Terry Tempest Williams When Women Were Birds

The author uses Imagery and dialogue to show the theme that “People are not meant to be perfect, they are meant to be themself.”

In “The Clan of One-Breasted Women,” it talks about Terry Tempest Williams’s family and how her family generations have breast cancer. She explains that the cause of breast cancer in her family may be due to the nuclear bomb testings that happened during the 1950s in the south west of America, where her family is from. Williams also discusses about the inability of the people to speak out against the authorities about the nuclear bomb testings. Personally, I found this article really interesting because Williams start off with her own story about her family dealing with breast cancer and then she brings up the general idea of nuclear bombing in the south west and the reaction of the people living there. By introducing her text with an anecdote,

Milton’s Paradise Lost has been praised as being the greatest English epic of all time, most stunningly in its author's depiction of the parents of humanity, Adam and Eve. How Milton chose to portray the original mother and father has been a focus of much criticism with contemporary readers. One of the main subjects of these comments is in reference to Eve, who, according to many, is a trivial character that is most definitely inferior to her mate. Nonetheless, many do not recognize that, after the fateful Fall, she becomes a much more evolved character. When Eve is introduced to the storyline of the epic, her character is shallow and extremely undeveloped, meant simply for display. She is quite firmly set as being inferior to her mate

Female roles in society have often been minute. In Jewett’s “A White Heron” and Freeman’s “The Revolt of Mother”, Sylvia and Mother demonstrate feminine empowerment. These two prominent female protagonists overcome the male influence in their life and society. Both defy social expectations of women and the obstacles that come with it. The authors express this through their similar use of symbolism and alienation. Jewett and Freeman use different examples of poverty, the motivation of society, and speech in their stories.

This struggle for change displays the countless changes in values that surround this topic. Before, the religious groups fought to have their religious freedom. Now, with the changing values and views of another group, this stability is being threatened. As such, the struggles of change is brought forth. (Perreaux, 2013).

After reading this article, I was impressed that the impact of Roger Williams’ idea – “separation of church and state” still reach into today’s world and countries. I was also surprised that at 17th century, people don’t have freedom of worship or belief.

His lifelong search for a closer personal union with God forged his beliefs and ideas. Rejecting the moderate theology of Puritanism, Williams embraced the radical tenets of separatism, turned briefly to Baptist principles, but ultimately declared that Christ’s true church could not be known among men until Christ himself returned to establish it. From his reading of the New Testament, in which Christ had commanded religious truth and error to coexist in every nation until the end of the world, Williams concluded that liberty of conscience”soul liberty” as he called it was necessary because no one could know for certain which form of religion was the true one God had intended.

Birds are a common sight in most places people tend to be. These winged creatures are seen in bustling places like the pigeons that are in urban and suburban areas, the woodpeckers in rural regions, the crows on farms, and even in cages within buildings. In fact, these elegant creatures are so common a sight in society that they are often overlooked and underappreciated. This is similar to how women were and sometimes still are treated within society; they are given little appreciation when they are present and doing as they are told, but when they do not do as they are told they become a problem. This parallel that can be drawn between women and birds is used throughout Kate Chopin’s novel, The Awakening, in which its main character Edna Pontellier is often likened to and symbolized by a bird. Throughout the novel, the bird acts as a theme and symbol of both Edna and women in general.

rebelling against the order of creation, but Eve was seen as rebelling both as part of man

Williams’ views are what inspired the founders of the United States, who later incorporated the “wall of separation” between state and religion into the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Based on his beliefs, Williams’ and other citizens of Rhode Island made a colony government to protect the “liberty of conscience”. With these beliefs come fights and rivalries over which religion is God’s true religion. Though, if everyone

Since its first appearance in the 1886 collection A White Heron and Other Stories, the short story A White Heron has become the most favorite and often anthologized of Sarah Orne Jewett. Like most of this regionalist writer's works, A White Heron was inspired by the people and landscapes in rural New England, where, as a little girl, she often accompanied her doctor father on his visiting patients. The story is about a nine-year-old girl who falls in love with a bird hunter but does not tell him the white heron's place because her love of nature is much greater. In this story, the author presents a conflict between femininity and masculinity by juxtaposing Sylvia, who has a peaceful life in country, to a hunter from town, which implies her

C. I will argue, first, that Eve’s scene alludes to Ovid's myth of Narcissus. Second I dispute interpretations that view Eve’s actions as a narcissistic impulse,

Whereas Sylvia’s grandmother rebukes her by costing the loss of ten dollars (that is considerable whether her grandmother who has undergone the socialization of women and puberty, is corrupted by male- dominated captalism), Sylvia decides to stand still and stay silent. Her silence enacts her subjectivity and emancipates herself as well as the bird from the hunter’s patriarchal constitution. It is not a passive reticence propelled by gender norm that women should restrict their speech to be less dominant as in the scene that Sylvia sits demurely and quietly in the house with the ornithologist as well as Mrs. Tilley. It is an active tactic she has learnt from the old cow, Molly that “if one stood perfectly still it would not ring.” (Jewett, 1881/2012, p. 1).

This is the most popular of her short stories, it discovers the inside conflict freshly learned her love of nature and stimulate interest in the opposite gender. Sylvia, a shy nine-year-old, who recognizes must decide between white heron’s nest, which is a rare case, loyalty to belongings of nature and the gratitude and friendship of white young hunters, who want that add to his collection of stuffed birds (Hurn, n.d). Sarah Orne Jewett has fame as feminist and romantic through her pieces of literature. Her works reflects her personal experience as a little girl in Maine (A white Heron’ by Sarah Orne Jewett: Summary, Symbolism, and Analysis, 2014).

Before the mid to late 1900s, women, especially African American, were inferior to men. They were expected to do their work in the house and let the men do the hard labor to bring in the money. They were excluded from certain tasks and places either because they were colored or a woman. Many women during the time tried to change these standards and combat discrimination. In Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, the protagonist, Janie, goes through multiple marriages, each of which tells their own story and has their own obstacles. Throughout the book, the readers are able to see Janie’s transformation as a character and her female voice begins to be more prominent. In Maya Angelou’s autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya encounters multiple experiences that portray the racist time period. She lives with her grandmother, Momma, and both the these women are greatly respected throughout the community. All these women overcome discrimination and shut down the patriarchal view of the time.