Blog 17: Times and Places / Emily Hahn
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 the place. She is ambitious, as the first woman to be graduated as a mining engineer from the University of Wisconsin. Her life takes multiple ups and downs as she struggles with drug addiction but I think something she should be remembered for is her striving for freedom and the choice to decide what she wants in life. One of her known quotes reads, "I have deliberately chosen the uncertain path whenever I had the choice." She has no fear in what the unknown holds in life and shows courage to be a feminist and go after what she wants without hesitation.
It surprises me that she says that she has always wanted to be an opium addict, and I wonder if this is because of how popular it was at this time. She is a strong woman, who I believe could've chosen to stray away from opium to begin with so it surprises me that it was apart of her for so long. I love how you connected her opium addiction to her dreams and then to the quote where she states that she chooses the uncertain path whenever she can. This blog has great flow!
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