Jordan Miles

 Jordan Miles Blog 18: Diary / Anne Frank  Anne Frank's Diary is one of the most known women and stories we have studied and read in this book of women's lives.  Anne Frank is famous for her diary where she documented her time in hiding to avoid Nazi persecution. She demonstrates the strength and bravery it took to survive the years she spent in hiding through this diary. She faced terror and many frightening experiences during her time in hiding. She describes the brutal living conditions of the families in hiding. Everyone involved is constantly terrified for their lives and the lives of their families. Despite all the hardships being faced on a daily basis, I noticed Anne seems to find the positive to write about too when she finds it. She says, "The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely, or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature, and God. Because only then one feel that all is as it should be and that God wish...

 Jordan Miles  Blog 17: Times and Places / Emily Hahn Emily Hahn's "Times and Places" explains her eventful story. It consists of a lot of traveling, having love affairs, being addicted to drugs, and a variety of adventures.  Right at the start of Times and Places, a quote stood out to me that demonstrates Hahn's personality which was very reckless and full of crazy dreams. I think this quote resembles the rest of the story and the tone she uses. She says, "Though I have always wanted to be an opium addict, I can't claim that as the reason I went to China. The opium ambition date back to that obscure period of childhood when I wanted to be a lot of other things too- the greatest expert on ghosts, the world's best ice skater, the champion lion tamer, you know the kind of thing. But by the time I went to China, I was grown up, and all those dreams were forgotten." (344). This quote displays how Emily Hahn is a very curious woman with interests all over...

 Jordan Miles  Blog 16: Blackberry Winter / Margaret Mead Margaret Mead writes a personal coming-of-age story in Blackberry Winter. She was a student at Barnard, focusing on Anthropology. She writes a lot about how Americans can learn many lessons from Polynesians regarding handling the many problems that adolescence consists of.   She discusses societal issues about topics like women's rights, race, and different cultures. I think that the quote she ends with helps conclude her main passions and focus of the work that she does. She explains, "On all my later field trips when I was working on cultures about which nothing was known, I had the more satisfactory task of learning the culture first and only afterward working on the special problem. In Samoa that was not necessary, and this is one reason why I was able to carry out my work on the life of the adolescent girl in nine months." (568).  She demonstrates the love and care she has for different cultures and ...

Jordan Miles  Blog 15: Journey into the whirlwind / Eugenia Semyonova Ginzburg Eugenia Semyonova Ginzburg's memoir, Journey into the whirlwind, discusses her life story where she  was a teacher journalist, and a member of the Communist Party of the USSR.  Eugenia experienced Plenty of mistreatment due to false accusations throughout her life. She was arrested for being accused of terrorist counter-revolutionary activity.  She endured much pain as a mother of two children, knowing she did nothing wrong and was innocent. She spent 18 years in prison before she could be with her family again.  Throughout her life, she has demonstrated a considerable level of resilience and determination. She knows through it all that she deserves justice because she did not commit any wrongdoings. One quote she wrote on page 313 was, “I knew I should not sleep until I had repeated some poem over to myself 10 or 100 times I chose Michelangelo's line,  “Sweet It Is to sleep swee...

 Jordan Miles  Blog 14: The war / Marguerite Duras In Marguerite Duras's memoir, The War, she writes about Diaries that she kept from the information that she gathered from people who returned from the brutal concentration camps of Nazi Germany. A lot of them had to do with her husband Robert who was sent away due to political activity. One quote that she says at the end stood out to me. she wrote, “My identity has gone. I'm just she who is afraid when she wakes. She who Wills in his stead for him I exist that will that desire and even when Robert L is at death's door it's expressly strong because he is still alive… but now there is hope and pain are implanted in Hope sometimes I'm amused I don't die, a cold blade plunged deep into the living flesh, night and day and you survive.” (244). This quote she writes at the end of the memoir demonstrates all of the pain that she has endured throughout her lifetime. she lives in a constant state of fear for her life whet...

 Jordan Miles  Blog 13: When heaven and earth came together / Le Ly Hayslip. In Le Ly Hayslip's memoir, When heaven and earth came together, she shares her story about living her childhood during the Vietnam war. She escaped to the United States and later returned back to Vietnam.   She faced so much adversity throughout her life. Some include being in constant tension and almost being sentenced to death. She has been arrested and tortured for being caught for her work.  One quote she has that stands out to me is, “For you see, the face of destiny or luck or god that gives us war also gives us other kinds of pain: the loss of health and youth; the loss of loved ones or of love; the fear that we will end our days alone. Some people suffer in peace the way others suffer in war. The special gift of that suffering, I have learned, is how to be strong while we are weak, how to be brave when we are afraid, how to be wise in the midst of confusion, and how to let go of...

 Jordan Miles Blog 12: Gifts of Passage / Santha Rama Rau Santha Rama Rau's story, "Gifts of Passage" shares her life and travels through being a writer and being known for her thoughts on the conflict between Indian and western culture. She attends an Anglo- Indian school. She and her sisters were one of the very few children that were Indian here. Here she experienced discrimination for her race at a young age. This is seen when the teacher is condescending, asking her to share her name with the class.  She said I don't know, "the English children in the front of the class- there were about eight or ten of them- giggled and twisted around their chairs to look at me. I sat down quickly and opened my eyes very wide, hoping in that way to dry them off." (673). I felt very sorry for her in this school, experiencing feeling embarrassed for feeling different at such a young age and receiving different treatment simply due to how she looked. They must have felt a...

 Jordan Miles  Blog 11: The price of my soul / Bernadette Devlin Bernadette Devlin shares her remarkable story in her autobiography, "The price of my soul." She was a brave woman who was not afraid to stand up for her beliefs. She was Irish and a part of the Republican Party and fought hard for their freedom and civil rights. As a woman, having a voice and giving encouraging speeches at this time are impressive and powerful. Throughout her life, she endured many events, including Protestant extremists breaking into her home and attempting assassination aimed at her and her husband. Before this occurred, Bernadette Devlin attended many schools and received a good education. She was able to learn and gather an opinion and role in politics and one quote, in particular, I liked from hers was, "To gain what is worth having, it may be necessary to lose everything else." I think this quote really resembles her as a woman who had a strong voice and opinion, and she wasn...