Well besides this essay being too long I have very little to say about it. It was very hard to annotate it because I didn’t really know what to say about anything Wollstonecraft was saying. What I really didn’t understand about this essay was that in the begging it says Wollstonecraft wrote a chapter or a book on men too. She spent 26 pages talking about how terrible men where and what was wrong with them, if she hates men so much why write more about them. Also I just wanted to know who would buy what she was writing because she lived in the 1700’s and you would think that the men would’ve gotten upset with what she was writing and stopped it or something.
One other thing I noticed in this essay too was that she mentioned children being innocent and it’s only when they grow up they turn in to, what she thinks is terrible men or great women. Although I think that children are innocent I don’t understand her logic that even though she thinks that no matter what men will grow up a certain way, then how can she say that all children are innocent?
She also makes many Bible references, and I found a bunch of possible vocab words in this essay, I felt bad not knowing all these big words. After finishing this essay though I was so focused about how confused I had gotten and almost had completely forgotten what she had said in the begging, uh oh.
It's a tough one, all right. My goal is to get everyone in my class to respect the awesomeness of Mary W. It's a goal I've yet to come close to achieving, but I keep trying...
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned how this was written in the 1700s. I think keeping this fact in mind is essential in fully understanding the importance of this text. We'll talk more about this idea when we discuss Discourses in the second week of class.
I never thought about that Megan. About how men would of have to read this too at sometime. Hmm. I scratch my head as I ponder this.
ReplyDeleteHAHA, I also enjoyed reading your last paragraph. If you think these words are big, try reading a Jane Austen book, you actually need to have a dictionary on hand.
*I hope you achieve your goal Mr. Kunkle*
You bring up some good points. Her writing definitely would have been controversial in those times. You would have thought that she would have been put on trial or something.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, about the words thing, my aunt told me that back then the authors got paid by the word, hence the wordiness and confusing language. I don't know if it's true or not, but if it is, it certainly explains a lot.
This is just a shot in the dark, but looking into your question about the whole "innocence" and children thing, I think that she was trying to explain how men were already able to go on to do bigger and better things just because they *were* men; women weren't allowed the same opportunities during the same period, hence them remaining innocent and "child-like" and never really exploring their potential. I think she was trying to show people how much of this potential women really do have have, as long as society allows them to "grow-up."
ReplyDeleteYeah...this was prettttty darn difficult to read, haha.
You bring up a great point, Megan, when you say that wouldn't men have shut it down? And what woman would want to be caught reading a document such as it? I'd be interested to discover the impact the essay actually had on women of the time. And while the essay was hard to read, I have to say that I was impressed with the writing style. Also, I definitely agree with ya with the vocab words! It was the first place that I looked for them.
ReplyDeleteIt's so weird to see everyone's thoughts on her, when I was reading it I really hated it but now that I see eveyone else commenting on her I'm a little more open-minded to her I guess. If it weren't 26 pages I would almost read it again, becaue I do want another look at it to see if my opinion would change.
ReplyDelete