The Stepford Wives Guide To What Home Really Is

It was once said “Home is where the heart is”1 Pliny the Elder. This same quote has been used in numerous songs from late 1900’s, it was as also the title of a movie made around this same time. The phrase has been defined as, “something that you say which means that your true home is with the person or in the place that you love most”2. Fall Out Boy said in the song 27 off their most recent album Folie à Deux, “If home is where the heart is, then we’re all just fucked”3. Meaning that if someone were to put all their stock into one person or one place it will come back to bite them in the end. This contrast in views from the past to the contemporary brings up a couple different questions, what is the true definition of home, has the definition of home changed over time, how has home been represented in influential material such as movies, books and music?

If one were to search for the definition of home on the internet they would find quite a few definitions out there, some talking about family units, others talking about sports, and then there are those talking about places of comfort. On Merriam-Webster Online alone there are six different definitions on how to define home. The best definition of home is: “a familiar or usual setting”4. Meaning, a place that is quite familiar and comfortable to someone or maybe somewhere that they usually go to. I don’t believe that home has to be confined to just one place at all. Home could be a house, apartment, or wherever a person sleeps at. It could also be a place as big as the wilderness or as small a coffee shop or friends house. I think saying that “home is where the heart is”1 is a very restricting statement, to say that someone’s home is where their heart feels the most love is to restrict their home down to one single place and not allow them to be a individual. If this love were to die then where would they be, according to this definition of home they would be lost and homeless because they wouldn’t have love. Looking at this quote and the definition “homelessness” the population of the “homeless” would be significantly increased due to the ending of relationships. To view though the actual definition of home and the definition of “homelessness”, the “homeless” population would significantly decrease. Those people previously viewed as “homeless” would not be considered homeless anymore. The reason being they are usually on a street corner or under the bridge that they are familiar with, it’s their home. Has this definition stayed the same throughout history though?

Prior to the 1950’s the individualism of both men and women had been growing because of the passing of the 19th Amendment. With this freedom of individualism women and men were both able to explore out of the house and base their home in other places than there. As the 1950’s began, the values and views of the relationship between women and men began to change once again. Due to zoning laws and the invention of transportation the construction of suburbs became possible within the United States. The construction of suburbia’s was the destruction of the independence of women. When houses were within the inner city it was easier for women to be independent and go out when they pleased. As the houses moved to the outer city they formed a restriction on women. The reason suburbs were so popular was due to the affordable nature of the house itself. The reason they were so affordable was they were made of cheaper housing materials and each house was an exact replica of the original so they were able to mass produce the parts to the house making it cheaper. Since the house was more affordable for families only the men had to continue to work the women were once again put to work at the house, destroying their individualism and making them just as cookie cutter as the house they resided in. With this deconstruction of individualism the definition of home once again brought the definition of home back towards the idea of “home is where the heart is”1. Even though the novel was written in 1972 author Ira Levin does a good job of depicting this exact transformation from the change of inner city to suburb in the novel The Stepford Wives. In this book Joanna, her husband Walter, and their two children Pete and Kim move from the inner city of New York to the Connecticut suburb of Stepford. The transformation of the individual women to the suburban housewife can be seen on the first page of the book. As the author describes the woman who welcomes Joanna and her family to Stepford the feeling I get is of this woman who has lost all that she knows except for this one little job. The author describes her as “The Welcome Wagon lady, sixty if she was day but working at youth and vivacity (ginger hair, red lips, a sunshine-yellow sundress), twinkled her eyes and teeth at Joanna”5…”Her brown leather shoulder bag was enormous, old and scuffed; from it she dealt Joanna packets of powdered breakfast drink and soup mix, a toy-size box of non-polluting detergent, a booklet of discount slips good at twenty-two local shops, two cakes of soap, a folder of deodorant pads---“5. This description also is a good depiction of the stripping of Joanna’s independence and freedom. As the woman hands her all these objects that she will need when taking care of her family, her independence is stripped and condensed into a hand full of house care products. This same stripping of independence into the model house wife can be seen in the short story Captive Audience written by Ann Warren Griffith. The mother in the story Mavis takes her son Billy and her daughter Kitty to the grocery store so Kitty can pick out a new cereal. As the girl finds the cereal she wants,

