We discussed today the common "overplot" of domestic fiction: a young girl must overcome societal obstacles, conquer some personal struggle, and make her own way in the world. We saw the beginnings of this in The Wide, Wide World as Ellen struggled to master the domestic sphere and trust in God. And we see a revised version of this overplot in Cummins's The Lamplighter as Gerty struggles to be good (instead of a witch), find balance (rather than anger), and be useful (other than staying out of the way). Some scholars of Girl's Studies argue that this story, or overplot, hasn't changed much in the last 150 years and that young girls are still struggling with the same issues in different ways.
In this week's blog posting, I'd like to try something a little different. Please watch the video below, which narrates a contemporary 8 year old girl's struggle to find balance, and see what connections you can make. How have our depictions of girls changed? Stayed the same? Would have things been different if Gerty could have appeared on Amy Pholer's TV show? What would Gerty have said?
I know that this week's prompt is a little unconventional (in a good way, I hope), so I'd like to remind you to always use the text in your postings. When you make an argument about how things may be the same/different today, you should use Cummins's text as support for your opinions. And also, please try to reach beyond the "things are so different now" response to make meaning of the connections between these two texts. Societal expectations are, obviously, different today, so what meaning can we make of this contemporary "girl" when paired with our historical Gerty?
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