a basket full of tree seeds for an orchard of fruit. Laura and Manly lived there for the rest of their lives. Laura then bore a baby girl, and even before the baby was born, Laura insisted it was a girl and that she would be named Rose. Her plans were carried out exactly. Many, Many years later, when their farm was developed and Manly and Laura were older, Laura decided to
The sisters band together to raise funds for their road trip to the “BIGGEST BINGO IN THE WORLD” (1125) distracting them from their fighting. “[T]he women start their fundraising activities with a vengeance” (1143) each of them using their individual skills as well as pairing up to maximise all of their efforts. The ladies use this fundraising frenzy to distract themselves from the “crazy” (1115) life on the rez where there are “[n]o jobs[, and] nothing to do but drink and - forget about [their] Nanabush” (1115). Only Marie-Adele and Zhaboonigan know the truth that Nanabush is back and having “a holiday” (1143) messing with the girls fundraising activities. The sisters finally raise enough money to get to Toronto and “THE BIGGEST BINGO IN THE WORLD” (1139) and start on their road trip full of “intimate conversations” (1148). Philomena discusses the child she gave up for adoption 28 years ago with Pelajia, Annie and Marie-Adele discuss what is going to happen when she dies, Emily discusses her lost lover with Marie-Adele and Pelajia, and Zhaboonigan and Emily discuss having children. Throughout all of the discussions, each sister gives advice and support to deal with the issues most of which were caused by living on or being from the rez. This part of the road trip was influenced by Nanabush’s attack on Marie-Adele and became important
As the members of the Class of 1894 approached the date of graduation, so too did Emma approach the birth of her second child. By mutual agreement, the members of the Class of 1894 decided that Emma’s child would be named in honor of the class. When a girl was born, five names were placed into a hat—Cenie, Myrtle, Mabel, Olive, and Maude—and two of these were randomly selected to create the baby’s name. It was in this fashion that Cenie Myrtle Seyster came to be known.
In the 1840’s, the Perkins’ family worked in the brick-making factory, and they were wealthy for a short period of time. Many businesses collapsed and were bought out, so the wealth didn’t last long. In 1870, the Perkins’ turned to dairy farming to get their money. Shortly after, Frances’ father, Frederick married a woman by the name of Susan Bean. On April 10th, 1880 in Boston, Massachusetts Fannie Coralie Perkins was born. In 1884, when Fannie was four years old, Frederick and Susan had a second child, Ethel (Downey 7). Fannie was very close to her family her entire life. She often spoke of ancestors, she adored and their ways of thinking helped her when she had to make big decisions later on in her life.
Charley worked at the Linen Thread factory which is where they both worked at and met. Only after 4 months of dating Nannie’s father James gave approval to her marrying Charley. Charley’s mother would always be taking his attention rather than letting Nannie be with him which limited their activities with each other. They later had four daughters within 1923-1927. Nannie became a stressed out young mother and started to drink alcohol and smoke and later it became a heavy addiction. The marriage between them became a unhealthy relationship for both sides. Charley would often be gone from home and be gone for more than just one day leaving Nannie and the four daughters. In 1927 two of the middle daughters died from food poisoning. No one suspected that Nannie had to do anything with their deaths. Charley suspected that Nannie killed them and took his first born daughter Melvina and fled. He left the last child Florine behind with Nannie. Soon after Charley’s mother passed away and Nannie had to get a job in a cotton mill so she could support Florine and herself. Soon after in 1928 Charley came back and brought back Melvina so he could divorce Nannie and Nannie eventually got possession of the 2 girls. The reason of Charley leaving Nannie was because he was afraid of
Mrs. Putnam was Mr. Putnam’s wife and she has lost 7 kids a before they live a day. “Reverend Parris, I have laid seven babies unbaptized in the earth. Believe me, sir, you never saw more hearty babies born. And yet, each would wither in my arms the very night of their birth.” Mrs. Putnam is talking to Rev. Parris about her child Ruth and how she has lost all of her children except her precious Ruth. Rebecca Nurse on the other hand has 11 children and over 20 grandchildren. Jealousy over powered Mrs. Putnam. “But I must! You think it God 's work you should never lose a child, nor grandchild either, and I bury all but one? There are wheels within wheels in this village, and fires within fires!”. Mrs. Putnam later in the story accuses Rebecca Nurse of witchcraft and Rebecca Nurse is hung. Abigail Williams the niece of Rev. Parris becomes jealous of Elizabeth Procter. Abigail’s motives are strictly off of
Her parents meet at a social gathering in town and where married shortly thereafter. Marie’s name was chosen by her grandmother and mother, “because they loved to read the list was quite long with much debate over each name.” If she was a boy her name would have been Francis, so she is very happy to have born a girl. Marie’s great uncle was a physician and delivered her in the local hospital. Her mother, was a housewife, as was the norm in those days and her father ran his own business. Her mother was very close with her parents, two brothers, and two sisters. When her grandmother was diagnosed with asthma the family had to move. In those days a warm and dry climate was recommended, Arizona was the chosen state. Because her grandma could never quite leave home, KY, the family made many trips between the states. These trips back and forth dominated Marie’s childhood with her uncles and aunts being her childhood playmates.
On November 4, 1942, a small baby girl was born in Harlem, New York. She was the child of Rupert and Gladys Bath. Rupert was the first black motorman for the New York City subway system, and Gladys Bath was a housewife and domestic worker who used her salary solely to save money for her children's education. They named their child Patricia Era Bath. Bath was highly encouraged by her family to do well in school and to advance her academic career. Her father was an occasional newspaper columnist and a former Merchant Marine who taught Bath about the wonders of travel and the value of exploring new cultures all over the world. And if it wasn't for her mother buying her a chemistry set when she was young, Bath may have never become interested in the sciences in the first place.