“She held the box close to her mother's ear. ‘Listen to it, Mom, isn't it swell!’ , Mavis heard a shattering command, ‘FORWARD, MARCH!’ and then what sounded like a thousand marching men. ‘Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch,’ they were shouting in unison, above the noise of their marching feet, and a male chorus was singing something about Crunchies were marching to your breakfast table, right into your cereal bowl. Suddenly inexplicably, Mavis felt she couldn't stand this every morning. ‘No, Kitty,’ she said, rather harshly, ‘you can't have that one. I won't have all that marching and shouting at breakfast!" Kitty's pretty face turned to a thundercloud, and tears sprang into her eyes. ‘I'll tell Daddy what you said! I'll tell Daddy what you said! I'll tell Daddy if you don't let me have it!’ Mavis came to her senses as quickly as she had taken leave of them. ‘I'm sorry, dear, I don't know what came over me. Of course you can have it. It's a very nice one. Now let's hurry on home so we can give you your permanent before Grandmother comes.’”6

Mavis’s choice of independent thought has been totally erased, she must now do whatever it is that makes her children happy and she can never go against her husband. Independence wasn’t lost for long though.

As the decade ended and moved into the 1960’s and then into the 1970’s once again the definition of home began to change from “home is where the heart is”1 to the actual definition of “a familiar or usual setting”4. At the start of the 1960’s the Second Wave of Feminism sprouted up. This movement was also known by a couple other names, the most fitting name is the Women’s Liberation Movement because that’s what they really had to accomplish to free women from the suburban home life. Two of the most important issues this movement fought for dealt with family and the workplace. The reason these topics are so important because as the women gain leeway and independence once again they will face opposition getting out of the house and back into the workplace. As the Women’s Liberation Movement progressed through the decades they made a lot of headway gaining their independence once again and establishing a home outside of their house. This can be seen quite a bit in the book The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon. This novel is about a woman named Oedipa Maas, she is made the executor of the estate of her ex boyfriend who has recently died. As she leaves her house to deal with a sort out this estate she finds home in the adventures that she encounters. As she moves through trying to figure out this conspiracy she is never in one place for very long but she does find the routine familiar. This can be seen when she is sent to deliver some letter to the W.A.S.T.E. system. As she waits to see how the system works “Oedipa settled back in the shadow of a column. She may have dozed off.”8… “She went over and dropped in the sailor’s letter to Fresno; then hid again and waited.”8 Even though she has never lived in this place for a long while, the familiarity of trying to figure out this conspiracy has made everywhere it takes her, her new home. Another good example of home changing to a familiar place from the novel The Crying of Lot 49 is the way the Oedipa’s husband changes after she leaves to figure out the estate. When she finally comes back to see him “Mucho came downstairs carrying his copy, a serenity about him she’d never seen. He used to hunch his shoulders and have a rapid eye blink rate, and both were now gone.”9 It is later mentioned that he has started to take LSD but the combination of this and the stress release of Oedipa leaving has made him find home within his mind. He went from finding home within his house to his mind, somewhere that is the most familiar to him. What about now?

