In Lina Grasso’s essay “Anger in the House: Fanny Fern’s Ruth Hall and The Redrawing of Emotional Boundaries in Mid-Nineteenth Century America”, it explained why
Elizabeth Cady Stanton defended Ruth Hall and why she applauded the novel. Both the mainstream and the abolitionist press claimed “Fern had violated standards of propriety by publishing a thinly-veiled description of a contentious family feud.” Caroline Dall is also one of the people that is against Ruth Hall, and says Fanny Fern had no talent and was “prudent and heartless.” The essay explains the Ruth Hall controversy between Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Caroline Dall.
Stanton says that Ruth Hall expresses anger towards men, but I got a sense that Ruth felt like she didn’t need to be angry at men, or at anyone else. Sure, people talked, but Ruth just cared about herself and surviving with her two daughters. The incident where Ruth’s daughter Katy visits her grandfather for money, is a perfect example of how Ruth reacts to cruelty towards her. Ruth’s own father sends his grandchild home crying with only a dollar, and Ruth’s reaction to her daughter crying was just “No, no, Katy, don’t cry; you shall never go there again for money.” When Ruth found the money that the gentleman gave Katy, she quickly scolded Katy and said “Why! what’s this, Katy. Grandpa has made a mistake. You must run right back as quick as ever you can with this money, or I’m afraid he will be angry.” Ruth saying that also shows how weak of a person she is for almost apologizing to her father for Katy taking too much money.
Kayla, I think that the first paragraph of your evaluation is very descriptive and is effective in briefly summarizing the critical essay you are referring to. One suggestion I might make is that perhaps to improve the clarity of that paragraph, you could place the last sentence of the paragraph in the beginning. Also, maybe you could add a sentence after the quote that begins "Fern had violated standards. . ." that connects back to Stanton's opinion of the novel.
ReplyDeleteYour second paragraph is well constructed and I also like the tone you used. The first example you used supports your idea very well. The second example, however, is a bit confusing. You mentioned "the gentleman" and it's unclear to me whether that is the grandfather or another person. Some simple re-wording would make an immense difference. Overall, I think you did a very good job and those slight corrections could make your post even better.
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ReplyDeleteOverall, it was good. Although we both know nothing is ever perfect. JOKING! But really what’s perfect to me wouldn’t be perfect for you. Anyways, I think you should fix up some things here and there. Maybe you can tell your readers who are Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Caroline Dall and Ruth Hall. You can also, tell your reader what she defended Ruth on and why? But ummm you don’t have to, if you don’t want to. I just thought it could be better if you do. I think it would help if you give some examples of Ruth being upset or anger with men as Elizabeth thought. How Ruth weak for not allowing her daughter ask for money when they need it, I supposed?
ReplyDeleteAnd because you are directly quoting, you should give page numbers and give credit to the original writer. It’s Just a suggestion again.
But like I said before, its good but fixing few things would make it better I believe.