class post

1.Hattie Wilson loses her father in 1829. She is abandoned by her mother only a year later and began to serve the Hayward home as a servant within that year. In 1843 or 1846 Hattie leaves the Haywards to go work as a servant for other families. Wilson then falls ill and must be moved back to the Haywards, and then back again to other families when she recovers. In 1850, she again moves but this time to Ware, Massachusetts through the administration of "itinerant colored lecturer." She marries in 1851 in Milford, New Hampshire. She moves again, this time to Hillsborough, New Hampshire. A few years later in 1853, her husband dies on a board sloop.

The abandonment and moving continues...

It seems that within every five years of her life there is a new hardship to deal with. Within the same two to three years her father dies and her mother abandons her. She falls ill and must move back and forth between homes. Within the same 3 years of her having her first child, her husband dies. This pattern continues on throughout the timeline and gives us a pretty vivid understanding of the difficulties Hattie Wilson has endured.

2. This narration is described as a "sophisticated hybrid of autobiography and prose." I was unsure of what the term "prose" meant so I looked it up on OED. Prose is defined as "Language in the form in which it is typically written (or spoken), usually characterized as having no deliberate metrical structure (in contrast with verse or poetry)" and "That which is plain, simple, or matter-of-fact..." I feel that these definitions are important to understand when reading this narration because it might warn us of the vernacular language used throughout the novel.

On page 14, the term impetuous is used which can be defined as "Of physical things or actions: Having much impetus; moving with great force or violence, or characterized by violent motion; very rapid, forcibly rushing, violent." This term has significance to the narration as it describes the ambiguity and hastiness of Mag's character.