After reading, “Old Woman Magoun,” written by Mary Wilkins
Freeman, I cannot help but to think of how much society has changed since this
work was written. Old Woman Magoun does not stop her fourteen-year-old
grandchild, Lily, from eating poisonous berries in order to “protect” her from
Jim Willis, an older man who shows interest in her. In time, these berries kill
Lily, and some people would make the argument that it is Old Woman Magoun’s
fault that she passes. In today’s society, most people have heard of Casey
Anthony, a woman who was found not guilty in the murder of her three year old
daughter. Our country was in awe when she was not convicted because many people
believed that the evidence pointed to her being guilty. I cannot imagine what
it would be like if Old Woman Magoun tried to justify her reasoning behind
allowing Lily to eat the berries in today’s society. Honestly, I have no
children, but I still cannot find myself completely okay with knowing that this
character allowed her granddaughter to die instead of finding an alternate way
to protect her.
Another way
that I believe society has transformed is that people today are more accepting
of couples having children before they are married. In this work, Old Woman
Magoun insists that Lily’s mother and Nelson Barry were married when their
daughter was conceived, but the text tells us that is only a rumor (418). She lied about her daughter being married out
of fear that someone would judge her because she was pregnant out of wedlock.
In today’s society, we see high schoolers having children, people having
affairs that result in a pregnancy, and females getting pregnant without
knowing who the father of the baby is. The older generation are less accepting
of these things, but it is common to see nowadays, so it is easier for our
younger generation to be more tolerant in these circumstances.
I agree with you that it is more commonly accepted these days, but there is still that stigma. If someone older shakes their head and clucks their disapproval, we tend to shake our heads right along with them. I know a woman who had two affairs resulting in two illegitimate children before her husband left and we all were horrified. While a lot more is accepted, we are still happy to hear about someone else screwing up more than we did and that makes us feel good. It's the elixir of hope- someone else is more screwed up than we are!
ReplyDeleteLooking at your first point, would there have been another way at that time? Today, as you said, people are more accepting of children before marriage, but then they were not. She failed when she tried to get Lily adopted. She couldn't talk her way into keeping Lily. I don't know that she would see having another action at the time.
ReplyDeleteInteresting discussion/connections. I will say, though, that if there were a real Old Woman Magoun (like there was a real Casey Anthony), 19th-century society would have vilified her, too. We shouldn't think that her actions would be seen all that different now vs. then.
ReplyDelete