1. Freeman's father, Warren Wilkins, gave up his plan of building the house Eleanor, Freeman's mother, had hoped for. Instead, the family moved in 1877 into the home in which Eleanor was to serve as hired housekeeper. Freeman's mother was thus "deprived of the very things which made a woman proud, her own kitchen, furniture, family china; and she had lost the one place in which it was acceptable for her to be powerful: her home" (Clark 177).
2. Freeman, critiques her own story for being unrealistic in the Saturday Evening Post (December 8, 1917):
In the first place all fiction ought to be true and "The Revolt of 'Mother'" is not true...There never was in New England a woman like Mother. If there had been she certainly would have lacked the nerve. She would also have lacked the imagination. New England women of that period coincided with their husbands in thinking that the sources of wealth should be better housed than the consumers.
3. Freeman published in magazines for young women and her audience consisted largely of women readers. She was influenced at times by her editors' demands for "gentility" in accordance with their sense of the codes of female behavior at the turn of the century. What similarities does the ending of this story share with Hawthorne's "The Birthmark?"
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ReplyDeleteIn regards to the topic number two about the “The Revolt of Mother”, I think that Freeman was wrong. It may have been the year 1917, but there had to be strong women even then. I may not be able to name anyone, but women in those days had to endure more than the women of today in comparison to the conditions of today. Women may have believed in what she said but women have always been strong. The story may have not been true but the message was. Power sometimes comes from the heart and is forced. If her husband in the story had done what he had promised she would have never had to even show her power. She may have appeared to be powerless at some points in the story but I still think that she was always powerful. Freeman says that the women in that time would have lacked the nerve and the imagination to do something like that but her imagination in writing the story proves my case. She may not have been from that area but was able imagine the story and probably inspired some women because of it. Women in any era and region were capable of doing things like that but may have not ever been heard because of the way men viewed and treated them. Another probability is that a male editor wanted her to critique her own work in the way she did to discourage other women from doing similar things.
ReplyDeleteHow do you think "The Revolt of 'Mother'" speaks or doesn't speak to your argument?
ReplyDelete