Mildred Piercee Analysis

This generation of women, may it be young or old, are fortunate to live in a country where you can be anything, do anything, and say anything that men can. Although in theory the playing fields are still not completely even, we as a nation have made some substantial progress in women’s rights. Just a few hundred years ago, women livered mundane lives and rarely got to speak up for themselves. In the book, The Midwife’s Tale by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, it follows the life of Martha Ballard through the use of her own diary. Martha Ballard captures the lives of common women in the Early Republic Era by providing an authentic record of the role women played in their communities throughout the developmental years of the United States.

After World War II, the nation was blooming. Everything was growing, people were going to college, and wealth grew. The idea of the perfect American life was developed, this included a husband that worked and a wife that stayed home and took care of the house and children. To look at how women are affected by this perfect life I am analyzing “Governor Adlai Stevenson Tells College Women about Their Place in Life, 1955” and “Good Housekeeping: Every Executive Needs a Perfect Wife, 1956”.

Mildred Pierce, by James M. Cain, begins in pre-Depression California, and ends during World War II times, also in California. The main character, Mildred Pierce, is a very attractive housewife of 29, raising two daughters, Ray and Veda. Although Mildred loves both her daughters, Veda is a particular obsession with Mildred. She constantly slaves away throughout the novel to do whatever she can to make Veda happy, despite the constant abuse and deception Veda inflicts upon Mildred. After a divorce from her first husband, Bert, in the opening pages of the novel, Mildred is forced to sacrifice her pride and become a waitress in order to support her family. If Veda were ever to find out, she would be appalled; a constantly recurring

Historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich provides a glimpse of America post Revolutionary war through her critically acclaimed book, A Midwife’s Tale, which is the interpretation of Martha Ballard’s seemingly humble diary—a record of her life as a midwife, mother, wife, and caregiver from 1785 through 1812. The book features Ballard’s account of her average day’s activities, which, in turn, serves to represent the tasks of women in her society; however, Ulrich cross-references the diary with documents such as court transcripts, land records, maps, and other diaries in order to piece together a more detailed account than one gathered solely from Ballard’s words. While popular belief envisions women in this timeframe as being constrained to the home and a litter of children, it is Ballard’s diary that reveals that women played a major role in other aspects of society, including the market economy, medicine and childbirth, versus just being mothers and homemakers.

Men were expected to be the sole providers of the family and bring home the bacon. At the beginning of the book, Montag’s daily schedule was for him to leave the house, do his job, come back home, sleep and eat. Although that is what men were expected to do. It would have been highly unlikely that a woman would have had a job as a firefighter because the society and culture insisted that it was a man’s job and would not be acceptable for a woman to do such work. Men were also expected to be strong, masculine and be good decision makers. In part one Mildred was hinting that she wanted a fourth parlor wall and was looking for an answer from Montag because he is the one that deals with the money and makes the decisions of the house. She says “It’ll be more fun when we can afford to have the fourth wall installed, how long you figure before we save up and get the fourth wall torn out and a fourth wall-TV is put in? It’s only two thousand dollars.” (Bradbury 18). Montag goes on to say that one-third of his yearly pay and Mildred relies with “I think you should consider me sometimes….We could do without a few things” (Bradbury 18). Most people in the book and in the 1950’s followed these stereotypes, rather than breaking free and becoming their own person. Although most of them were the same there was a lack of minorities being present or

Towards the end of the 1800s and into the beginning of the 1900s, the roles of women in society and in the family began to change drastically compared to what it had been in the past. Women were now allowed to own land, vote, and do more than cook and clean. Willa Cather and William Faulkner portray the roles of women in the early 1900s in their short stories, “Neighbor Rosicky” and “A Rose for Emily.” These short stories were both published around the year 1930. Because of what was happening in the US at the time, these stories are very good examples of the ways women were treated at this time.

Martha Jefferson and Mary Whitaker Edmondson, women born into the ever-changing America, were contemporaries of one another; living in a time where women had little say in who they were and how they were seen by society. For these two women life couldn’t have been more different. Matha, whose father was the well known and sought after Thomas Jefferson, lived life amongst the aristocrats and the elites while Mary lived the life of indentured servitude. Despite these varying levels of social class prestige, they weren’t that different from one another; both lacked control over how they fit into society, the power they possessed and their central beliefs and ideas. Both women were placed in the control of a male supervisor; whether it be a fatherly

In her story, “Old Woman Magoun” she delivered a feminist message more directly than ever. It’s based in turn-of-the-century New England, patriarchy still defined relationships even though the men themselves had degenerated. The story reflects the realities of Freeman’s own life, as her father’s business failed and her mother became the support of the family. However, Freeman’s life was not unique; rural New England is

