Women

Women

BUT why not? Mrs. Dodge said, leading the Discussion at the Womans Saturday Club after the reading of Mrs. Cromwells essay, Women as Revealed in Some Phases of Modern Literature. Why shouldnt something of the actual life of such women as ourselves be the subject of a book? Mrs. Dodge inquired. Mrs. Cromwells paper has pointed out to us that in a novel a study of women must have a central theme, must focus upon a central figure or heroine, and must present her as a principal participant in a centralized conflict or drama of some sort, in relation to a limited group of other characters. Now, so far as I can see, my own life has no such centralizations, and Im pretty sure Mrs. Cromwells hasnt, either, unless she is to be considered merely as a mother; but she has other important relations in life besides her relations to her three daughters, just as I have others besides that I bear to my one daughter. In fact, I cant find any central theme in Mrs. Cromwells life or my own; I cant find any centralized drama in her life or mine, and I doubt if many of you can find such things in yours. Our lives seem to be made up of apparently haphazard episodes, some meaningless, others important, and although we do live principally with our families and friends and neighbours, I find that people I hardly know have sometimes walked casually into my life, and influenced it, and then walked out of it as casually as they came in. All in all, I cant see in our actual lives the cohesion that Mrs. Cromwell says is the demand of art. It appears to me that this very demand might tend to the damage of realism, which I take to mean lifelikeness and to be the most important demand of all. So I say: Why shouldnt a book about women, or about a type of women, take for its subject some of the actual thoughts and doings of women like ourselves? Why should such a book be centralized and bound down to a single theme, a single conflict, a single heroine? The lives of most of us here consist principally of our thoughts and doings in relation to our children, our neighbours, and the people who casually walk into our lives and our childrens and neighbours lives and out again. It seems to me a book about us should be concerned with all of these almost as much as with ourselves. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 65207
Author: Tarkington, Booth
Release Date: Apr 30, 2021
Format: eBook
Language: English