By Mary E. Wilkins Freeman (1852-1930) A Study Guide | ||
. Study Guide Prepared by Michael J. Cummings...© 2010. . .......“The Revolt of 'Mother,' " by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, is a short story focusing on a woman who takes a stand against an authoritarian husband. Because Freeman's stories are primarily about New Englanders and the way they live, they are considered part of the local-color movement in American literature. A typical local-color writer focused on a particular region, its customs and traditions, its dialect, and so on. Harper's Bazaar published “The Revolt of 'Mother'" in its issue of September 1890. A year later, the New York firm of Harper and Brothers published the story in A New England Nun and Other Stories, a collection of Freeman's works. .......The action takes place on a farm in rural New England in the spring and summer of a year in the late nineteenth century. Sarah Penn: Patient,
hard-working farm wife and mother. She respects her husband and apparently
loves him. However, because he spends his profits as a farmer on new buildings
and new animals to the neglect of the small and poorly furnished home in
which the Penn family lives, Sarah decides one day to rebel against his
rule in order to provide the family a new home.
.......The narrator tells the story in third-person point of view. Most of the time, the narration presents only what the characters do, not what they think. However, the narrator occasionally switches to omniscient third-person point of view to reveal the thoughts or feelings of characters. Following are examples: She formed a maxim for herself, although incoherently with her unlettered thoughts. “Unsolicited opportunities are the guide-posts of the Lord to the new roads of life," she repeated in effect, and she made up her mind to her course of action. By Michael J. Cummings...© 2010 .......“What
are them men diggin' over there in the field for?"
[W]e've come here to live, an' we're goin' to live here. We've got jest as good a right here as new horses an' cows. The house wa'n't fit for us to live in any longer, an' I made up my mind I wa'n't goin' to stay there. I've done my duty by you forty year, an' I'm goin' to do it now; but I'm goin' to live here. You've got to put in some windows and partitions; an' you'll have to buy some furniture.".......Sammy takes the new horse to the old barn. While Adoniram eats, he stops now and then to stare at his wife. Afterward, he goes out and sits on a step at the side door of the barn, which Sarah intends to be the front door of the house. After finishing the dishes, Sarah goes out to him and touches him on a shoulder. He is weeping. .......“I'll—put up the—partitions, an'—everything you—want, mother," he says, then adds, “I hadn't no idee you was so set on't as all this comes to.". .
Themes Rebellion .......After enduring her husband's domineering management of the household and farm for forty years, Sarah Penn rebels. When he returns with his horse, she stuns him with the action she took and with her resolve to stand fast, and he readily accedes to her wishes. Self-Assertion .......In achieving her goal, Sarah's main tactic is an attitude of quiet but firm self-assertion. Confidant that she is in the right—and it is clear that she is—she acts decisively and succeeds. Defying Tradition .......In the late nineteenth century, men ruled the home. A woman was expected to cook, keep house, take care of the children, and heed her husband's wishes. When Sarah rebels against her husband, she defies this tradition, attracting the attention of her neighbors. They think she is “insane" or possessed of a “lawless and rebellious spirit." Repression of Women in a Male-Dominated Society .......Society in the late nineteenth century expected women to keep house, cook, bear and rear children–but little more. Despite efforts of women’s-rights activists such as Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony, women still had not received the right to vote in national elections by the century’s end. Moreover, employers generally discriminated against women by hiring them for menial jobs only and paying them less than men for the same work. Sarah sums up the plight of women when she says, “You ain't found out yet we're women-folks, Nanny Penn," said she. “You ain't seen enough of men-folks yet to. One of these days you'll find it out, an' then you'll know that we know only what men-folks think we do, so far as any use of it goes, an' how we'd ought to reckon men-folks in with Providence, an' not complain of what they do any more than we do of the weather." .......The climax of a literary work can be defined as (1) the turning point at which the conflict begins to resolve itself for better or worse, or as (2) the final and most exciting event in a series of events. According to the first definition, the climax of “The Revolt of 'Mother,'" occurs when Sarah decides to move the family into the barn. According to the second definition, it occurs when Adoniram returns from Vermont and discovers that his wife has moved the family into the new barn. .......At the end of the story, Adoniram sits weeping outside the barn. But he cries ambiguous tears. On the one hand, they could represent long-overdue regret for the way he has treated Sarah and for his postponement of her wish to have a new home. On the other hand, they could be a manifestation of injured pride. After all, he had allowed his wife to trump him. In an age when men ruled the home, Sarah had become queen for a day. .......Following are examples of figures of speech in the story. Alliteration
The spring air, full of the smell of growing grass and unseen blossoms, came in their faces.Onomatopoeia Word that imitates a sound The old man slapped the saddle upon the mare's back.Oxymoron Combining contradictory words to reveal a truth or present an apt description He looked at his wife, and his manner was defiantly apologetic.Simile Comparison of unlike things using like, as, or than She looked as immovable to him as one of the rocks in his pasture-land, bound to the earth with generations of blackberry vines.Narrative Technique .......Freeman's narration is objective and straightforward. Unlike many other writers of her era, she wisely avoids undue sentimentality. She displays her restraint in this regard in the following passage: .......“Father, won't you think it over, an' have a house built there instead of a barn?"Here, rather than presenting a crying scene, Freeman merely mentions that Sarah's eyes were red, then continues with the story. . Glossary of Names, Allusions, and Vocabulary .......
Study Questions and Essay Topics 1...Did
the author blunder when she expected readers to believe that Sarah would
wait forty years before taking decisive action?
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