Through the 90’s and into the present, the definition of home hasn’t changed. I would even say it has become more prominent that home is a familiar setting to someone, not just their house. The ideal of “home is where the heart is”1 is based on the setting of a nuclear family. Nuclear is defined by Merriam-Webster as: “a family group that consists only of father, mother, and children”10 this ideal has definitely been lost throughout the last fifty years. According to the Forest institute of Psychology in Springfield, Missouri 50% percent of first marriages, 67% of second and 74% of third marriages end in divorce.11 This just goes to show that the possibility of a nuclear family to function in this day and age is slim to none. For someone to be restricted to one place their house for the rest of their life has become seemingly preposterous, people need their independence and the ability to travel and find other places that become their home outside of their house. Everyone also needs a house to come back to though, which are the ideals and values of Habitat for Humanity. In their mission statement they say “Habitat works in partnership with people in need to build and renovate decent, affordable housing. The houses then are sold to those in need, Habitat's partner families, at no profit and with no interest charged. Partner families invest hundreds of hours of their own labor -- sweat equity -- into building their homes and the homes of others. Their mortgage payments go into a revolving Fund for Humanity that is used to build more houses.”12 They aren’t building homes they are building houses. They really just want to provide people with a place to stay after they come off the street from their adventures of finding home.

Fall Out Boy definitely had it right when they said “If home is where the heart is then we’re all just fucked”3. To put everything into one place or one person is to restrict oneself to the point where they really don’t know what is out there for them. People are realizing that they need to be individuals, they need to find where their home is not get sucked into the home of another. To do that is to fall back into the trend of the 1950’s where houses were the home and no one was really individual they all seemed to be the same, robots. To have a familiar setting that causes peace or serenity though is what home really is. For me, I know my home isn’t my house, quite the opposite actually. My house is a place I would like to spend the least amount of time possible. The place I call home are the slopes of Crystal Mountain, a place where I feel completely at peace, a setting that is very familiar to me. My home is out there, where is yours?
References
1. "Pliny The Elder." Answer.com. 7 June 2009 .

2. "Home is Where the Heart Is." Freedictionary.com. 7 June 2009 .

3"27." Metrolyrics.com. 8 June 2009 .

4. "home." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2009. Merriam-Webster Online. 8 June 2009


5. Levin, Ira. 1. The Stepford Wives. New York: HarperTorch, 2000. 3-3.

6. Griffith, Ann W. "Captive Audience." Captive Audience. 8 June 2009 .

7. "Second Wave Feminism." Wikipedia.org. 7 June 2009 .

8. Pynchon, Thomas. 5. The Crying of Lot 49. New York: Harper & Row, 1966. 130-30.

9. Pynchon, Thomas. 5. The Crying of Lot 49. New York: Harper & Row, 1966. 141-41.

10. "nuclear family." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2009. Merriam-Webster Online. 10 June 2009

11. "Divorce Rates." Divorce Rate. 8 June 2009 .

12. "Habitat for Humanity Mission." Habitat For Humanity. 7 June 2009 .

Woman in Film and History

Are women really equal to men? Throughout history women have not been equal to men, especially in the early history of America. It wasn’t until the 1920’s that the fight for woman’s rights showed much progress. In the early 1920’s the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution was passed, this Amendment theoretically gave American women the right to vote. Even though women were granted some rights at this time they were still viewed as inferior to their male counterparts. After watching the three movies Splendor in the Grass, Attack of the 50 Ft Woman, and Rear Window it became quite obvious that women during the late 1920’s and even up through the 1960’s were still oppressed and viewed as lower beings. So even though women were granted some rights in the 1920’s, they continued to try to gain more rights up until about the mid- 1900’s. When suburbia started to boom in the 1950’s women started to cling more to the securities they had than fight for rights, by doing so they started to fall more into the stereotypes that were set into place for them at the time.


