Anonymous’ work is really captivating. She really explained and expressed how she felt about her husband’s change now that she was becoming a more successful writer. She also talks, more specifically about being a wife, a mother, and a successful writer all together. What she went through was really tough and tormenting but through it all, she was able to stand up for herself and be her own hero. She was able to protect not only herself but her daughter as well from her husband. The author’s writing really talks about the way gender still influences people’s lives and how many people are still suffering from events such as these. The role women are supposed to play and how it makes men, more specifically, feel less superior to women. The author’s writing style and more specifically the words hidden between the lines really opened up more about the lingering effects her husband’s words left behind. The repetition of phrases directed to her coming from her husband showed that it is still a huge part of her life and how she is still struggling with it. Some questions that I still have is that if the author is still struggling with this experience, whether it be from trauma or just in general how she is dealing with the affects of what happened? and how is her daughter dealing with what happened?
About
Professor: Jessica Penner
Email: creative.writing.citytech2@gmail.com
Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM. I’ll be available through Zoom and will send an invitation via email that you should keep all semester. Try to join my meeting at the start of the hour, not at the end—since I may be talking to other students or have another appointment after the hour is up. If those times don’t work with your schedule, we can schedule a different time. This means you’ll have to schedule an appointment in advance. I suggest you have multiple times in mind, since your schedule may not mesh with mine!
Hey Michelle, great analysis, I really agree with your main points and your overall critique. Specifically the unacknowledged but definitely potent influence of gender on one’s life. We see that just because her husband was jealous and felt he belonged above her in their non-existent household hierarchy he felt he had to assault her to prove his dominance. Unfortunately, this isn’t an isolated incident, people like him are not only menaces to society but also poisoned by it. They feed into what they think they should be and they use it to verify their negative emotions like greed, envy, and anger.
All in all great critique I too felt the impact of the repetition and highlighted it in my critique. At first, I didn’t see it signifying her evergoing struggle but, after reading your critique I too believe Anonymous still faces trauma, working on overcoming it to this day.