Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

BECOMING AMERICA
REVOLUTIONARY AND EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD LITERATURE
discovery that you were married for a sort of upper servant or housekeeper, just
ll that place and no other, keep your temper, keep all his strings and buttons and
straps on; and then keep him at a distance as a housekeeper should ——“thems my
sentiments! “ I have seen one or two men in my life who could bear to be loved (as
women with a soul knows how), without being spoiled by it, or converted into a
tyrant ——but they are rare birds and should be caught stued and handed over to
Barnum! Now as the ministers say, “I ‘ll close with an interesting little incident that
came under my observation. “
Mr. Fern came home one day when I had such a crucifying headache that I
couldn ‘t have told whether I was married or single, and threw an old coat into my
lap to mend. Well, I tied a wet bandage over my forehead, “left all ying, “ and sat
down to it ——he might as well have asked me to make a new one; however I new
lined the sleeves, mended the buttonholes, sewed on new buttons down the front,
and all over the coat tails ——when it nally it occurred to me (I believe it was a
suggestion of Satan,) that the pocket might need mending; so I turned it inside
out, and what do you think I found? A love-letter from him to my dress-maker!! I
dropped the coat, I dropped the work-basket, I dropped the buttons, I dropped the
baby (it was a female, and I thought it just as well to put her out of future misery)
and then I hopped up into a chair front of the looking-glass, and remarked to the
young woman I saw there, “F-a-n-n-y F-e-r-n! if you ——are ——ever ——such
——a ——confounded fool again “ ——and I wasn ‘t.
4.19.3 Reading and Review Questions
1. What renements does Fanny Fern suggest are acquired through being
brought up in women’s company? Consider her description of the
imagined male critic’s boarding-house room.
2. How does Fanny Fern measure a book’s success, regardless of the
author’s gender? What are the elements of a successful book to which
she draws attention, and why?
3. What does the opening of “Hints to Young Wives” suggest are women’s
domestic responsibilities in this era? What does the opening’s tone suggest
about Fanny Fern’s attitude towards these expected responsibilities?
4. What does Fanny Fern suggest are men’s attitudes towards women,
especially in their described reactions to a woman’s complete devotion?
What does she imply are women’s attitudes towards themselves in this
complete devotion?
5. How does Fanny Fern expose the consequences of women marrying into
their only means of support? How does she suggest women themselves
respond to their economic realities in such marriages? Why, and to what
eect?
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