The movie Splendor in the Grass is about the conventional role of women in relationships and their conflicts with their sexual urges. The main female character in this movie is Wilma Dean “Deanie” Loomis and the “love of her life”, Bud Stamper. As the movie opens we find Deanie and Bud in the front seat of his car kissing. The scene continues and you see Bud attempting to remove Deanie’s clothes, she immediately refuses him telling him “I’m not ready”. Bud gets out of the car acts quite frustrated with her; in the background behind him you can see a waterfall, which is symbolic of female sexuality. Once she arrives home Deanie has a conversation with her mother about these sexual feelings that she has. Her mother tells her that it is not natural for a woman to feel this way; nice girls only have sex with their husbands to give him pleasure and have children. As the movie continues Deanie is fighting with whether or not to follow the conventional ways of her mother, or follow her heart and give Bud what he wants. This correlation can be seen between the flapper generation and the women suffragists’ generation. The flappers expressed themselves very sexually; whereas the women suffragists were more conservative and wanted equality with men. As the battle rages on in Deanie’s head between conservative or not Bud has gone off to find Juanita who seems to portray this movies ideal of a flapper. Once Deanie found out about this she decides to go against the conventional stereotypes of women at the time and moved towards the security that Bud provides. To gain Bud’s security though she must give herself up to whatever he wishes, after she does though he rejects her saying that she is too nice of a girl to do that. This rejection causes Deanie’s sense of self to crumble and send her into hysteria. By bending to what Bud wanted she gave up her sense of self along with her parent’s conventional ways. Buds rejection leaves her emotionally distraught, she feels that she has nothing left so she tries to commit suicide by swimming off the waterfall seen earlier. This act seems to symbolize that this tension inside of her because her sexuality is going to lead her to her death. A group of men save her right before she plunges over the waterfall; she is then condemned to a mental hospital by her parents. I viewed the mental hospital as the reformation of her security; it was a place from where she was protected from the outside and able to find herself again. When she ends up finding a man to marry inside the hospital, showing that she had found a man who had security she could cling to. As we moved into Attack of the 50 Ft Woman you can also see this search for security throughout the movie.


In the second movie Attack of the 50 Ft Woman the search for security and just to fit in is quite apparent. The movie opens with the main female character Nancy Archer driving through the desert on her way home from a night on the town. While driving along this desert highway she comes across a satellite that has landed on the road, inside is a 30 Ft man who tries to steal her necklace. She runs back into town where she encounters the sheriff who believes that she is drunk and is just seeing things. Right here in this opening scene you get the sense that this woman is somewhat of an outcast in this town. You later find out that she has already been committed to a mental hospital once. When she comes into town claiming that she has seen a 30 Ft giant in the desert the sheriff tries to locate her husband, Harry, who is off with his lover Honey and really doesn’t want to be disturbed. Harry wants to run off with Honey, but they first need to get Nancy out of the picture. So when Harry finds out that she has claiming to have seen a giant he leaps at the chance to put her back in the asylum. The doctor tells him though that she just needs some rest and her husband. Once Nancy is up and moving again she and Harry have a conversation about their relationship, this conversation produces one of the most significant quotes of the movie. Nancy tells Harry “I just want you all to myself”. This is really saying that she feels she is losing the security that he provides for her and that she needs to get it back. Through the rest of the film Nancy was outcast by her husband and the rest of the town. They not only outcast her when she claimed that there was a giant in the desert but also when she was abducted and grew to be 50 Ft. No matter what she did to prove her sanity or loyalty, she still seemed to fall into the stereotype at the time that the women were to do what the men said. Men’s comments about women were viewed as absolute truth, so when the men of the town said that Nancy was crazy everyone believed this. In the film Rear Window this fighting of stereotypes can also be seen.


In the movie Rear Window there are a lot of stereotypes placed upon the main female character of Lisa Freemont. There is also the undertone that she wants security from her boyfriend the main character, L.B. Jefferies. Lisa is portrayed as a woman who fell into the stereotype of a woman only wants to get married and a high class snobbish woman who only cares about clothes and shoes. This is a stereotype that was highly stressed upon by Mr. Jefferies, when they have their conversation about their future and why they shouldn’t get married. He tells her that his only thing to do in life is to go off to distant countries and take photos, he mentions that this is no life for her and that she wouldn’t be able to handle it. They seem to be having a lot of troubles throughout the entire movie, until Mr. Jefferies thinks he witnesses a murder across the courtyard. When Lisa takes an interest in the murder Mr. Jefferies takes more notice of her and she that gives her security in their relationship. She continues to do things that seem out of character to keep her boyfriends interest in her. In the end of the movie they have grown together, she seems to have found the relationship she was looking for and it appears that his idea of her role in the relationship has changed.


