The Lowell Offering offers a compelling perspective on girlhood vs. the idea of childhood.  In this writing, we see young, adolescent, teenage girls, ages ranging from 14-24, work in mills up in Massachusetts.  Typically, these mills host terrible conditions, that can become fatal.  These girl not only must work in dangerous conditions for most of … Continue reading Girlhood and Autonomy in the Lowell Offering →

During middle school, I remember always reaching for the girliest teenage books. In these books, there was always discussion about the main character’s first crush, first boyfriend, and first kiss. Girlhood was defined in the thoughts and the actions of the main character in relation to boys or gossipy girls. It seems as if this … Continue reading Girlhood in Charlotte Temple →

Sydney Dominick Autonomy in Charlotte Temple              Charlotte Temple is perhaps the first YA heroine, at the very least the first American one. While she is extremely problematic, leaving her family and going abroad with a man who promises her the world but gives her nothing, she also resonates with almost every American teenager who … Continue reading Autonomy in Charlotte Temple →

When Charlotte Temple was first published, the view of an adolescent child’s autonomy and identity were different than what many think they are today.  What I’m looking at specifically, though, is the autonomy and identity of Charlotte Temple’s character in this book.  I believe she has no autonomy or identity through the whole book which … Continue reading Lack of Autonomy and Identity of Charlotte Temple →

Stuck in the victim role: Adolescent autonomy in Charlotte Temple Sometimes it doesn’t matter how much we can understand and sympathize with a person, we just do not like them. We are sympathetic to how they feel, we recognize why they acted the way they did, and we maybe even think we would have acted … Continue reading Stuck in the victim role →

The Lowell Offering gives interesting insights into the life and times of the typical female factory worker of the nineteenth century. Undoubtedly, these young women were treated to many more unfamiliar situations than their female ancestors before them. The trouble I have with many of the discussions we've had about the experiences of these women … Continue reading The False Correlation between Greater Autonomy and Faster Maturity →

In modern society, the term “adolescence” is used to describe the period of time between childhood and adulthood. It ranges approximately from ages twelve to nineteen, and although science has confirmed the long-standing occurrence of distinct biological and psychological changes during these years, the concept of adolescence as a consequently volatile time of ignorance, carelessness, … Continue reading Adolescence in Poverty – Jacqueline Joo Blog 1 Group A →

Marina Sullivan In both The House On Mango Street and The Lowell Offering, the authors write through two discernibly contrasting perspectives about the experiences through which the central female character or characters is living. In The House On Mango Street, author Sandra Cisneros - who was herself an adult when she wrote the book - … Continue reading Not So Young Adult Literature – Marina Sullivan →

Imagine meeting the man/woman of your dreams. They’re perfect in every sense, it was in essence love at first sight. There’s only one problem, they aren’t within your social class. This generation doesn’t see this as a large problem, but in prior generations it was. Social status has always been a dividing force in all … Continue reading Love in Charlotte Temple By:Jordan Allen →

Adolescence is a complex stage of life, a period of time ensconced in conflicting struggles-- the struggle to gain the power of adulthood and the struggle to preserve the freedom and innocence only present in childhood. Through several of the heartbreaking female characters featured in the Sandra Cisneros’s vignettes, The House on Mango Street elucidates … Continue reading Power and Girlhood in The House on Mango Street →