When I walked into the special collections room at the library I was immediately interested in the comics. With the saturation of Marvel and DC movies, and superhero movies in general, I’ve always found myself curious about the original comic books that inspired them all. I sat down in front of the Wonder Woman comic … Continue reading The Wonder of Comics →

Special Collections at Hillman showcased various books, magazines and comics from the early days of the past century. Most of the literature pieces being laid out are centered on the youth in that day in age. One of the tables that attracted me to it was the one with etiquette books sprawled all over it. … Continue reading Survival Guide for Society →

LIFE Magazine, at its origin, was started in 1936 as a weekly magazine littered with photographs and small captions about them. It was always published in New York City, NY. Its first issue became an instant success, chalked up mainly to its photo-heavy design, and by its fourth month of publishing, it sold over one … Continue reading “Teen-Age Girls” →

            Special Collections holds a wide array of magazines, novels, comic books, and short stories, but the one that immediately caught my eye was a bright pink etiquette guide from a familiar source--Seventeen. After flipping through Enid A. Haupt’s, “The New Seventeen Book of Etiquette and Young Living”, I caught a glimpse into the social lives … Continue reading Social insight from “The New Seventeen Book of Etiquette and Young Living” →

Among the all the comic books, one particular set of magazines was a clear outlier—at least by the cover. Unlike the rest of the comics, Calling All Boys did not have colorful comics on the cover but instead, it had a photograph of a young teenager with a pensive look on his face. With yellowed down pages … Continue reading The Bridge →

On my first visit to special collections, I attempted to avoid the magazine table, simply because I wanted to explore material I am less comfortable with.  I made a valiant effort to stay away from the giant display, but I ultimately gave into my curiosity and began skimming through the pages  of the December 13, … Continue reading LIFE Magazine →

Poverty is an extremely difficult situation with high pressure associated with it. Many families with a low income face extreme challenges when it comes to making ends meet. The way children are raised and their experience during adolescents are affected drastically by the socioeconomic status of their family. Specifically in the time period of the … Continue reading Poverty and Sacrifice During Adolescence in the Lowell Offering →

“You're just a kid. You don't have the faintest idea what you're talking about. It's all right. You've never been out of Boston.”  Good Will Hunting tells the story of how Robin William’s character, psychologist Sean Maguire, mentors Will Hunting- an intellectually brilliant but emotionally underdeveloped MIT janitor. In one scene, Sean utters the aforementioned … Continue reading (A lack of) Autonomy and Identity in Charlotte Temple →

Maham Ahmed Charlotte Temple is a tragic depiction of how poverty and power can drastically change one’s adolescence. For Charlotte’s family, money is not the end all be all. There is enough for them to get by comfortably, but it’s not enough for her to have unlimited suitors. Being in this middle-class of financial stability … Continue reading Wealth/Poverty and Power in Charlotte Temple →

Akira Kirkpatrick Kirsten Paine ENGLIT 0655—Representing Adolescence 23 September 2019 The Lowell Offering: Control and Poverty Two themes that seem to be recurring and interconnected throughout our readings (Charlotte Temple, The Lowell Offering, and even The House on Mango Street) are poverty and a need for control within the protagonist(s). That is, poor, underprivileged characters … Continue reading The Lowell Offering: Control and Poverty →