Throughout history there have been stereotypes and restrictions placed upon the women of our society. In the 1950’s when suburbia started to really boom all around the United States these stereotypes really started to show through in the culture of the time. As these stereotypes started to be a burden on the women of those times, they began to look for security in the men around them. All of these issues can be seen in the movies Splendor in the Grass, Attack of the 50 Ft Woman, and Rear Window. In each of these films the main female character is faced with a challenge of how they should conform to the man in their life, while trying not to play into these stereotypes around them. In the end each woman falls into these stereotypes in some fashion and really rely on the security provided to them by their man. By doing so they forfeit a lot of their individuality and the rights that their fore mothers had been fighting for.

Woman in Film and History Draft

Are woman really equal to men? Throughout history woman have not been equal to men, especially in the early history of America. It wasn’t until the 1920’s that the fight for woman’s rights progressed anywhere. In the early 1920’s the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution was passed, this Amendment gave American woman some rights. Even though women were granted some rights at this time they were still viewed as inferior to their male counterparts. After watching the three movies Splendor in the Grass, Attack of the 50 Ft Woman, and Rear Window it became quite obvious that women during the late 1920’s and even up through the 1950’s were still oppressed and viewed as lower and dense. So even though women were granted some rights in the 1920’s, they continued to try to gain more rights up until about the mid- 1900’s. When suburbia started to boom in the 1950’s woman started to cling more to the securities they had than fight for rights, by doing so they started to fall more into the stereotypes that were set into place for them at the time.



The movie Splendor in the Grass is about the conventional role of woman in relationships and their conflicts with their sexual urges. The main female character in this movie is Deanie Loomis and the “love of her life” is Bud Stamper. As the movie opens we find Deanie and Bud in the front see of his car kissing. The scene continues and you see Bud attempting to remove Deanie’s clothes, she immediately refuses him telling him “I’m not ready”. Bud gets out of the car being quite frustrated with her; in the background behind him you can see a waterfall which is symbolic of female sexuality. Once she arrives home Deanie has a conversation with her mother about these sexual feeling that she had. Her mother tells her that it is not natural for a woman to feel this way; nice girls only have sex with their husband to give him pleasure and have children. As the movie continues Deanie is fighting with whether or not to follow the conventional ways of her mother, or follow her heart and give Bud what he wants. This was the same correlation that can be seen between the flapper generation and the women suffrage generation. The flappers expressed themselves very sexually; where as the women suffragists were more conservative and wanted equality to men. As the battle rages on in Deanie’s head between conservative or not Bud has gone off to find Juanita who seems to portray a flapper. Once Deanie find out about this she decides to go against the conventional stereotypes of woman at the time and more towards the security that Bud provides. To gain Bud’s security though she must give herself up to whatever he wishes, after she does though he rejects her saying that she is too nice of a girl to do that. This rejection causes Deanie’s security to crumble and send her into hysteria. By deciding to go with Bud she gave up the security of her parents by disregarding their conventional ways, and being rejected by Bud leaves her with no security at all. She views that she has nothing left so she tries to commit suicide off the waterfall from earlier. This act seems to symbolize that this tension inside of her because of her sexuality is going to lead her to her death. A group of men save her right before she plunges over the waterfall, she is then condemned to a mental hospital by her parents. I viewed the mental hospital as the reformation of her security; it was a place from where she was protected from the outside and able to find herself again. When she ends up finding a man to marry inside the hospital, showing that she had found a man who had security she could cling to. As we moved into Attack of the 50 Ft Woman you can also see this search of security throughout the movie.

