Our Nig By Harriet Wilson

Josie Mendez-Negrete’s novel, Las Hijas de Juan: Daughters Betrayed, is a very disturbing tale about brutal domestic abuse and incest.  Negrete’s novel is an autobiography regarding experiences of incest in a working-class Mexican American family.  It is Josie Mendez-Negrete’s story of how she, her siblings, and her mother survived years of violence and sexual abuse at the hands of her father.  “Las Hijas de Juan" is told chronologically, from the time Mendez-Negrete was a child until she was a young adult trying, along with the rest of her family, to come to terms with her father 's brutal legacy. It is a upsetting story of abuse and shame compounded by cultural and linguistic isolation and a system of patriarchy that devalues the

1. “It may serve, let us hope, to symbolize some sweet moral blossom that may be found along the track, or relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow.” In this quote the author is referring to the rose bush by the prison as being a symbol of the sweet moral lesson offered by Anne Hutchinson, a woman who preached to the Puritans without the male-dominated permission of the Puritan church. Like Hester Prynne, Anne was punished. She was sent to the prison. No matter how small an action is, the culture of a society can respond in rage, loathing disgust, even fear. It is behavior that is learned and passed on through religion and community. In colonial Puritan society people were socialized to be very strict and religious and to punish anyone who behaved in a way that was considered improper. Any kind of sin had an exaggerated evil in the Puritan’s eyes, especially ones regarding marriage and sex. Hester Prynne and Anne Hutchinson are both character representations of women who stood up for the rights of women to live their own lives in a strict society.

“Incidents in the Life of a Slave” by Harriet Jacobs is an autobiographical narrative. It gives us a look inside in how the lives of slave women were, the troubles they faced and how they met them, especially the sexual abuses they suffered by their masters. She tells us how her master had the “right” to impregnate the slave and then that child would have to follow in its mother’s life as a slave. It took a lot of courage to stand

The Portrayal of the Plight of Women by the Author, In Their Particular Period of Time

Wendell Berry’s past is more than just his own in “My Great-Grandfather’s Slaves,” but his past is intertwined with the slaves that grew up with. A quick reading of this poem by Berry would not give the reader that he was connected with the slaves, but rather that they lived separate lives. Berry says he sees the slaves and their activities but does not ever write about how they are connected until the very last stanza. After reading the final stanza it gives the rest of the poem a new meaning and if the reader does not take the time to closely re-read the writing they will miss out on what Berry is really trying to portray. Wendell Berry is trying to show the reader how his past is linked with the past of his grandfather’s slaves with his

Unspeakable Conversations by Harriet McBryde Johnson is an article about her experience visiting Princeton University to exchange views and challenge Peter Singer, a professor who strongly believes that all disabled people, like herself, are “better off” not been born at all. The article provides an insight into Johnson’s life as a disabled person. She takes the readers on a journey that explores both sides of her own and Singer’s contrasting beliefs. She protests the prevalent stigma and prejudice of disabled people and gives voice to this marginalized community. Johnson challenges stereotypes of disability, uses her a personal experience to better understand the world and help others, and attempts to directly address oppression by arguing against Professor Singer’s theory and assemble a group of diverse and like-minded people for social change.

In the novel, Hope Leslie, Catherine Maria Sedgwick uses personal analysis as well as historical information to create an uncannily realistic tale of romance, racial prejudice and religion. Throughout the book, Sedgwick emphasizes relations between the Native American peoples and the European Americans living in Massachusetts in the 1640’s. She is able to do this specifically with the characters of Magawisca, the Native American slave with the will of a lioness, Everell Fletcher, the handsome much wanted white male protagonist, Hope Leslie, a strong headed young woman who symbolizes modernism in the piece and Esther Downing, Hope Leslie’s literary foil. Through the

Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines gutsy as “marked by courage, pluck, or determination; having a strong or appealing flavor ("Dictionary and Thesaurus | Merriam-Webster"). It may be common to associate this adjective with a skydiver or daredevil, but what about an eighteenth century columnist named Fanny Fern? Fanny Fern, or as her birth certificate would state, Sarah Willis Parton, lived in the mid to late 1800s and wrote famously about controversial issues that are still prevalent in the twenty first century. Fern wrote with whimsy and liveliness, making issues like gender inequality in marriage and women’s reform seem funny and lighthearted, although looking closer, we can see that (through the use of several tropes) she was anything but. With cuts such as a woman’s cult of domesticity disguised as a relatable entry about silly husbands, we can look back at Fern’s work today and admire her courage to write without compromising her beliefs, as well as her ‘guts’ and determination. Fanny Fern famously used a witty mix of sarcasm, pun, and metaphor in her eighteenth century writing to critique and challenge her highly oppressive patriarchal society.

Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl allows Harriet Jacobs, speaking through the narrator, Linda Brent, to reveal her reasons for making public her personal story of enslavement, degradation, and sexual exploitation. Although originally ignored by critics, who often dismissed Jacobs ' story as a fictional account of slavery, today it is reported as the first novel narrative by an ex-slave that reveals the unique brutalities inflicted on enslaved women. Gabby Reyes

Let the Circle be Unbroken portrays an african american family’s hardships against powerful white landowners and family tragedies. All in the perception of the strong-willed Cassie Logan. Let the Circle be Unbroken by Mildred D. Taylor is an enjoyable book with engaging characters, unpredictable plots, and an amusing genre.

Throughout Kidd’s exquisitely written story, Handful struggles, sometimes with quiet dissidence, sometimes with open rebellion, to cultivate a belief in the invincibility of her spirit and in the sacred truth that one does not need actual wings in order to rise. Barely a stone’s throw from the slave quarters where Handful and her mother share a room behind the grand Grimké house, another young woman fights a different battle with the constraints of her society. Sarah Grimké is the middle daughter of a wealthy and prominent family at the pinnacle of Charleston’s social hierarchy, the daughter her mother calls difficult and her father calls remarkable. From the time of her first violent childhood confrontation with slavery, Sarah is unable to abide the oppression and brutality of the slave system that surrounds her. Ambitious and keenly intelligent, she harbors an intense longing to have a voice in the world and to follow her father and brothers’ footsteps to a profession in the law. Crushed by the strictures that her family and society impose on women, Sarah forges a tortuous, yet brave path toward

When a reader encounters the story ‘Our Nig’ it’s bound to leave them looking at the experiences of women differently. It’s an emotional autobiography that develops into a miserable experience of oppression and victimization on gender identities. The transition of the narrator from a young, beautiful mullato girl into an emotionally and physically crippled woman highlights the horrors of the society towards women but increases the pain because they are inflicted by other women. Harriet E. Wilson tells her story of the oppressions she suffers when she lived at a family house in the North of the US, where she undergoes violence and denigration. I mention in the North here to remove the assumption of slavery. She was a free

Janie’s journey sets off when her grandmother, Nanny, insists she marries Logan Killicks, a man twice her age. Because Nanny’s experience with slavery, her worldview has been about financial security for Janie. Like all elders they hope that their children and grandchildren have protection and stability so they can ease. “Tain’t Logan Killicks Ah wants you to have, baby, it’s protection… (Hurston 15)”. With Janie rebellious young age, she does not realize what her grandmother went through. Janie knew she had to obey her grandmother so she can give her Nanny assurance that she would be taken care of before she dies. But not long after the Nanny’s death, Logan Killicks starts to treat her like a “mule” a free work of labor. Because of Janie status she ought to speak for herself.

Several years later Anne was fifteen and working for Mrs. Burke, a white lady that ran guild meetings out of her house. By this time the town had began to have misfortunate events happen to African Americans. It seemed as if they were being ran out of town or murdered one by one. A boy named Emmitt Till, Anne's age, had been murdered for supposedly disrespecting an older white woman. This took a large impact on Anne, and her mother put a fear in

Angelina Weld Grimké’s, Rachel, portrays an African American family’s experience and development over the course of several years during the segregation era. Act one begins in a domestic setting, introducing the main character, Rachel Loving. Rachel is eighteen, living with her mother, Mrs. Loving, and brother, Tom. Notably, the Loving household is presented as a cheerful and affectionate place, full of laughter and lightheartedness. In a like manner, Rachel emerges as warm and cheerful, yet overall naive; never once questioning the absence of her father and brother, who passed ten years earlier. Initially, Rachel is lively and passionate, bearing a deep infatuation for motherhood and constantly proclaiming her dream to raise a child. Nevertheless,