Reading Log 4

In Virginia Woolf’s essay In Search of a Room of One’s Own. I think her purpose was to inform people of the impact women have had on society and the arts, and also to persuade them that women are just as competent and intelligent as men. Her audience was female college students at Cambridge, but as this was written down, probably expanded to people all over England and Europe . While Woolf was speaking to these young women she was probably also trying to encourage them to keep doing what they love and not to let anyone tell them they cannot because they are women.

To achieve her purpose and support her idea, Woolf uses mostly logos and ethos. Woolf uses a lot of facts and reasoning. She names off famous women in Shakespeare’s literature works such as Cleopatra, Antigone, Lady Macbeth, and Desdemona and states that these women are full of personality and character (383). She also points out that without these characters the stories would be dull and nonexistent because the stories revolve around them. Woolf adds that women are the prime subject of many of the male writers’ sonnets and songs, and that it is the women that bring about the inspiration for these to be written. Woolf continues by stating that women were not incapable of writing as well as men, rather they were just not given the opportunity. Most of the time they were married at a young age and not allowed to read or write, and those who were able to read and write well were often treated like witches or driven mad by society to the point of suicide (388). Since women were not allowed to publish without being punished, they were often forced to publish anonymously or under the name of a male. Therefore, if there was a female writer who was highly skilled no one would be able to acknowledge that it came from a woman. This was another setback that caused women to be viewed as inferior.

Woolf establishes credibility by using men as examples. Her prime example is Shakespeare. She refers to him throughout the entire text. This is a wise decision because he is considered the best playwright of all time and if she can convince an audience that Shakespeare knew the capabilities of women and inform them of the importance of women in his text, one cannot argue against her because no one would argue that Shakespeare was wrong.

In How it Feels to be Colored Me by Zora Hurston the author addresses an audience much different than Woolf. Her audience includes blacks and whites in the U.S. who are in favor of civil rights for blacks. Since Hurston’s audience already supports her, she does not need to try as hard to establish ethos. She is also writing for a journal which gives her some credibility to start with. I think Hurston is trying to reinforce the mindset that blacks and whites are no different from each other aside from pigmentation.

To help support her ideas, Hurston uses personal experience and pathos. She does this by, first, explaining the differences between her and whites, then, by showing she is no different. She explains that as a young child she never felt any different from anyone else and that she did not even realize she was “black” until she moved out of an area that was all black (139). Next she goes on to say that since she moved out of that community she is constantly being reminded that she is the “granddaughter of slaves (139.)” After this she states that since she is black and considered to be inferior to the whites she gets “twice as much praise or twice as much blame (141.)” This quote really gives the reader something to think about because it is paradoxical.
After this Hurston goes on to explain how she really has no race and she is just who she is. I found the metaphor of the brown bag really intriguing. On the outside it is just a brown bag and one would never know what is on the inside of the bag unless they take the time to open it. Much like a person, if you just look at them and judge them by their color, one would never really know what they are like on the inside. Also a black person could have many of the same qualities as a person of another race, but this will not be known by just looking at them.

The key to understanding Hurston’s argument requires a little bit more thought that Woolf’s argument. However, it also is more effective because it makes the audience really think about what is being said and they have to make sense of it on their own. I also think that Hurston’s essay is more of a personal essay while Woolf’s is not. I say that because Hurston’s essay related more directly to her and her life’s experience while Woolf’s was broad and generalized to all women’s experiences.

I would also say that Woolf’s essay still seems to be a little bit political. She is still trying really hard to get people to see the equality of women whereas Hurston’s ideas in her essay are already being supported by her audience. She is not really fighting to get people to see her point of view, she is merely reinforcing it.

One thing that is off topic from the prompt that I was curious about was the use of proper capitalization in Woolf’s essay. I thinking she could be doing this for one of two reasons, either to be rebellious or to be ironic. The rebellious side is obvious; she is breaking the writing rules to show that rules do not need to be followed. On the other hand, she could have been doing this purposely because women know the rules of writing and by using them improperly shows she is comfortable enough with them to not abide by them.