The song I chose I feel really embodies today what the depression era is like today. I started off my video with pictures of Hoover because he is kind of the reason as to why the Great Depression started. I then go into how hard it was for people to find food during this time period and how they had to search through the leftover garbage to find just the little bits of food that they could. I then move into what it was like for those people had to move across the country just to find the little bit of work that they could. As they moved across the country they had to have some sort of shelter so I then show some of the make shift shelters that some people came up with to show what they had to work with. I then finish off the video with Franklin Roosevelt coming into office and the emmence changes that he made for America to help the economic situation. The reason I chose to do this was to really show all the hardships that people had to face during this time instead of just focusing on one problem.

Why Remember?


“Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.”1- Bertrand Russell. If this quote is true then there would be no need to wonder why we have to remember. Most everyone in all of the world’s countries would consider themselves patriots of that country, but after any war or crisis where people are sent to die, or something happens that kills large amounts of people, there are always those who question and wonder why it happened in the first place. According to this quote they shouldn’t ask why, they should already know that as a patriot they are killing and dying for any reason they are given. The government doesn’t always want to face the question of “Why?”, especially as it usually comes from those who lost a loved one or were left behind. Sometimes the governments that the patriots place so much faith in don’t even know. The only solution to the problem is remembrance, remembrance of those “patriots” that did kill and were killed for trivial reasons and didn’t ask why. Memorialization is the key to maintaining cohesion and order of a nation. To understand why memorialization is key to cohesion we must define what memorialization is, how it has been used in the past, and how it is being used now.


What exactly is memorialization? According to Princeton WordNet Dictionary memorialization is commemoration: a ceremony to honor the memory of someone or something.2 Memorialization can be just a short moment of silence on special occasions like a birthday or an anniversary. It can include special remembrance items, like jewelry, trees, books, collections, and other such items.3 Memorialization, as a means to honor or remember someone who has died before us, is something that has been going on for ages. Ancient cultures such as the Chinese, Egyptians, and Greeks all commemorated their dead through memorialization. Often times each form of memorialization would be unique to the specific culture of time period.4


Memorialization isn’t anything new in history by any means. All throughout ancient histories different cultures would use it as a mean of remember people or deities, as a means to keep their nations together. In many ancient cultures they relied on their beliefs or leaders to get them through hard times. As a way to remember these leaders or gods the people would erect memorials, which would remind them of this success and help them stay together as a nation. Archaeologists have made discoveries in Europe that tell us memorialization was a highly significant part of life before the birth of Christ. Acts such as wall carvings, cave paintings and burial rituals all point to memorialization.4 The Chinese made memorialization through their writings for more than 13 centuries before the birth of Christ, while the Egyptians built monumental structures in memorialization of their deceased, just like the ancient Greeks.4 One such example is the Arch of Hadrian in Greece. It was built in 200 AD to commemorate the Roman emperor Hadrian. The memorial was erected after Hadrian became the new founder of Athens; he took over from the previous ruler Theseus and even placed him in the hearts of all the Athenians.5 The Roman Pantheon is another great example of memorialization in history. The Pantheon was originally built in 27 BC, it has since been added onto and renovated but more recent emperors. It is a memorial built to honor all the Roman gods and goddesses. The word Pantheon is actually Greek meaning “every god”. The structure actually contains a statue of every Roman deity Jupiter, Juno, Mars, Venus, Minerva, Neptune, Ceres, Vulcan, Diana, Bacchus, Mercury, Vesta, Isis, Pan, Mithras, and Lares. It was later renovated to add a temple onto the back section of the original building containing the statues.6 Memorialization isn’t just contained within the past; on the contrary it has stretched from the ancient past up through the more recent past to even the present.


