Written by Christina Hodge, the book Consumerism and the Emergence of the Middle Class in Colonial America: The Genteel Revolution, was to portray a woman during the eighteenth century and daily life in Newport. Hodge talks about Widow Pratt throughout the chapters, she is not the main character. The book is also based on a historiography, which is the study of historical writing. The theme of the book is on gentility, the social superiority by genteel manners, behavior, or appearance. There is also the way of being genteel, the way to act proper. In the way that Hodge explains and characterizes the ways of the 18th century were partially dull, but she also gave a very good insight on how the turning of the 18th century has made people during …show more content…
Widow Pratt begins to have troubles keeping her shop to herself when other people are trying to obtain it from her. In the eighteenth century, women are becoming the dominator of exporting the demand instead of men. Widow Pratt has been through many things in her life including the court appearance she had to make to keep her shop to herself from her son-in-law(s). In the shop Pratt kept many valuable things she did not want to part from and was worth around six hundred pounds. In the end of the chapter, Hodge explains the similarities between refinement, trade, and consumerism bounded Newport together during the eighteenth century. In the last chapter, Legacies of the Genteel Revolution, it begins with the discussion of a painting of ‘A Cottage Interior: An Old Woman Preparing Tea. Looking through the painting there are gloves and a handkerchief hanging from a laundry line above the fireplace, which means that the woman even though she is poor she is able to afford expensive objects. There is also the pile of books that are stacked on a shelf against the wall, giving that the woman is knowledgeable. The painting gives a depiction of selective refinement, but also the widening of the eighteenth century material world. Chapter six is the summary of an argument that began in the very first chapter of the book …show more content…
The paintings she incorporated in her readings give a better glance at the way the eighteenth century genteel revolution was not based on fiction. Including painting and drawings that are directly related to the information that Hodge provided in each of the chapters. Hodge does a great job at giving similar occasions in her chapters and relate them to a painting. There is also the fact that Hodge, even though she is a Harvard professor, her writing can be too professional for a college student to read. She didn’t really relate the information in a way that can appeal to those who may be interested in her readings. Using big words that many people many not understand and examples that are also hard to understand. Hodge should be more interested in her audience understanding and relating to her readings instead of trying to obtain an older audience. In my opinion, there are some factors that appeal to me in how they are being put to the audience. I believe that her audience was tended for women, because of all the efforts the Widow Pratt took may lead women into leadership positions for their future. Also offering the view of gentility as a whole into the lives of
The theme of personal identity is displayed here while Grace is telling us what all of the newspaper writers have said about her. Her own sense of identity has been lost due to all of the contradicting reports on who she really is. No one really knows who she is, so they make up their own version of her in their minds. In The Secret Scripture, Roseanne struggles to write her autobiography while Dr. Grene tries to discover for himself who she really is. Dr. Grene attempts to piece together her past and gains a sense of her identity as the book progresses.
In her article, “Three Inventories, Three Households”, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich argues that women’s work was crucial not simply for subsistence but that “women were essentials in the seventeenth century for the very same reasons they are essentials today-for the perpetuation of the race” (Ulrich 51). She believes, women were expected to do everything. They were not only to take care of the children, but they were also cook, clean, raise the greens and ranches. Mainly, women plays important role for the survival and continuation of life.
In her book, ‘A Midwife’s Tale’, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich explores the social position of women in society and the subsequent change in their roles in early American society by studying the life of Martha Ballard. In her book, she questions the impact that the Revolutionary War and the independence of the United States of America had on the lives of American women like Martha Ballard. Martha’s apathy toward politics, her silence of gender inequality of that time and her continuous focus on her daily routine to earn for her family demonstrate that Martha Ballard’s identity of being a colonial goodwife remained unchanged economically, politically and socially by the Revolution and the decades that followed. From 1785 to 1812, Martha Ballard tirelessly
1 - Consumerism developed in America during the early twentieth century in large part due to the boom in industry created by Europe 's inability to create goods after World War I. Combined this with American inventions such as Henry Ford’s assembly line and Americans had money to spend (Schultz, 2013). With the advent of an electrical distribution system, Americans had electricity in their homes for the first time, which led to the desire for all types of electrical appliances to make life easier. All these new products meant that companies had to get the word out about their products which ignited the advertising industry, which led to even more consumerism. Mix into this recipe, the growing credit industry, and you had consumerism like
The next chapter highlights the gendered division of labor and the difficulty to keep a family as a slave. Chapter six and seven moves on to the eighteenth century and shows how women have improved in areas such as more political participation and increasing social class of
In colonial North America, the lives of women were distinct and described in the roles exhibited in their inscriptions. In this book, Good Wives the roles of woman were neither simple nor insignificant. Ulrich proves in her writing that these women did it all. They were considered housewives, deputy husbands, mistresses, consorts, mothers, friendly neighbors, and last but not least, heroines. These characteristics played an important role in defining what the reality of women’s lives consisted of.
