Fanny Fern: How Females in the Literary Realm Have Taken A Stand.

Although I have stated to colleagues before that I feel that Fern does not rhetorically succeed because she inserts assertive and aggressive emotions into her pieces, I greatly enjoy reading her work.  I feel, like Cavendish, she is viewed as an "odd" writer because she is an open-minded and open-mouthed female.  Females were not to be portrayed as boisterous and proud, rather than virtuous and domesticated, for the time period in which these women lived.  I also envy how Fern is able to write pieces in a prose-style feel; however, her pieces are really not meant to be short stories.  Fern's pieces are relaying important messages supporting women's rights.  The fact that Fern is accomplishing a rhetorical and narrative take on literature at the same time is phenomenal. Her dual utilization of literature is relevant because it allows her to reach out to a variety of audiences, specifically making a dichotomous relationship between males and females.  Fern carefully and cleverly uses her literature to expose the exploitation of women of her time.  I find it interesting how the female writer's we have observed thus far have used their literature to take a belligerent stand during their time periods so that they may take one step forward in being released from the strict gender roles placed upon their societies.

-Brittany Kief