Maddy Smith

From “The Road from Coorian” by Jill Ker Conway  “One troublesome aspect of the frustration of my parents’ dreams was the extent to which they transferred their ambitions to their children.”  Word count: 315 This quote has stood out to me in the chapter because I cannot imagine the stress of having so much pressure on yourself to do so well as a child. The children in this family seemed to be under immense stress all the time to do well in school; if they did not follow their orders, there would be immediate punishment. I think there was also a lot of stress on the writer because she expresses her father’s feelings about how it is her responsibility to take care of her mother or her father if anything happens to them because he does not think that her brothers have the capability to do so. I feel like she felt a lot of pressure to be the perfect child as a lot of her parents’ aspirations for achievement were put on her. Also, a lot of this pressure could be holding her back fr...

From “A Daughter of Han” by Ning Lao T’ai-t’ai “The life of the beggar is not the hardest one. There is freedom. Today perhaps there is not enough to eat, but tomorrow there will be more.” (635) Word Count: 292 I thought this part of the excerpt where she’s talking about the life of a beggar was really interesting. This entire excerpt was a little sad to me seeing the struggles she faced when her husband sold her daughter twice and the second time, she was unable to get her back. She was almost forced to become a beggar because the man that she was married to was addicted to opium and was unable to keep a job, so she was forced to “come out” of her house and into the streets to beg. It must have been very hard for her after her child was sold from her without her consent, having to leave her husband, and then must be a beggar on her own. It makes me wonder when she talks about at the end how she was the first woman in her family that had to “come out” if that means that she was one of ...

From “Life and Death in Shanghai” by Nien Cheng “The best way for me to snap out of fear was always to take the initiative in doing something positive.” (113) “To have made plans and thought of some way to overcome difficulty gave me a new lease on life.” (121) Word Count: 301 I felt that these two quotes very much tied into the message of the excerpt that the author was trying to portray. Throughout her whole story, she was verbally and physically abused by the prison guards telling her to confess to something that she did not do wrong. These actions did not break her fighting spirit and she stayed strong throughout her whole imprisonment despite the immense amount of pain that she was in. She took the route of looking at life through a positive lens and did not give up which made her not afraid and overcome her difficulties. I thought that it was interesting how she mentioned that when she was growing up, she was taught to not show any sign of emotion because it showed a sign of weak...

From “A Life of Her Own” by Emilie Carles “No matter, we were happy.” (96) Word Count: 309 Even though this quote is short I felt like it gave a good summary of Jean and Emilie’s life. They went through a lot of hardships before they were married. Her father did not approve of him because he didn’t own a lot of property, insinuating that she was going to marry a poor man. Emilie didn’t listen to what her father had to say because she knew that she loved him and that he was a genuine man. His mother and her aunt were also not very fond of the idea of them being together, but their hateful words did not stop her from still being with Jean. Then when they did get married the first child they had died during birth, but they were able to have a few more later. Making an investment in the hotel was also a hardship they had because they thought it would bring them enough money so that they could finally travel. Still, it didn’t end up being as popular as they thought it would be and they were...

From “Testament of Youth” by Vera Brittain  “Even such is Time, that takes in trust. Our youth, our joys, our all we have, And pays us but with earth and dust.”  Word count: 310 I understand why this passage from Sir Walter Raleigh’s poem kept going through her brain during this time. I think that this part of the poem talks about the reality of time ticking away and the continuity of life and death. This must have resonated with Vera a lot after the death of her brother. She was very persistent in knowing exactly how he died which I believe is a way for her to find closure in his death. I think this is because she felt very lonely and felt as if there was no one she could fully express how she was feeling. She seemed to be really struggling with how to mourn the death of her brother. After a while, she couldn’t bring herself to even speak or think much about him. But eventually, she had to go on living her life, which seemed easier than finding out all the details of what hap...

From “The Italics Are Mine” by Nina Berberova “Never in the whole course of my life have I been able to free myself of this, and even now I think that an anthill is better than a nest, that there those near you warm you less…” Word Count: 253 Throughout this chapter, I was intrigued by how Nina put life into perspective. At the begging of the chapter, she talked about how when she was ten years old, she thought it was necessary for her to choose a profession quickly. I think this is interesting because when I was ten, that wasn’t something I was thinking about. Her life story was really inspiring in how she grew up very poor but was still inspired to become a poet. Everything she has gone through must have made her think in terms of the quote. She talks about how she sympathizes with those who leave their nest even if they flee to somewhere much more crowded, they can be more aware of the world and themselves. In my opinion, since she strived to be alone that’s where she got most of he...

 "When I was tormented by what was happening in the world, it was the world I wanted to change, not the place I had in it." 0:59:00  Word count: 286 This quote and many others from Simone Beauvoir were very inspiring to many women. The woman in the film talked very highly of how inspiring all her books were to them. Especially the women who grew up with people in their lives with anti-feminist ideologies. The topics she wrote about were very interesting and inspiring to me. I thought it was different how she put it in terms of how social forces determined things that women are “supposed” to do, and it wasn’t determined by biology as many people back then thought. Also, the idea is that women can be at a disadvantage due to their biology, but biology can be overcome. Something else that was talked about a lot throughout the film that relates to this quote is that Simone learned that the world is contingent, and it could fall apart but she looked at the world as something she d...

From “The Prime of Life” by Simone De Beauvoir “By releasing the pressure of reality upon our lives, fantasy convinced us that life itself had no hold upon us.” (61) Word count: 276 I found this quote to be very inspiring when I was reading because I feel not only did it sum up a lot of the meaning behind her writing but also resonated with me. Throughout a lot of this chapter, I learned that Simone felt like she had no freedom when she was younger which is why she moved in with her grandmother who treated her like the other people that were living with her, and she could go about what she wanted to do. When she met Sartre, they both realized their passion for living life without materialistic things and live their fantasies through their writings. They were both very content with their lives and the things they didn’t have because they had freedom, something they felt they lacked most of their lives. They were content with the stories that they were telling and the knowledge they were...

“It was a large heart with lots of hearts growing smaller inside, and piercing from the outside rim to the smallest heart was an arrow” (45) “Momma never turned her head or unfolded her arms…” (45) Word count: 301 This quote from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings stood out to me when reading. The pattern that she made symbolizes could be how she feels internally about being a young child in the prime time of segregation. The large heart with the smaller hearts could represent the African American community as a whole and the smallest heart being pierced by an arrow could represent Maya and how she feels the white community treats her. The title of the book hinted at this because it insinuates that she might be comparing herself to feeling trapped like a caged bird in the time of segregation. This quote represents the struggles that Maya went through as a young girl growing up Black in the South. It also represents the injustices that have been done to her and as the story continues it sh...

 "None of these women's paths seemed relevant to me when I was a girl. For good or for ill, I had no handicaps to overcome, like Helen Keller."  Word count: 278 In the introduction, this author describes how she wanted to know all the possibilities there were for women’s lives and turned to women to whom she felt she couldn’t relate. She then realized that it’s not about being able to relate to their stories but being inspired by them. This is something that is inspiring to me as a woman because like the author when I was a little girl there were things, I wanted to achieve but wasn’t sure how to get there. It was also inspiring when she talked about diving deeper into these stories to truly find the meaning of how these women lived their lives to the fullest. After reading the introduction the author's words have inspired me to look at the stories of these women in a different light. To read these stories without any false narrative of women’s experiences. The point ...