Throughout the human history, people always help each other, as it is a part of a human nature. In pre-civilized world, any migrant tribe look after of the older and physically weaker members of their group by sharing food. The Ancient Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Chinese, and the Islamic cultures developed a more sophisticated assistance for their impoverished citizens. Charities along with governmental relief came in forms of food, clothing, monetary allowances, hospitals, and housing for the elderly and orphans.
In Louisa May Alcotts novel “An Old Fashioned Girl” the main character, Polly Milton, finds herself struggling against a man versus society conflict, as she confronts the rich first class society that surrounds her. The fourteen year old country girl who ventures into the city to visit her good friend, is constantly being told she is old fashioned, poor, and too simple for the city. The basis of the conflict is that all the people Polly encounters during her time in the city, expect her to look and behave like the rest. When Polly cannot do this, people begin to tease and mock her all because she has no wealth.
Imagine working sixteen hours a day in an unsanitary, dangerous, place for a big business gaining two dollars. This is what laboring-class Americans had to go through during the Gilded age. Politically, the first largest American labor union was formed during the Gilded age and many other organizations formed as well as violent strikes. Socially, different ethnics joined together to share their thoughts and realize the evils of big business and of the federal government. Mentally, most we 're losing their personal life while some were financially stable and glad.
As World War II came to an end, the United States entered the 50s. This decade became a major influential time that brought many cultural and societal changes. Categories such as the economy, where a boom in new products increased, the technology world which incorporated new medicines and computers, entertainment when the television became popular and the overall lifestyles that Americans adapted to. All of these topics reshaped and created several advancements throughout society during the 1950s.
Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre provided Victorian England with a new kind of woman who represented a shift in the common view of what Mary Wollstonecraft asserted was a limited education for women. Their education kept them childlike and superficial, with most of their attention going toward appearance and with being satisfied mostly with matters of the home. The social pressures prevented women from becoming more interesting through reason and substance which were confined to the masculine sphere. Jane Eyre and Blanche Ingram, with their distinct backgrounds and because of different events both ladies have gone through, separately, can determine how different these two ladies are. Jane Eyre’s social class throughout her life was very ambiguous, never really fitting into one category, often in between levels of the social spectrum.
For the 19th century America, the two sexes were to be separated into distinct spheres, the man’s public sphere and the woman’s private one. It was most common for the two sexes to spend their time mostly in the company of their own sex, and advices were given to the younger members of the society on the proper way of behaving according to one’s sex. Even though both sexes had to be instructed on how to perform in each other’s company, it was the shaping of a woman that needed to undergo through a series of instructions on the proper way to be a woman. A woman had to follow the rules of the Cult of True Womanhood to be considered proper and wife material. Fanny Fern in her writing appeals on and discusses the attributes of piety, purity, submissiveness,
In “The Pastoralization of Housework” by Jeanne Boydston, Boydston explores the effect of the romanization of housework. The pastoralization of housework that occurred during the Antebellum period was the result of the development of early industrialization. In order to have something remain constant in the changing times the formation of two separate gender spheres allowed a routine to an ever changing society. A result of these two spheres was the pastoralization of domestic labor in the early 1800s that made labor ‘invisible’ and began to discredit the women’s work at home, but also raised them to a higher pedestal in the family dynamic. By embracing the idea of True Motherhood women were able to flourish by the naturalization of the social
Work Cited Madland, David. " Growth and the Middle Class." Democracy Journal. 04 Mar. 2011. Web.
The 1920s is a time of technological, economical, and social exploration. Myrtle, Daisy, and Jordan display the full image of what it is like to be a women in New York during the 1920s. They each have a personal struggle with society and the fight between what they want and what is expected of them. Each of these women wants to experience the glamor of the 1920s but has to maintain some of the traditional elegance of a woman. If the neglect to do so, they are treated harshly by society.