Another eighteenth century revolutionary woman, Jane Austen, declared, “I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives.” Like acclaimed novelist Jane Austen, Abigail Adams and Martha Ballard rejected the patriarch’s ideal image and norm for women. They challenged gender differences and stereotypes and advocated additional opportunities and further education for women. In Abigail Adams: A Life, Woody Holton details Adams’ development from a giddy girl into the sophisticated, sassy woman who did not stand in her husband’s shadow. She took her life by the reigns and never stopped learning. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich similarly accounts for Martha Ballard’s journey as a successful midwife and family woman in A Midwife’s Tale, letting Martha’s voice flow from the pages through excerpts of her conserved diary. Ballard maintained a separate life from her husband and controlled her responsibilities. In the two biographies, the authors determined to honor the two women’s crusades for gender equality and through life, their obstacles with religion, family, and sensibility to their surroundings.

A particularly strong theme that runs through the entire novel is the unusual power that women play over the men in their lives. Rather than simply being passive to the impulses of men, Mildred takes charge of her life and decides which men she will be with and leaves those that she no longer has an affection for. Cain dives into more controversial territory by having Mildred use men for her own sexual satisfaction. Cain also moves women into the role of successful ‘breadwinners’ during a time where men generally held financial power further blurring traditional roles of gender.

Many people have never considered what women were doing in WWII when their husbands left to fight. Their lives weren’t easy or normal during the war. Women had to work just as hard as men, sometimes even more so. In this essay, I will discuss the position of American women before World War II, during the war, and at the end of the war.

She thrived in an industry which was predominantly male-operated, challenging the limits of what a women could pursue. With her knowledge of the family business, Frances was considered “as good a judge of credits as any banker in the country.” (74) Frances Harling proved herself to be just as capable as any male banker, much admired for her capabilities by both old and new generations of the time. Among the women of Black Hawk, Mrs. Gardener also challenges gender norms by running a business. She runs a hotel, with primarily male visitors, with the help of her husband. Although it was common at this time for men to be in charge of their family’s business, Mrs. Gardener took this position in her family’s dynamic. It was in fact “Mrs. Gardener who ran the business and looked after everything. [...] [Her husband] was a popular fellow, but no manager.” (89) Although men were usually the breadwinners of their families during this time period, Mrs. Gardener showed that women could be breadwinners as well. Her skills and ambition provided her with a successful business opportunity that she took pride in. Additionally, her husband appeared grateful for her skills as Mr. Gardener realized “that without [Mrs. Gardener] he would hardly be more than a clerk in some other man’s hotel.” (93) Mrs.

The main point of this article is that in 1866 there was an divorce issue before the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals to uphold women’s right due to the fleeing of their homes after their husbands had been mentally or physically abusive, due to the negligent an or alcohol which resolute to violence. A woman by the name Aveline Hitchcock’s was granted her divorce by the Supreme Court due to her rights which included her pre martial property; she was also given full custody of their children. During this time the idea of the influx age emancipation, this was also a part of the women’s roles of their homes and in public. As a part of their re- evaluation gender roles where not only in Hitchcock’s own state, but also the whole country. West

It is truly hard to fathom the circumstances that these American, working-class people went through in the many years that lead up to the present as we know it today. Unfortunately, most of these pieces featured in the text, “American Working-Class Literature: An Anthology,” are new to its readers. The authors of this text, Nicholas Coles and Janet Zandy, aimed to educate anyone who decided to read this book, on the true

In Tori DeAngelis’s research covering the effects consumerism has on individuals, he finds that people having more materialistic inclined outlooks on life are more likely to lose focus on things that can can bring true happiness in the human psyche.(Consumerism and its discontents, 52) Things such as meaningful relationships with loved ones and family members. His findings hold true when analyzing characters in both Mildred Pierce and The Women. In one case, we can see that regardless of the amount of love and care Mildred has shown for Veda, that the relationship they have as mother and daughter means almost nothing to her unless there are constant monetary incentives being presented. The act of Mildred repeatedly trying to buy Vedas love throughout her entire life has caused her to only be “happy” when she is receiving. We also gain depth of Vedas character values when we watch her learn that her mother is going to be separating from her current husband. She knows that her father is the main source of income for the family and this separation would set the family back financially. Immediately she asks Mildred to marry someone she's clearly not all that interested in. For her own stated reason of bringing money into the family so they will be able to afford exorbitant things such as maids, limousines, and a new house. Vedas own materialistic take on life causes her to completely ignore the emotional distress that going through a separation would have on her mother.