Response to readings for 17 July

"The Revolt of Mother": The passage that struck me the most was toward the beginning of the story when Sarah is talking to Nanny and says, "You ain't found out we're women-folks, Nanny Penn.... You ain't seen enough of the men-folks yet to. One of these days you'll find it out, an' then you'll know that we know only what men-folks think we do, so far as any use of it goes, an' how we'd ought to reckon men-folks in with Providence, an' not complain of what they do any more than we do of the weather." The passage was intersting to me at first because of the last bit when she says that women only know what men think they do. It makes me think of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" when the women work to put the idea of the girl going back to school into the man's head so he'll think it was his idea, otherwise he wouldn't think it was a good one. I thought it was funny, though, that she says women are supposed to figure men in with God, like they should hang on every word that men say and should never question whether it's right. As I read through the rest of the story, though, I found that the first part of the passage summed up the result of such thinking. Sarah says, "You ain't found out we're women-folks yet.... You ain't seen enough of the men-folks yet to." This suggests that women's identity comes solely from their interactions and relationships with men. Throughout the story, Sarah is known mostly as "Mother," that is, until she acts out of line with her husband's will. I think that Freeman makes a distinction between being a woman and being an individual, though, because Sarah's identity does not rest on her relationship with her husband or with other men.
"Trifles": "What do you suppose she was so nervous about?" I thought it was funny when Mrs. Hale asked Mrs. Peters this question because I assumed they already had ideas about Mrs. Wright's deeds. For me, this question illustrates both the appearance of women that men choose not to look past and also the depth of meaning in what women say and think. The men believe that the women are asking questions about "trifles" and that they are unconcerned with what is most important. In fact, the women are noticing evidence that the men find themselves too important to consider. I think that this also illustrates a problem with communication between men and women. Men often assume that women mean no more and no less than what they say. Perhaps this is because men do not say more or less than what they mean or than what they are thinking. But women tend to talk around subjects, to explore and insinuate and attempt to draw out information from others in order to confirm or deny their own thoughts. Obviously, this play speaks to the ignorance of men in assuming that women are so simple-minded, and I think this quote was one of my first indications to that end.
"As Children Together": One passage that stood out to me described Victoria's husband "cursing holy blood at the table/where nightly a pile of white shavings/is paid from the edge of his knife." The father in the beginning of the poem created the same image, which suggests that, despite her determination ("I am going to have it."), Victoria has ended up in the same place she started. I think that the men are almost more telling than the women in this poem. The women look for any means of escape, but the men are engaged in drinking and pointless whittling. The men, as far as the reader is concerned, can do whatever they want, otherwise they would not be mentioned, but they waste their lives away. If Forche wanted to explain the inability of women to overcome merely their physical environments, men would not be part of the picture, but they are overwhelmingly present, and offer no escape.