English 2850 Fall 2021: Great Works II

1. Who do you think Jacobs envisions as the audience for her autobiography? How can you tell?
2. What does Jacobs add to the understanding of the experience of slavery we gleaned from Frederick Douglass?
3. How does Jacobs attempt to control her own destiny?
4. Jacobs writes, “the influences of slavery…had made me prematurely knowing concerning the evil ways of the world.”  What do you think she means here?

1. What is the significance of the information Douglass provides about the early years of his life? What aspect(s) of his childhood made a strong impression on you? Why?
2. What does he mean, on p.238, when he describes the first whipping he witnessed as, “the blood-stained gate”?
3. What have you learned from reading this narrative that you didn’t already know about slavery in America?
4. Explain the significance of literacy for Douglass?
5. How does Douglass feel about Southern Christianity? Why?

• Choose one of the seventeen items in De Gouges’ “Declaration of the Rights of Woman” that seems particularly interesting to you and explain its meaning. Look up any unfamiliar words or terms.
• In Stanza one, “Woman is born free and remains equal to man in rights. Social distinctions can be based only upon common utility.” This is referring that a woman can do a mans work ability. This quote means it doesn’t matter how tough the workload can be; a woman is brave to accomplish it as well.
• What do Olympe de Gouges and Mary Wollstonecraft seem to be saying about marriage? What do you make of their concerns?
• Mary Wollstonecraft and Olympe de Gouges seems to be thinking that if a woman does get married they will have to depend on their partner and will do many things to please so men wont leave them. The main difference De Gouges recognized such as which men will leave their partners are they get exhausted of them. Wollstonecraft emphasized that a women will not be loyal and have pleasure with other men if their man lost interest. These two point of views overwhelm us because this shows that an only thing woman were told in society was by that woman needed to be a great house caretaker. In addition women weren’t able to receive similar education as men which make them to have less opportunities and make them depend on their loved one for financial success.
• What is it like to read these two 18th century texts in the 21st century?  Describe one issue that De Gouges and Wollstonecraft address that still seems relevant to us today.
• An issue that Wollstonecraft and Olympe De Gouges speak on that would be seeming to be relevant in todays society is gender roles. For instance, in today’s society more men are construction workers than woman and many woman fashion designers than men. Society has this upbringing and expectation for each gender role.

1. In my understanding, innocence and experience are two different issues in life, but what I think William Blake mean by saying they are contrary states of the human soul is that all humans are innocent and new to every situation from the begging until they are faced with an experience that they can learn from both good and bad.

• Choose one of the seventeen items in De Gouges’ “Declaration of the Rights of Woman” that seems particularly interesting to you and explain its meaning. Look up any unfamiliar words or terms.
• ” No women is an exception; she is accused, arrested and detained according to cases determined by law. Women obey, just as men, this rigorous law.” (De Gouges, Section VII.) I found this item to be one of the most interesting ones because even though De Gouges is fighting for women to have more opportunities and independency from men. She also understands that equality means for men and women to be treated the same in every aspect such as when a women is being accused of a crime.
• What do Olympe de Gouges and Mary Wollstonecraft seem to be saying about marriage? What do you make of their concerns?
• Olympe de Gouges and Mary Wollstonecraft seem to think that as soon as a woman gets married,they will have complete dependency on their husband and will do just about anything so the men don’t leave them. The only difference is that De Gouges pointed out that as soon as the men get tired of them, that they will leave them, while Wollstonecraft said that the women would have affairs with other men if their husbands lost interest in them. Their point of views concern me because this just shows that the only thing woman were told by society was that they needed to be the perfect housewife. Women weren’t allowed to get the same education as men which made them have less opportunities and made them completely depend on their husband for financial support.
• What is it like to read these two 18th century texts in the 21st century?  Describe one issue that De Gouges and Wollstonecraft address that still seems relevant to us today.
• One issue that De Gouges and Wollstonecraft address that still seems relevant today is that society still has gender roles even until this day. For example, in today’s world their are more women as school teachers than men or their are more men working as police officers than women. Society still has certain expectations for each gender role just like women are portrayed to be more emotional and vulnerable than men are in things such as tv shows or movies.

1. One of the “Declaration of the Rights of woman” that seem particularly interesting to mean is the 7th right for woman. It says ” No woman is an exception; she is accused, arrested, and detained according to cases determined by law. Women obey, just as men, the rigorous law”. I found this to be interesting because this right is pointing out how women already have much rights as men, but men still refuse to give the same rights they have gave to themselves. For example, women can be arrested for the same crime as men and women must obey to the law, same as them men have to obey. Therefore they can be equally punished because their is no advantage between men and women if they were to break a law. This brings up the question, why do women have no rights, but men do? Both men and women have no advantage over each other over the law.
2. Olympe de Gouges and Mary Wollstonecraft seem to say about marriage is that women are not equal to men and are not seen on the same level as them when it comes to rights. I believe their concerns consist of how women are not given the equal opportunity such as men and put into a scenario where if the man leaves them, they are set to fail and can result into being homeless.
3. When reading these two 18th century texts I noticed how they not only use different vocabulary in their writings but often use metaphors often. One issue that De Gouges and Wollstonecraft address that still seems relevant to us today is in this quote from “vindications of the right of women”. “He then proceeds to prove that women ought to be weak and passive, because she has less bodily strength than man.” This quote speaks volumes on how women are seen as this fragile object and cannot be compared to man because man are seen as strength. This can be considered relevant today because we have lawmakers and politicians taking women’s rights away not by women but from men. For example, a law in Texas makes it where a woman can no longer have an abortion after 6 weeks. This was publicized on television of a man sitting down on a chair, signing a law stripping the rights of a woman’s right to choose what they can do with their body and had no say what so ever when it was happening.