Usable IOC Links

Please review this one
Part 1
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7HzPakM3xK2NGFkcERoMDFuQWs/view?usp=sharing
Part 2
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7HzPakM3xK2bW5jWU44Rm55Y28/view?usp=sharing


Boys and Girls
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7HzPakM3xK2aE9oek40V3J1MFE/view?usp=sharing

Lady Lazarus
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7HzPakM3xK2SVNKV2ZGcDk0aVE/view?usp=sharing

Edge
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7HzPakM3xK2VU5NVW96RW5hZlk/view?usp=sharing

Edge

Link to the IOC
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7HzPakM3xK2VU5NVW96RW5hZlk

IOC#2 Alice Munro

Part one link
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7HzPakM3xK2NGFkcERoMDFuQWs
Part Two link
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7HzPakM3xK2bW5jWU44Rm55Y28

Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath

Link to the IOC below
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7HzPakM3xK2SVNKV2ZGcDk0aVE

IOC #1 Link

 https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7HzPakM3xK2aE9oek40V3J1MFE

Things Fell Apart in the Sargasso Sea

Note: This was supposed to be done over the summer holiday.

Things Fell apart in the Sargasso Sea

One of the summer readings was the Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys. Now, you are probably wondering about the odd title. Well it is a reference to the purpose of the texts. In the classic, Jane Eyre, by the famous Bronte, the wife of the “honorable” Mr. Rochester is portrayed as a raving monster who is determined to kill. It was believed, by the noble Jean Rhys, that the culture presented by the lunatic was one of barbarians, not the one she had desired to join as a child. She, much like the would-be offspring of Mr. Rochester and Mrs. Mason, was part Creole part English. She learned the customs of a land she had never visited, while being taught of the world around, she learned a language not used by the general population. She experienced an ambiguity of being both a participant and an observer.

Thus, when she saw the demonization of the Creole women, she decided to defend the culture she had experienced and revealed at. She experienced many such dualities as a child. Of being white, but not from Europe or England. Of being a native of the West Indies, but not black, as the majority of the population was. Of being a women in a time of turbulence for women with a voice. She was able to channel the frustrations of the inconsistences of her life, as well as the indefinite pleasures, into her writing. Particularly the personal narrative, the representation of her inner most conflict, in Wide Sargasso Sea.

In essence, the book follows the life of Antoinette Mason, the third generation after the freeing of the slaves, from a family of slaves owners. As such her life is very insecure, and eventually the natives burn down her home, killing her “special” brother in the process. After this her mother goes insane, and the young women is left to eh care of her stepfather, who finds her a suitable marriage with the wealthy Rochester Family. Through her own desire for affection, after the hardships of her life, she ends up destroying her marriage and is forcibly moved to England where she is imprisoned until the events of Jane Eyre.

But, in the end, Jean Rhys is attempting to fight the demonization of her culture, much as Chinua Achebe does in Things Fall Apart.

Munro's Place in History

It is a worthy premise to mention the role of the study of literature. Literature contains all of the wisdom of the past, all of the original stories, all the smiles and tears of millennium. So asking what the purpose and benefits are is a borderline useless question. As well as being able to enjoy the things that kept thousands entertained without electricity, add the facts that it allows you to see literally into the past and through the eyes of other, and contain the wisdom of generations, to see your answer.
Women's literature is a small category amongst millions, a pebble on a rocky beach. It is literature about women, for women, and mostly by women, though that has some exceptions. And no, I cannot define it better than that because, to be honest, I have little exposure to it. But what I have seen is something akin to a passionate debate against many for things one should have by default. Almost like fighting your brother so you can sleep on YOUR bed. We should have achieved equality in experience and every other ring long ago, so the fact that this genre needs to exist to this day is shameful. But there is value in studying it. It is an important chronicle of the adversities faced by half the population for centuries, it is one of the many ways people become aware of the problems around them every day, and it informs of a shadow within our society that one might not otherwise see. So it is very valuable a course of study, though it may be better if it's content was ancient history.
Alice Munro, a critically acclaimed writer since before I was born, has penciled more masterpieces than can be counted and has won the highest honor achievable for short stories something like three times now. But what is it that made her work such a hit? What made her a voice to feminism despite claiming not to be? It was the very fact that she did not identify as a feminist, and that she, like so few other women, had managed to make her voice heard, that gave her the brand she has made on history. She wrote only of her experiences, and crafted beautifully evolving characters for each story she wrote. It was only circumstance that made her experiences into the things feminists sought. That chance fact is perhaps the only reason that the feminist movement made it so far at the time. Her work made leaps in bounds in the direction of equality, and I have thoroughly enjoyed her short stories, or at least the ones I have read. She, through the characters on the farm in Boys and Girls, informed me of a struggle I could not have even imagined.