Monday, February 6, 2012
A New England Nun- Chelsea Estes
When I saw the title of this week's assigned reading, I had no clue as to what the story would be about. After completing the assignment, the title, "A New England Nun," made perfect sense. It is a passage about choices and similar to a nun, the main character, Louisa, made a choice to live her life without marriage or children. She decides to live peacefully alone. Just like the other 19th Century women we have read about, Louisa is a "new woman."She does not feel the need to do what most other women of her time would do. I kept wondering as I read the story if Louisa was really staying true to herself or was she rejecting life by wanting to just be left alone and live like a hermit. Had Louisa lived alone for so much of her life, that a solitary existence was just what she was use to or is it what she truly wanted? In the end, this "new woman" made the choice that was right for her. What do you think - was Louisa rejecting life and living safe or was she choosing to live life her way and truly found peace in being alone?
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I felt that you could say Louisa is a new woman by the indication that she feels perfectly fine and happy not being married like you stated. I went back and forth with this because of the fact that she confronted Joe only after she overheard his and Lily's conversation. I think it's interesting also that you bring in the notion that, what if she is just used to solitary life and that's why she wants to stick with it? Because I think it might affect our opinions of whether she is a new woman or not.
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