HW 21: Dear Pokey

Dear Pokey (aka my little sis),

Chapter One of Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, may seem hard to understand. It’s different than most styles of writing. Basically, Virginia Woolf is writing an essay from a different persona. Woolf believes that “a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction." This also can be expressed as her thesis. What makes chapter one so confusing is that the narrator explains why a woman must have money an a room of her own if she is to write fiction. The narrator comes to this assumption over two consecutive days in October. The narrator also states some facts through the reading such as women were not allowed on the grass and were only allowed on the gravel. Women also were not able to enter college libraries unless they were with a man or had prior permission. The narrator visits two colleges in the first chapter, an all male college and an all women college. She made comparisons about the two by referring to the meal consumed. At the male college, the meal was spectacular with lots of wine and delicious meat. At the female college, the meal was mediocre with plain gravy soup.
I think Woolf means to explain why women should have a creative room to write fiction. She wants to share a story through her eyes. The random occurrences throughout the day show the restrictions woman had and how it was so hard to “write fiction” because woman were not seen to be creative.
Now how could this be important? Well you are learning about the rights that woman had many years ago. Woolf wrote this book in 1929 in her diary during the war. You are able to learn a great deal of history through this book. The message that Woolf wanted to get across was “I wanted to encourage the young women-they seem to get fearfully depressed.”
When I first read through this work I was confused myself. I had to go back and read it a second time to understand it better, but over all I thought the work was interesting. It is not the style of writing we are used to today. I think you will learn a lot from this work. I hoped I answered your question!

Your big sis,
Stephanie