Comparative analysis of
A Boys Life and Womens Right to Vote
The speech Womens Right to Vote by Susan B. Anthony and the memoir This Boys Life by Tobias Wolff are two very different works in both style and context. Anthony wrote the speech in 1872 to appeal to the American public for taking away womens suffrage and treating women unfairly. Wolffs memoir is written to depict his early life as a teenager in 1950s and the people around him. Wolff does not explicitly indicate womens social roles in the books, but he indirectly shows the life that women live in mid 1900s through several female figures experiences. Although the purposes of the two works and the ways of portraying womens roles are different, both works effectively reflect womens statuses in America in two different time periods.
The purposes and the contexts of the two texts are obviously different. Anthonys Womens Right to Vote is a speech after her arrest for voting in presidential election illegally. Anthony clearly mentions the purpose by saying, It shall be my work this evening to prove to you that in thus doing, I not only committed no crime, but instead simply exercised my citizens rights, guaranteed to me and all United States citizens by the National Constitution beyond the power of any State to deny. (P.38 line3) As a fighter for womens rights in 19th century, Anthony is furious about women being treated unfairly or even inferiorly. The tone of the text is very formal, and Anthony explicitly discuses womens inferior status especially the condition without voting right. On the other hand, the memoir, This Boys Life is written with the purpose to tell Wolffs own story as a teenager. As Wolff says in the foreword section, it is a book of memory, and memory has its own story to tell. The focus of the text is on Wolff himself and his life changes, but there is in consistent mentioning about several women figures life especially Wolffs mothers in mid 20th century. With the aid of the mentioning those womens life, it is not hard to interpret womens social status in that period of time. Thus, although the two texts have different purposes, writing styles and contexts, womens social roles can be considered as a common element.
The methods the authors use to portray women in the two texts are distinctive but accurately reveal the roles women play in American society. In Womens Right to Vote, Anthonys approach is direct and explicit. Anthony compares American women to Negro slaves on most of the page 42. Anthony writes, the negro had no right to the custody and control of his personhe belonged to his masterthe married woman has no right to the custody of her personthe wife belongs to the husband She argues that women are in mid 1800s are not in a lot better situation than the Negro slaves were in, in terms of having human rights. Although comparing white women to Negro slaves might be a bit exaggerating, it does effectively show the inferior status women are in and the unfair treatment women receive. Anthony also explicitly argues the wording of the constitution to emphasize that women are supposed to have all the rights written as men do simply because there is no she or her or hers(p.40 line) in any American laws to exclude women from sharing the rights and privileges as men have. In This Boys Life, Wolff uses showing rather than telling to expose womens status during mid 20th. Wolff tells several womens stories and life to show the situation women are in. The most important and representative one has to be Wolffs mother, Rosemary. Rosemary used to be a rich girl through authors description. Wolff describes Rosemary as, My mother had been a girl in Bverly HillsHer father, Daddy as she called him, had been a navy officer and a paper millionairemy mother was one of four girls chosen to ride on the Beverly Hills float in the Tournament of Roses(P.5) But Rosemary loses all the wealth and reputation in the economic crisis. Her spouse abandons her and marries a millionaire. Rosemary has to work and be an independent woman to raise Wolff up. Rosemary encounters Roy, Gal and Dwight, but the result is always nothing. On the way of seeking a stable life and a true love, Rosemary keeps get hurt. Through the all book, Wolff almost never uses any adjective to describe his mother. But he crystal clearly presents Rosemarys life and the status he is in.
Although the plot of This Boys Life occurs almost 8 decades after Anthonys arrest, womens roles and status have not improved dramatically compared to the condition in Womens Right to Vote. It is true that superficial appearances of womens condition have changed during the 8 decades, but the essence of the problem about womens status is not solved. Anthony mainly argues for the suffrage for women through the whole essay. Meanwhile she also reveals the idea of women belonging to the spouses. She is also furious about the fact that womens ownership in marriage, as it says on P.43, the vast majority of married women never earn a dollar by work outside their familiesfrom the day of their marriage to the day of the death of their husbands not one of them ever has a dollar Anthony portrays the women as a whole with no rights, no properties but low status and being neglected in the society. In This Boys Life the suffrage for women probably has improved a lot. Women in mid 20th are freer. They are able to be independent and get jobs to feed themselves. But these superficial appearances dont mean womens status really get improved. In fact the essence of the problem stays the same. As the weak group of the society, women are often forgotten or abandoned like most of the women figures in the book. Firstly, Rosemary is abandoned by her spouse, Wolffs father, and fooled by the Navy guy, Gal. She ends up as a loner in the end. Then there are Terry Taylor and Terry Silvers single mothers. Taylor and Silver are Jacks two best friends in after he moves to Seattle. Taylors father as the book says, was stationed in Korea. The war had been over for two years but he still hadnt come home. (p.39) Silvers parents are divorced like Wolffs parents are. Those single mother figures reflect womens weak situation in the society. Even though when it seems like men really care about women, what men really want is total control of women. The idea of wives belonging to husbands still exists in mens mind deeply. Roy and Dwight all tend to get total control of Rosemary. Roy chases Rosemary all he way from Florida to Utah. As the book depicts, Roy had tracked us down to Salt Lake a few weeks after we arrived.(p.13) Roy wont let Rosemary off his sight. When Roy cant find Rosemary like one afternoon near Christmas, he panicked(p.15) Dwight has desire of controlling Rosemary too. He gets unhappy when Rosemary gets a waitress job, and he collects most of the money Rosemary earns. Dwights idea still stays in Anthonys time period, women should stay at home and they are not allowed to have their money.
Wolff and Anthonys works seem very different in both purposes and styles of writing. This boys life is memoir for Wolffs teenager hood whereas Womens Right to Vote is a speech to express Anthonys furiousness about women being treated unfairly. In both texts, there are description and portraits of women. Although the authors take different approach to depict women, they both effectively reveal the status of women in American society. As the weak group in society, womens status has not improved essentially between Anthonys period and Wolffs teenager period. Women are still weak and their rights are still neglected in This Boys Life. But what is happening to women five decades after Wolffs teenage hood in American now. Names those women figures indicate women are possible to be powerful and womens status is improving
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