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Differences Between Female Writers and Male Writers in the 1700's

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Published: 12Apr2010
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The writing of men and women in American literature vary in many different ways. The reason for these differences is pretty easy to explain. The major reason behind the difference in writing styles, writing mediums, and overall subject matter in lies in the different experiences that men and women were facing throughout the 18th and early 19th century.

While men were out on conquest conquering and desecrating a new world, women were moving to a new land, creating a new life, and were expected to maintain that life for themselves, as well as their families. In the case of the differences between female and male writers of early American history, the main differences in writing style/writing medium as well as overall subject matter, comes from individual stereotypical gender expectations.

The first major difference that can be seen when reading male literature of this period, over female literature comes in the writing styles that are chosen. For most men during this time period the proper way to write was often a very flowery and ornate as in seen in the writing style of Thomas Morton, the style of a Cavalier. These types of writers wrote under the authority of the king and typically sounded very proper and were known for using prose. This is seen in Chapter IV from book one of The English Cannon, "They use not to winter and summer in one place, for that would be a reason to make fuell scarse; but, after the manner of the gentry of Civilized Natives remove for their pleassures..." (296, Heath Anthology)

In most female writing, however, the writing was less prose and a lot more poetry, as is seen in the writing style of Anne Bradstreet. Bradstreet wrote in a style completely opposite of Morton called Puritan Plain Style. This particular style was not ornate as Cavalier was. It involved the absence of flowery writing and instead was more straightforward. Bradstreet especially got away from the practice of prose and instead included poetic diction as is seen in her poem, "The Author to her Book." Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain, Who after birth didst by my side remain, Till snatched from thence by friends, less wise than true, Who thee abroad, exposed to public view... In the first four lines of the poem the reader can see the presentation of rhyme, whereas Morton has none, thus bringing home the true differences in writing styles. The reason for this difference has a lot to do with a woman's overall independence when writing. Where a man was forced to maintain a certain level of respectability, according to the social writing of the time, a woman was given less structure concerns and more ability to step out and into different stylistic capabilities without fear of retribution, mainly because her writing, unlike a man's writing, would never have been considered for publication to begin with.

The biggest difference between male and female writers of this time period lies in the subject matter for which they wrote. Male writers, as was mentioned before, came to America with a different mission than that of female writers. The male writers typically were interested in the exploration and commercial aspects of this new found territory as is seen in every male writer covered thus far in this course. For instance, all of the male Spanish writers from Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca to Adriaen van der Donck either wrote about descriptions of the new land, the Natives peoples who populated it, or the potential that the land itself processed.

This can easily be seen in Vaca's book Relation of Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, "The country where we came on shore to this town and region of Appalachian, is for the most part level, the ground of sand and stiff earth (142, Heath Anthology)." Obviously this is a description of the land that they have arrived on. As the book carries on we also see the description of the Native people's shows, "From the island of Malhado to this land, all the Indians whom we saw have the custom from the time in which their wives find themselves pregnant, of not sleeping with them until two years after they have given birth (147, Heath Anthology)." Women on the other hand showed a different interest upon entering this new world.

Instead of writing about the explorative nature of traveling to the New World, they focused on the actual aspect of survival. Mary Rowlandson's works are a prime example of this as is seen in her famous narrative, Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs Mary Rowlandson. In this narrative Rowlandson talks about her experiences being a captive to a Native American tribe. As I was sitting once in the wigwam here, Philip's maid came in with the child in her arms, and asked me to give her a piece of my apron, to make a flap for it. I told her I would not. Then my mistress bade me give it, but still I said no. The maid told me if I would not give her a piece, she would tear a piece off it. I told her I would tear her coat then. With that my mistress rises up, and take up a stick big enough to have killed me, and struck at me with it. But I stepped out, and she struck the stick into the mat of the wigwam. But while she was pulling of it out I ran to the maid and gave her all my apron, and so that storm went over (446, Heath Anthology).

This type of writing shows how personal female writers were over male writers. Whereas men focused on only the aspect of exploration, women focused on the concept of living in this new and sometimes hospitable world. Rowlandson shows the dangerous aspect of a woman's life in the America's but this was not the only view that women had. This is seen in Sarah Kemble Knights writings, which focus on the more homeward bound aspect of the female colonist life. It appears that the main differences between male and female writers all come from the same general reason. That reasoning, although stereotypical, was predominant in its time. Men and women had different places, where the man was in charge of colonization, the woman was in charge of the home environment and that environments survival. Because of this, the writings of men and women of the time differed.

Where men wrote of their colonization and, perhaps, destructive process, women wrote about the plight they were handed. They wrote of their pain, they wrote of their time spent in captivity, and in the home, they basically wrote about what they knew, just as men wrote about what they knew. In the case of the difference between male and female writers of the early colonization period of America, it is obvious to see that men and women wrote differently because of the hand they were dealt in the card game of life.

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