Anne Bradstreet A Firm But Farewell Speech

Anne Bradstreet’s feelings about her home represent the most material conflict. When her home burned down she wrote the poem to voice these feelings of hers. She describes the awakening to the “shrieks of dreadful voice” and going out to watch “the flame consume” her “dwelling place”. But she comforts herself with good Puritan dogma. The burning of the house is God’s doing and his doings should not be questioned. In looking over the stanzas where she

Anne Bradstreet was America's first noteworthy poet in spite of the fact that she was a woman. Both the daughter and wife of Massachusetts governors, Bradstreet suffered all of the hardships of colonial life, was a mother, and still found time to write. Her poem, "The Author to Her Book," is an example of Bradstreet's excellent use of literary techniques while expressing genuine emotion and using domestic subject matter.

In “The Author to Her Book,” Bradstreet is inundated in indecision and internal struggles over the virtues and shortfalls of her abilities and the book that she produced. As human beings we associate and sympathize with each other through similar experiences. It is difficult to sympathize with someone when you don’t know where they are coming from and don’t know what they are dealing with. Similar experiences and common bonds are what allow us to extend our sincere appreciation and understanding for another human being’s situation. In this poem an elaborate struggle between pride and shame manifests itself through an extended metaphor in which she equates her book to her own child.

The early twentieth century was a turning point in American history-especially in regards to the acquisition of women's rights. While the era was considered to be prosperous and later thought to be a happy-go-lucky time, in actuality, it was a time of grave social conflict and human suffering (Parish, 110). Among those who endured much suffering were women. As Margaret Sanger found out, women, especially those who were poor, had no choice regarding pregnancy. The only way not to get pregnant was by not having sex- a choice that was almost always the husband's. This was even more true in the case of lower-class men for whom, 'sex was the poor man's only luxury' (Douglas, 31). As a nurse who assisted in delivering

When the time arose for the child to be born, middle and upper-class Southern ladies chose not to give birth in hospitals, which were unsanitary charitable institutions, but rather preferred to give birth within their own home, or that of a family member. Often in the case of a first child, a woman would choose to give birth in their parent’s home as it gave them round the clock access to their own mother, who could be a source for psychological advice as well as medical assistance. Southern mothers regarded the care of their pregnant daughters as a part of their sacred maternal duty and many letters survive of daughters asking their mother to be with them as their delivery drew near. One such letter comes from Laura Norwood of North Carolina to her mother; she wrote, “I cannot tell you, my dear mother, what a comfort if would be to me if you could be here at the time of my approaching event.” Likewise, women of lower classes such as slaves and the wives of yeoman farmers often gave birth in their home, with the assistance of family members, if at all possible.

Most Americans associate hospitals to be the standard place where women can give birth. However, women did not always deliver in hospitals. Gynecology, the medical practice dealing with the female reproductive system, did not emerge until the early nineteenth century. Before doctors came along, women used to hire midwives to deliver babies in the comfort of their own homes. In this paper I will examine the social, political, and scientific implications of how giving birth has transitioned from being a midwife’s job into that of a doctor’s. Furthermore, I will attempt to show how these implications intersect together to make birth a feminist issue. To support my argument, I will be referencing Tina Cassidy’s “The Dawn of the Doctors,” Abby Epstein’s documentary film The Business of Being Born, and Eesha Pandit’s article “America’s secret history of forced sterilization: Remembering a disturbing and not-so-distant past.” I argue that the processes surrounding birth are intersectional feminist issues because they are often manipulated by male figures pursuing money and authority, which ultimately compromises women’s health and power of choice.

Firstly, Ulrich tells a story of the role of a midwife in the eighteenth century America by explaining the types of medicines used, the frequent diseases, and the medical accomplishments of practitioners. Primarily, Ulrich makes it known that to care for the health and well-being of others was a woman’s obligation during this time. “It would be a serious misunderstanding to see Martha Ballard as a singular character, an unusual woman who somehow transcended the domestic sphere to become an acknowledged specialist” (62). Rather, Ulrich insists that Martha Ballard was a classic example of the majority of women in the early American Republic. Martha was a midwife, but also a wife and mother, which meant she had her “womanly” duties to pay attention to as

In many ways, Bradstreet was remarkably successful in trying circumstances. She was often sickly, worried early in her marriage because she seemed unable to have children, and lived in an unforgiving environment in which mortality rates, especially for women and children, were high. Nevertheless, she persevered and had eight children, all of whom lived to adulthood and all but one of whom outlived their mother. This was a considerable accomplishment for the time and place in which she lived. Besides family good fortune, she was also unusually successful in her poetic career. Few in the colonies of New England had time to compose poetry, especially women with eight children. In fact, few women at all wrote and published poetry in the seventeenth century. Yet Bradstreet so prevailed in her art that she is credited with the first published book of poetry from the New World: The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in New England: Or, Several Poems Compiled with Great Variety of Wit and Learning, Full of Delight (1650).

women are still fighting for equality every day. In the time of Anne Bradstreet, women had few

Bradstreet's attitude changes over the poem as she realizes that she should look at losing all of her things could be more than just a negative outcome.

Born on March 20, 1612, Anne Bradstreet was considered to be one of the most

(pg. 231) In Brazil 1,000,000 children die a year which is about 40 children every hour and is the highest infant mortality rate. (pg. 279) Consequently the women are used to death and to cope with the loss of so many children they have become indifferent to death of their offspring. They even find it strange when someone feels sorrow for a child’s death like when Shcheper-Hughes came to a mother red eyed and tear stained with the bad news that her son had died. The mother was amused at her sadness because in the end no one thought that the child would live. (pg. 271-272)

Anne Bradstreet, as a poet, wrote as both a Puritan woman in her time and as a woman ahead of her time. Zach Hutchins analyzed this tension in “The Wisdom of Anne Bradstreet: Eschewing Eve and Emulating Elizabeth”, and makes a primary argument that three of Bradstreet’s poems provide evidence that Bradstreet rejects the Puritan views of a woman while keeping her own personal faith. Hutchins fither his argument by declaring that readers should not view Bradstreet as a symbol of rebellion or submission, instead as a symbol of wisdom.

In Dorothy Parker’s short story “Lady with a Lamp”, she focuses on showing the struggles of a woman that chose to have an abortion in the 1930s’. An example from Parker’s story referring to issues with pregnancy in the 1930s’, “I don’t see how you could possibly have done anything else. I know you’ve always talked about how you’d give anything to have a baby, but it would have been so terribly unfair to the child to bring it into the world without being married” (Parker Pg. 148). In the 1930s’ having a child out of wedlock was highly frowned upon, as well as abortion being illegal at the time. This story is very relevant to mothers in present day,

The women in the body explore the different ways that women’s reproduction is seen in the American culture. The experiences of women vary from society to society, culture to culture and how the science dominated the human body, especially women body. Martin explains that the industrial revolution affects women reproductive health. The dominant metaphors in biomedical science for the delivery of babies came from the arena of industrial