Emily Dickinson was probably the most prominent romantic poet of her time. She captured people through her own emotions and rhythmic techniques. She gets her point across in her poems using a very small amount of words. Most of her poetry dealt with the subjects of nature, sexuality, religion, and death. Even though Emily was born into a Protestant family, she was very alone. She stayed upstairs in her parents house all alone for most of her life. She was diagnosed with Bright’s disease and because of that she felt that society would not give her a chance or understand her. I can relate to that personally because there are plenty of times where I feel I am misunderstood. A lot of her poetry would deal along the lines of death because she witnessed all her family and close friends dying before her. From reading her poems I could tell she was very interested in sex and passion and probably had many lovers, at least one being female. Poem 269 she used a compass and a chart to illustrate love making between a man and a woman. As far as death, she personified it and was at peace with it. She said she would be ok if death came and whisped her away because she has not paid much attention to it.
Louisa May Alcott was and American novelist and best known for her novel Little Women. Alcott was very much so an abolitionist and a feminist. Her short story My Contraband was about a nurse who has interest in a black contraband, Robert. She shows Robert great affection and comfort but however she knows that she cannot love him. She knows that she cannot get caught touching and soothing him although Robert is 3 quarters white. Clearly Nurse Dane is an abolitionist as well just like Alcott. Ultimately Nurse Dane views Robert as a lower form of human existence but doesn’t really realize it. That can go for anyone. We always do things and mean no harm by it, but ultimately it could be affecting or hurting someone else without us even realizing it. There are just a lot of things we are blind to.
Frederick Douglass’s Narrative really revolutionized and introduced a whole new genre of literature, the slave-narrative. His narrative influenced other fiction slave narratives such as Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Harriet Jacob’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Douglass himself is known today as one of the greatest leaders of the abolitionist movement. In the Narrative Douglass speaks about his real story of being born into slavery and eventually getting himself out of it along with all the obstacles he overcame along the way. Douglass came across to me as a heroic figure in this story and also was very inspirational to people of the time it was written and even now to this day. He was very determined to get himself the best life he possibly could have and would stop at nothing to do so. When he was told he shouldn’t learn how to read, he went and found a way to do so anyway. Frederick even finally stood up to one of his masters and told him that he would no longer tolerate being treated like an animal and be beat. Those two events alone were very inspirational to me and very reassuring that I can do anything I want to do as long as I stay determined and work hard for it. I am also the type of person like Frederick in that if someone tells me I can’t do something, I have to prove them wrong, I’m determined to prove them wrong. Especially with me going into the medical field which is really white male dominated, and myself being a black female, I’ve already heard from people that I will never make it and that I should choose another route and that further just motivates me to prove them wrong and work even harder than I have been. Its individuals like Frederick Douglass and other leaders of Civil rights that really keep me going and also prove that anything is possible.
The famous and infamous Fanny Fern was a well known popular female feminist writer of the 19th century. Her birth name though was Sarah Willis Brown. Fern was very controversial for her time. The subjects that Fern would write about including events in her personal life were just plain unheard of for women during that time period. By the 1850’s she was the highest paid columnist in the U.S. What really caught my attention in reading her introduction is that when her first husband passed away from an illness, she remarried another man whom she said turned out to be jealous and repulsive. She left him after two years which was a very revolutionary act and quite ironic because normally you’ll see the opposite happening in a marriage. At the height of her success she remarried again and made him sign a prenup so he would not get any money from her writings, yet another controversial act for a woman of this time period.
“Aunt Hetty in Matrimony” Fern basically tells the story of an Aunt speaking to young girls about how awful marriage can be and how their husband will not show any appreciation for them. In “Hungry Husbands” she speaks about how basically a man that is full on food is very easy to take advantage of so feed him well and get him full and basically he’ll be under his woman’s spell. In “Male Criticism on Ladies’ Books” Fern basically states how male writers are criticizing her works and that they are envious because her works are doing better than hers. I love how at the end of this piece she is so blunt and tells them like is with no remorse saying
Finally in “A Law More Nice than Just” she tells the story of a woman who reads in the paper that another woman had been arrested for wearing men’s clothing which during that time was against the law. In turn, the woman puts on her husband’s clothes to make herself appear like a man and goes out in public. In today’s society it is quite normal and in style to see a woman wearing clothing inspired by men’s clothing, such as suits, blazers, boyfriend tees, jeans, etc.
Personally, I really love and enjoyed Fanny’s works. I am all for women being treated equally as men and it is nice to see a strong courageous woman of this time period speak out against the norm. It was very encouraging and inspirational for me.
Shania Twain’s “I Feel Like a Woman” song and video show and illustrate Fern’s point to a “t”. The lyrics talk about being free, wearing men’s shirts and not acting politically correct. Also in the video she is wearing a woman's version of a man’s suit.
Emily Dickinson was probably the most prominent romantic poet of her time. She captured people through her own emotions and rhythmic techniques. She gets her point across in her poems using a very small amount of words. Most of her poetry dealt with the subjects of nature, sexuality, religion, and death. Even though Emily was born into a Protestant family, she was very alone. She stayed upstairs in her parents house all alone for most of her life. She was diagnosed with Bright’s disease and because of that she felt that society would not give her a chance or understand her. I can relate to that personally because there are plenty of times where I feel I am misunderstood. A lot of her poetry would deal along the lines of death because she witnessed all her family and close friends dying before her. From reading her poems I could tell she was very interested in sex and passion and probably had many lovers, at least one being female. Poem 269 she used a compass and a chart to illustrate love making between a man and a woman. As far as death, she personified it and was at peace with it. She said she would be ok if death came and whisped her away because she has not paid much attention to it.
Louisa May Alcott was and American novelist and best known for her novel Little Women. Alcott was very much so an abolitionist and a feminist. Her short story My Contraband was about a nurse who has interest in a black contraband, Robert. She shows Robert great affection and comfort but however she knows that she cannot love him. She knows that she cannot get caught touching and soothing him although Robert is 3 quarters white. Clearly Nurse Dane is an abolitionist as well just like Alcott. Ultimately Nurse Dane views Robert as a lower form of human existence but doesn’t really realize it. That can go for anyone. We always do things and mean no harm by it, but ultimately it could be affecting or hurting someone else without us even realizing it. There are just a lot of things we are blind to. 
