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From The Price of My Soul

From “The Price of my Soul” by Bernadette Devlin 

“We didn’t gossip about other girls in the school or make cynical remarks about the teachers, instead, we analyzed the situation in Northern Ireland and discussed why most of us were going to leave it.” (192)
Word Count: 312
I think that this quote shows how advanced the author was at such a young age. Just by the things that she talked about with her friends compared to the other people her age. Also, she mentioned that she flew through the 3rd grade, then she had to take an exam to get into grammar school, and despite being absent a lot from being sick all the time, she still managed to pass the exam. She even knew from a very young age that she wanted to stay in Northern Ireland, but she knew that there was more opportunity than being a Catholic teacher or a nun. I think a lot of the women's influences in her life were very negative which inspired her to be so opinionated. I think that a lot of her ideals came from going to a school which such strict ideals about how these young women should be acting. She uses a lot of stories throughout the story about Mother Benignus reflecting her strong opinion about how these young girls should act. For example, she said that she was very narrow-minded and like to see women walking around in masculine attire. Things like this being reflected onto younger girls can have a large impact on how they think and perceive the world when they grow up. It was good to see that the author as well as her other friends were able to look past this and come up with their own opinions. This also happened when she stood up to Mother Benignus for the work she did on British history. 

Comments

  1. Paige CardunerFebruary 20, 2023 at 10:04 AM

    Bernadette was such a powerful individual and I believe her life was heavily shaped by the people she encountered throughout it. She was so intelligent from such a young age - and I fight to believe that this is what allowed her to be such an inspirational individual. Mother Benignus was one of the harder people Bernadette had to face throughout her life and I think if it were not for her being so negatively opinionated, Bernadette would not be as influential as she was.

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