Throughout history memorialization hasn’t exactly stayed the same. In a little more recent history memorialization was a big thing, especially in the post WWI era. After the war was over the European countries and even the United States were have worries about the collapse of national cohesion. To insure this national unity they used quotes like “Spirit of the Trenchers” and passage from the bible 1 John 2:2 “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” They used these quotes and phrases to make it feel like these men died for a higher cause then the pointless objects of war. To further remember these men they later built memorial grave sites, some towns also have individualized monuments to them.7 Monuments like this can been seen from the remains of the other wars leading up to the present, such as the WWII and the Vietnam War there are memorials to remember these events in Washington D.C. Here in present times in the United States there are still war memorials, there have also been memorials formed for other people that have died though. In recent times we have moved away from material memorials to more electronic memorials. A lot of the memorials now for the fallen soldiers are videos that are posted to sites like YouTube. Things that easily accessed by everyone, things that really show you what these people fought for to bring together a nation to protect the memories of these people and the others that have died. There are also websites like My Death Space, which was designed as a memorial for people that have either died or been murdered. It is a place to discuss your feelings about what has happened to these people and how you feel. These are things that help to bring people close together in times of trouble so that our nation stays connected.


Whether it be a stone monument, a YouTube video, or a form of ancient writing memorialization is a very important part in all the cultures of the world today and in the past. Not everyone is a patriot and they ask why these events have occurred and what the purpose of these wars and deaths were. The best answer we have come up with is the act of remembrance through memorialization. The act of remembering those that have either fought for their country in a war with no purpose or those that were murdered for no justifiable reason. We must remember them as a country and as a nation so that we might grow closer and understand why these things happen, and also allow our nation to function and keep in order. Memorialization might not have been the best answer to the threat of national disorder, but is the solution we found and one that has worked pretty well so far.



References
1. Russell, Bertrand. "Patriotism Quote." The Quotations Page. 12 Apr. 2009 .
2. "Definition of Memorialization." WordNet. 13 Apr. 2009 .
3. "What is Memorialization." Morrison Funeral Home. 15 Apr. 2009 .
4. "The History of Memorialization." Classic Memorials. 12 Apr. 2009 .
5. "Arch of Hadrian." The Ancient City of Athens. 14 Apr. 2009 <. http://www.stoa.org/athens/sites/archofhadrian.html>.
6. "Roman Pantheon." All About History. 15 Apr. 2009 .
7. Montoya, Benjamin. "“A United Empire”: Remembrance of “the Fallen” as a form of National Cohesion in post-Great War England, 1918-20." History Seminar. Highline Community College, Des Moines. 8 Apr. 2009.

The Past Week in Two Paragraphs

Throughout this last week we have talked in Literature class a little about the progressive movement and what I had caused for America at the time and woman suffrage. In the first couple days we talked a little bit about what the progressive movement is. This is important to get this basis first before looking into woman suffrage. What we look at for the progressive movements was the factories that the workers had to work in and the conditions that the children and woman had to endure each and everyday for 12 hours on end.
After looking into the progressive era you can see that it directly links to woman suffrage. You can see that the woman were trying to raise their power within the US by obtaining jobs and trying to get their right to vote. The men of the country didn't like this though and you could see them subtly repressing the up rising that was occurring with different medical treatments. They would use treatments that unknowing to the woman would make them in essence incapacitated. They would force feed them, kill their brain cells, and blame their period for their faults. Due to these oppressions woman had a hard time during the early 1900's and earlier getting their voice heard, it wouldn't be until WWI that they would finally get a breath of fresh air.

The Questions Everyone Should Be Asking

Joshua Hollinger-Lant

3/30/2009

Lit 223

The Questions Everyone Should Be Asking

Does there really need to be seven major types of literature? Those are just the major type, that doesn’t include the categories listed under the minor types. Isn’t a book just a book no matter what is written in it? These are some questions that come to mind when you think what is American literature, why should we study it, and how should we study it? American literature was first written in the 1500’s but the first settlers as they in habited their new colonies. There have been gradual, yet very influential changes to the literature as it has gone through history.¹

