The Two Innocent Characters in "Old Woman Magoun"

The majority of the characters that are mentioned by name in “Old Woman Magoun” has an unlikeable quality. Old woman Magoun lets her granddaughter eat the nightshade berries, thereby killing her. Sally Jinks is dumb: “She really knew how to do scarcely anything” (419). Nelson Barry wanted to give his estranged daughter to a friend, Jim Willis, after losing at poker. The only characters that could be considered innocent are Lily Barry and Isabel Barry. Lily Barry acts like an innocent child. She trusts strange men, because they seem nice. She carries around her rag doll, even though she is fourteen years old. The narrator states, “She was very small, and walked like a child, with the clap-clap of little feet of babyhood. She might have been considered, from her looks, under ten” (420). She eventually dies because of her naiveté and innocence. Although Isabel Barry is mentioned a few times, her character only appears once. Her brother uses her as a maid: “Isabel, the half-witted sister, entered, bringing some glasses on a tray. She had learned with her feeble intellect some tricks, like a dog” (424). Because of the way these two characters are portrayed, the audience is meant to feel sorry for them. The other characters, except for old woman Magoun, you do not feel sorry for. We feel sorry for old woman Magoun because she lets the only thing she cares about die to protect her from her father and her father’s friend.

The Rules of Housekeeping

In class the other day I made mention that I occasionally go to auctions where one of my favorite things to buy is older books and magazines (I use them as decorations in my house). Recently I purchased a set of Reader's Digest's that were published between the years 1936-1940. In one of the copies I came across an article titled "Marriage as a Career" by a woman named Charlotte Muret. In the article Muret talks about what the title aptly mentions: marriage as being a suitable career for a woman to have. Admittedly most of the article made me cringe, due to the implications that a woman's "principle business has long been to please" and she can only do so in the sanctity of marriage, and I could not help but wonder what Fanny Fern's reaction to the article would have been. In "Hints to Young Wives" Fern invites women to take on the role of wife as one would take on the role of an "upper servant or housekeeper" (2102). Fern also suggests that, "men who could bear to be loved... without being spoiled by it... are rare birds" (2102). In her article Muret places a heavy implication on the idea that it is the role of a woman in a marriage is to bring happiness to her husband, to show him love and affection by "being not the equal, but the "better half" of her man." Below are a few select quotes I have pulled from "Marriage as a Career" and I would like to know how you think Fern would have reacted to said quotes. How do YOU feel about the quotes?

"Marriage, even a homekeeping one, gives a woman more generous opportunity for "self-expression" than she always realizes. She organizes the home and dispenses the common funds, looks after the creature comforts of the toiling male (a thing which brings peculiar pleasure to many women) and, above all, she sustains his morale."

"The truth is that a man wants to be the center of his wife's universe. He wishes her emotional interest to be focused on him."

"...rightly or not, the sense of possession plays a large part both in love and marriage"

"...it may be asked why the woman's life should be subordinated to the man's...Women are, as a rule, more emotional, more dependent on human relationships"

"Men can have careers largely because their wives make a career of marriage."

"Two Friends" Sister vs. Lesbianism

When I read "Two Friends" I assumed the two women were so close because they seemed to be all each other had. Sarah stated, "All of my folks had died before I was sixteen years old...I didn't have nobody in the world but Abby." It seems that the two girls would have grown up together in a sisterly relationship especially when Sarah also says that "Mis' Vane was gone, an' she'd been jest like a mother to me."

However, when we looked at certain lines in class it did seem to encourage a more homosexual relationship. During her confession to Mrs. Dunbar she tells her that "I couldn't have her likin' anybody else, an' gittin' married." Since I have sisters, I can't share the same sentiment. I don't care if my sister gets married or not.

I'm not really sure what to think of this piece. I think Freeman left out so much information that the reader will inevitably see what they want whether it is sisterly women, lesbians, or the irony of switched gender roles. 

Fanny Fern: Critics: Sexual Inuendo?

I absolutely have grown to love Fanny Fern over the past few years.  The more I read "Critics," I cannot help but feel that it has a sexual undertone.  Fern states, "I never new an editor to nib his pen with a knife as sharp as his temper, and write a scathing criticism on a book, because the authoress had declined contributing to his paper " (2104).  It seems that the man or critic  in this excerpt has went to find another woman to fulfill his sexual needs, or to nib his pen at, because his wife, or authoress, has stopped contributing to his sexual desires.  Fern also uses terminology such as taper fingers, and porcupine quills, which closely resembles the male genitalia.  She refers to the new mistress as "poor" and a "self-reliant wretch," while she refers to the wife as a "fashionable authoress [whom] once laved his toadying temples."  I feel that Fern is going beyond literature and making a statement more about how men men satisfy their sexual needs in reality.  

Fanny Fern and Her "Hints to Young Wives"

When reading Fanny Fern's piece "Hints to Young Wives", I started to appreciate her use of humor in rather stoic situations. Considering the poem/column is about a woman warning other women about their straying husbands, I liked that she took a rather sarcastic approach rather than allowing women to play the victim which can tend to happen with this type of material.

For example, in the piece she refers to the protagonist as a "poor little innocent fool". She feels bad for the protagonist because she fell for all of her husband's tricks and did nothing to stop it rather than sympathize with the woman and pity her.

In reading some of her other columns, I've come to believe that that was a unique trait of Fanny's. She was able to apply humor in situations where maybe other poets and authors would not. She brought a likeability to her stories because they are not all laced with depressing tales. As someone who enjoys humor in what she reads, I appreciated  reading Fanny's column.

Different Points of View in "Two Friends," What's Yours?

After reading this piece, and then discussing in class, I think it's really interesting to consider the points of view outsiders would have had in the situation between Abby and Sarah. Of course, we mentioned Boston marriages, and the nonexistence of Lesbianism, as well as reading this with Queer theory in mind. However, what if we were innocent by-standards watching Abby and Sarah's relationship grow and unfold; and how would our opinions be different if we saw them as they were in the nineteenth-century, as opposed to seeing them today? I want to leave this as a questions to everyone, but I'll begin with a small answer: I think people today are, sadly, much more judgmental and intrusive. I don't believe Abby and Sarah could have lived a peaceful life as they did if they lived in today's time. They would be in the constant eye of the public and rumors about two women living together would be spiraling. Even if the women were "just friends," I don't believe that would even be a considered, valid reason today like it would have been assumed in the nineteenth century.

What does everyone else think?

"Two Friends"

Is Sarah more reliable on Abby?  She seems so be in denial of Abby's illness from the start of the story when she tells Miss Dunbar "I never thought her cough was very bad anyhow, as far as I was concerned" (411).  However you can see her stress just when Abby is gone for too long.  The only thing I couldn't figure out was why she continued to push Abby to do her daily tasks.  Especially since Abby's mother passed of the same cough.  Was Sarah just overlooking the inevitable?  Sarah was very frail and seemed more reliant on Abby's presence than vice versa.  Not to say Abby did not love her equally.  Sarah just seemed more needy.  Was this due to the fact that she kept this secret from Abby all these years?  When Abby did not care a bit about John Marshall one bit, I think this was Sarah's defining moment in their relationship.  All this time Sarah felt she loved Abby more and would do anything to keep her for herself.  Low and behold Abby did not hold anyone as close as Sarah.  Was this a selfish act on Sarah's behalf?