1. The Bechdel/Wallace test for a film or other work contains the following criteria:
1. It has to have at least two women in it,
2. Who talk to each other,
3. About something besides a man.
Samantha seems to be trying to achieve something like this the following passage from Sweet Cicely:
And then, thinks’es I as I sot down, we will have a good, quiet visit, and talk some about other wimmen. (No runnin’ ’em: I’d scorn, it, and so would she.)
But I thought I’d love to talk it over with her, about what good housekeepers Tirzah Ann and Maggie wuz. And I wanted to hear what she thought about the babe, and if she could say in cander that she ever see a little girl equal her in graces of mind and body.
And I wanted to hear all about her aunt Mary and her aunt Melissa (on her father’s side). I knew she had had letter from ’em. And I wanted to hear how she that was Jane Smith wuz, that lived neighbor to her aunt Mary’s oldest daughter, and how that oldest daughter wuz, who wus s’posed to be a runnin’ down. And I wanted to hear about Susan Ann Grimshaw, who had married her aunt Melissy’s youngest son. There wus lots of news that I felt fairly sufferin’ for, and lots of news that I felt like disseminatin’ to her.
But, if you’ll believe it, just as I had begun to inquire, and take comfort, she branched right off, a lady-like branch, and a courteous one, but still a branch, and begun to talk about “what should she do – what could she do – for the boy.”
a)Why does Samantha give such a long list of things she wants to talk about?
b)How does Cicely’s insistence on talking about the boy change the way we understand her political motives?
2. What is Josiah’s Plan? Why does he think it is foolproof? Why does it fail?
3. How does God take care of Sweet Cicely’s boy? What was your reaction to that solution?
2 comments:
I was looking at these questions that are due Thursday, and I feel like questions #2 and #3 can only be answered if we read the entire book. However, the reading due for Thursday is only up to Chapter 7. Am I missing something here? Am I reading too far into the book? For example, #2 asks what Josiah's plan is. He doesn't reveal his plan until Samantha returns from D.C. which is in a later chapter. I just need a little clarification.
Melissa, you're right. The questions are now due on Tuesday, not Thursday.
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