The Importance Of Discovering Vassar College

“In the sky there are always answers and explanations for everything : every pain, every suffering, joy and confusion. That night I wanted the sky to talk to me.” Beah pg.

There is significant evidence throughout both 'The Long Queen' and The Map Women' to indicate that suffering is a central element of female experience. Both poems are present in the 'Feminine Gospels' written by Carol Ann Duffy. The collection of poetry is seen to be teachings of feminism aiming to provide the reader visions of female identity. One feature of this identity that is examined within these two poems is the theme of mental and physical suffering that women universally endure.

My English Literature major has helped me to achieve an outstanding level of appreciation, enjoyment, and knowledge of both American and British Literature. As a high school AP English student, I struggled through great works like Hamlet and To the Lighthouse. My teacher’s daily lectures (there was no such thing as class discussion) taught me merely to interpret the works as critics had in the past. I did not enjoy the reading or writing process. As a freshman at Loras, I was enrolled in the Critical Writing: Poetry class. For the first time since grade school, my writing ability was praised and the sharing of my ideas was encouraged by an enthusiastic and nurturing professor. Despite the difficulty of poetry, I enjoyed reading it.

Feminism is a prominent controversy in present times and is relevant through literary works. In the article, “Throwing like a Girl,” James Fallows analyzes that saying exactly for what it means in our society, and more importantly if there’s any truth to the stereotype. In the article, “Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History,” Laurel Thatcher Ulrich shows how feminist historians, by challenging traditional accounts of both men's and women's histories, have prompted more vibrant accounts of the past. While Fallows analyzes the styles of throwing to identify a possible theory of the stereotypical saying, “throwing like a girl,” Ulrich discusses and encourages women to be strong and accomplish their goals, by using her phrase “well behaved women seldom make history.”

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, born in Johnstown, New York in 1815 and died October 26, 1902 had lived a life full of adventure. She had grown up in a wealthy family in a large house with many servants. Stanton was eight out of eleven children, but five of her siblings had died at a very young age. As a child, Elizabeth’s life was always full of adventure. However, she did not have much of a social life, Elizabeth’s best friend was her cousin who had been seven years older than her who had also been an abolitionist that wanted to end slavery. Ever since Elizabeth had been a young girl, women were considered an inferior order of beings, and she had known all about it. That had never stopped her from doing what she is known best for.

Carol Berkin’s Revolutionary Mothers captures the spirits of women who affected, and were affected by, the Revolutionary War. Berkin dives deep into the lives of women who played a vital role in the war, but many that she examines are not the familiar patriot wives. She provides examples of all types of women: patriot and loyalist, American and British, rich and poor, Indian and African American. History books tend to romanticize the roles of women throughout wars, but Berkin presents heroines in a more practical light. Berkin, professor of American history at Baruch College in New York, believes that women’s roles in the Revolutionary War were essential to Americans gaining their independence.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a woman that can be best described under a countless amount of titles. She was a women’s rights activist, feminist, editor, writer, abolitionist, and the list continues. Living in a world in which women were made to feel inferior, Stanton utilized this oppression as a catalyst for permeating into male “territory”. Fortunately for her, particular opportunities came about naturally, being that she was raised in a privileged household. Her parents were of high respect in their city, and had the means to provide their kids with formal and informal methods of education. A couple years after graduating from the Willard’s Troy Seminary in 1832, she married her husband, Henry Stanton- a fellow abolitionist and antislavery orator. Their marriage is infamous for the exclusion of “promise to obey” from the traditional vows, due to Elizabeth’s conviction that it translated in both parties not being equal to one another. Even within the confinements of marriage, fortune continued to follow Stanton in her endeavors, because through her marriage she was exposed to even larger pavements of reformation.

Following this historiographical trend, the historians from our course readings have addressed women in some fashion, with publications ranging from 1983 to 2015. However, certain authors focused on women’s role in society more than others, and it is clear that this trend is still in the process of advancing. Ultimately, with all of the course readings in mind, the overarching picture was clear that women of all backgrounds in Virginia had their own struggles and often

It is hard for humans in a society with many liberties to realize and acknowledge that every beneficial thing we have can be attributed to the hard work and dedication of another person or group of people. Sometimes in extreme ways, and sometimes in minor ways. Sarah Anne Curzon is one of many women who have dedicated and dedicate years of their lives towards giving future women equality and opportunities which they themselves were never given. She was born in 1833, in Birmingham, England. At the age of 25, she married Robert Curzon, and shortly after, they immigrated to Toronto. She quickly became involved in activism and literary groups in the Toronto community. She was a playwright who published two influential plays. Due to financial instability, she and her husband lived in many different neighbourhoods. She died in 1998 at her son’s house in Toronto. At the time, she was living at 15 Grenville Street. Sarah Anne Curzon deserves to be honoured and thanked for raising her voice in a time when there was much silence, and making change for generations to come.

Chancellor’s Honors Reads is a book club open to all members of the Honors College and introduces students to introspective literature through informal forums with professors. My favorite book we’ve read is Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air, which follows a neurosurgeon’s coming to terms with his own death. I loved how Kalanithi blurred the lines between science and emotion to draw analogies I would otherwise overlook. This gets to the heart of the program. In gathering around thought-provoking works, Honors Reads has guided me through books that help me to reinvent how I read the world, to continue to pursue a curious life.

As I had no budget, I enlisted the help of friend and retired Drumright High School English teacher, Luann Branch, to act as my editor. Mrs. “Ma” Branch is famous in our small town as not only an educator who could inspire even the most lethargic of students, but as a civic leader who directs spectacular musicals, charming melodramas, and leads glorious choirs. I was honored and humbled that she accepted my request.

Exploring the inner turmoil of the human soul is a fascinating subject that has captivated members of academia since the dawn of metacognition. Paul Simon writes a beautiful, harmonious piece of timeless art known as The Sound of Silence, which is almost whispered, in song, by Art Garfunkel. Paul Simon, by using the enticing paradox: “the sound of silence”, the clever use of “light” to describe the false hope society places on external forces, as well as a plethora of other paradoxes and metaphors, such as a growing seed, urges people to cease looking to extraneous solutions to answer their internal quarrels, and begin instead, looking within themselves for the answers they seek. Simon kicks off this incredible introspection by depicting his inner quarrels as a “vision” that started as a “seed that is planted in his brain”.

I was honored to receive the Esther Buffler fellowship from the Portsmouth (NH) Poet Laureate Program for 2015. I worked with four classes in the English department, working with their teacher Ms. Laura LaVallee.

Traditionally, readers and critics have responded to Eves actions with compassion and concern. (Revard, 1973) Two critics who particularly react this way are Dennis Burden and Fresdon Bowes. (ibid) A.J.A Waldock has

One time about a year ago I frustratingly asked why I couldn’t have more direct contact with ‘higher’ beings. Out of an angel deck I pulled the card “Signs” and looked to my side where my asleep computer flashed a white rectangle on the screen. I immediately felt a freaky energy rush down my spine.