Difference between revisions of "Week 7 Questions/Comments-327 11"
From McClurken Wiki
| Line 36: | Line 36: | ||
I was struck by Martha Ballards candid frankness in her diary. She relates facts without fluff. I also thought it was interesting that she notes the weather before every entry, it is a reminder that she was living, working and writing day to day. Although it is helpful to see Martha's role as a midwife, I think the value of her diary lies in the great insight it gives us into her social life and the social lives of those around her. Her account demonstrates the relationship that she had with other women and her relationship with her family. It shows what was important in her life as a woman, not just a midwife. This diary can be representative of many woman's lives, women whose diaries are not transcribed. -- Hannah W. | I was struck by Martha Ballards candid frankness in her diary. She relates facts without fluff. I also thought it was interesting that she notes the weather before every entry, it is a reminder that she was living, working and writing day to day. Although it is helpful to see Martha's role as a midwife, I think the value of her diary lies in the great insight it gives us into her social life and the social lives of those around her. Her account demonstrates the relationship that she had with other women and her relationship with her family. It shows what was important in her life as a woman, not just a midwife. This diary can be representative of many woman's lives, women whose diaries are not transcribed. -- Hannah W. | ||
| + | |||
| + | I found Martha Ballard to be a truly impressive figure. She was a very accomplished wife, mother, and community servant. I didn't really didn't get the impression that Ballard's life was miserable or that she somehow hated it. It seemed to me that she was simply a very busy woman who did an incredible amount of work for her family and her community. The sickness and deaths she was forced to deal with were, as we have discussed in class, part of the culture of the time. Possibly they had a more profound impact on her life because she was so closely involved with a great number of them, but from her diary (particularly the excerpt from our text) it does not appear that she was overly troubled or pained by them. She does not put a great deal of emotion into her diary, it is more a recitation of goings on in her life, making it an interesting insight to the her life and the lives of other women of the time. --Grace C. | ||
