Author Experience

       In my Scribbling Woman's course we read a short story called "Two Offers" by Frances Harper. I literally fell in love with the work. In short its about a who woman who has two offers of a marriage and in debating between the two she wonders if she could really love any one of them. The man she chooses turn out to be a complete asshole. It seems as if he married her simply for the title and having her as a Trophy without giving her any love or affection, anything to hold dear. The story is told from the perspective of her cousin, who was a nun. At the end of the story you realize the woman had ruined herself in hoping all the days of her life her husband would care about her. At her death bed she still awaits for her husband to come and prove he loved her. After she dies, her cousin explains that she never was pained the same way because she chose to develop herself and her faculties instead of spending her entire life waiting for the love of a man, instead of being everything she could fully be. The only thing I don't like about the story is the "become a nun and have no man troubles" part. Everything else I completely agreed with and as the way she sets up and makes her argument was beautiful. 

  Anyways, after reading the story it was all I thought about for a few days. I liked it so much I was considering doing my research project on it for Scribbling women. In researching information on the story I came across an article on the author. The article spoke about Frances Harper as an African American writer. I was stunned. Although I had not really thought about the race or ethnicity of the author, all of a sudden it mattered so much in me knowing. I felt my whole perspective on the story had changed, because the whole time I pictured a white woman. This just wasn't a story on the 19th century women who depended on a man. This was for all the African American woman who not only were under the oppression of their men, but under the oppression of their race and ethnicity as well. This was a powerful message to woman of minorities, encouraging them to develop themselves completely. Of course, this was powerful no matter the woman, as it can be influential in any feminist opinion, however, I thought it was fascinating that she was indeed African American because it was not highlighted, emphasized or anything. Even thought I pictured a white woman, and finding out she was African American helped me understand her message more, I also kind of liked the fact that it wasn't being emphasized. I like the move towards we are all just people. Writing about causes. And we all have a cause.

  This made me reflect on my previous post of authorship effecting the ability of understanding. I still think that applies here. There was no way of knowing the race or ethnicity of the author by reading the literature, and of course no such thing as it being harder to understand for it.However, I do believe that author experience, like I said in my previous blog, does indeed affect how we will interpret the message of the works, without pulling away from the outright feminist point in the first place.