The first question we must really ask ourselves about American literature is what is American Literature? To answer this, we need to define it. As defined by Merriam-Webster, literature is “writings having excellence of form or expression and expressing ideas of permanent or universal interest”. ²As also defined by Merriam-Webster, an American is “a citizen of the United States”.³So, by these two definitions what is American literature? American literature is the expressing of ideas of permanent interest of citizens of the United States. When the English settlers first came here to North America in the 1500 they started what we now know as American Literature. They would write about their lives and what they were experiencing here in the New World. What they were, in essence, doing and what American Literature has become is writing about America’s quest to understand and define itself.¹ American Literature started out as just stories about the lives of the setters, and what they were doing here in their new found land. As the colonies moved towards the 1700’s and their independence, American Literature started to move with it, and writing began to talk more about the political differences between the new colonies and Britain, literature started to fade away from the traditional religious and narrative writings. This political type of writing stayed mainly prevalent through the 1800’s and continued through the 1900’s. As America entered the 20^th century there was a large revolution in the way you could communicate with others. With this transition into the 20^th century came the radio, television, and movies. Though some of these modernizations took away from the American Literature novels, it also gave the writers a whole new way to reach out to the American audience, as well as the rest of the world. It was also here in the 20^th century that American Literature started to branch out into poetry, drama, and fiction. These trends have continued into the current times with the addition of more culturally diverse voices.¹ Now that we know what exactly American Literature is, the next question that comes up is why should we study it?

We, in our current times don’t really know much about what has happened throughout the history here in America. As mentioned previously American Literature is America’s quest to understand itself. ¹ The reason we really study American Literature is to get an understanding of what the quest was like in the beginning of the country. Then, as the country grew, entered into its independence, and fought against other countries to protect itself, the literature and quest has changed. We, as Americans now would have no other idea how the America has found itself or what they have found throughout history. As we study American Literature, we are able to understand what early Americans have found, and what we can still discover and understand about ourselves as a country. This is a very important concept for each new generation of children to understand and study. This is so important because each new generation is able to do more to understand who and what America is if they know what has already been discovered. There is still one more question that has to be answered how should we study American Literature?

If you ever ask someone how you should study for a test or a subject, you will get multiple different answers. The reason being, there are multiple ways of obtaining information and everyone seems to learn and study in a different way. In junior high the way you studied literature was mainly focused on what I mentioned previously about trying to get the most information you can out of one, and really analyzing all of it. After doing this I felt that it was a very good way to extract information from what you were reading and learn the most from it. This seemed to take away from the enjoyment of the story, though. Sometimes what the author really had planned for the book isn't what you find, and not all authors intend for you to tear the book apart to find the message. The best way to study literature is to read the book or play and take what you can from it but also discuss it with others. Depending on someone’s life experiences, they may see or get something totally different out of the story than you did. Also, instead of just study the literature itself, studying the author will also give you insight into what the author might have been writing about. By studying the author, you also get to see into their life and what part of American history they went through, doing this will let you see what they contributed towards the quest for defining who America is.

Does there really need to be seven major types of literature? The answer to this question is yes, there does need to be that many different types of literature. As literature was started, authors and writers didn’t stick with just writing in the same tone or format. As they explored what they encountered everyday and throughout their lives they need to expand the formats at their disposal. Especially in American Literature as they began to discover and define what America really was, they found ways to express themselves through different ways of writing, each new form set a different mood and accented what was being expressed. When thinking about whether we really need that many types of literature a couple questions come to mind. What exactly is American Literature? Why should we study it? How should we study? American Literature is the expression of ideas of permanent interest of citizens of the United States towards the quest of defining America. We should study it so we can understand what has already been defined about America throughout the history of our country, so we can turn around add what we can to the definition. The best way to study it is to read the works of a few different American Literature authors, and then discuss your perspective on the books with others. Along with studying the literature itself, studying the author of each book is good too, so you can see into their life and what they experienced in their quest to define America.

References

1 Reid, Margaret . "American Literature:Prose." Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia. 2008. Microsoft. 29 Mar 2009 .

2"literature." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2009. Merriam-Webster Online. 29 March 2009

3"American." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2009. Merriam-Webster Online. 29 March 2009