Before the civil war

Before the civil war, a woman had a specific place in society, one that was extremely inferior to that of men. People had developed notions of what it meant to be a woman. The Civil War changed those notions. The War was the beginning of womans strive for suffrage in America. As the war came to an end, women became more involved in the world, and were allowed to achieve and accomplish a lot of things that only men had done in the past. The attributes of True Womanhood, by which a woman judged herself and was judged by her husband, her neighbors, and society could be divided into four cardinal virtues- piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity. (Welter 152). In her work, American Quarterly: The cult of True Womanhood, Barbara Welter explains her view on the role of a woman before the Civil War. In order for a girl to reach true womanhood she would have to reach for perfection in the four above categories. After the war, two of these attributes began to decline greatly in women, as they began to find new roles in society. Women started becoming more independent, and the submissiveness and domesticity gradually started to fade. They still had these qualities, but they were definitely not as strong as they had been before the war. Submission was perhaps the most feminine virtue expected of women. Men were supposed to be religious, although they rarely had time for it, and supposed to be pure, although it came awfully hard to them, but men were the movers, the doers, the actors. Women were the passive, submissive responders. (158-9). Women were very submissive before the war, but after it, they felt that they had earned a new role. They learned to perform the duties formerly only performed by men, and now felt that they did not have to give in so easily to the commands of them. A wife should occupy herself only with domestic affairs-wait till your husba...

3 Tricks to Figure out the Authors Tone

3 Tricks to Figure out the Author's Tone Authors tone is simply an authors expressed attitude toward a particular written subject. It may not be his or her actual attitude as authors can certainly express an attitude other than their own. Its very different from the  authors purpose! The tone of the article, essay, story, poem, novel, screenplay, or any other written work can be described in many ways. The authors tone can be witty, dreary, warm, playful, outraged, neutral, polished, wistful, reserved, and on and on. Basically, if theres an attitude out there, an author can write with it. To better understand tone, you should practice. So, now that you know what it is, how can you determine the authors tone when you get to a reading comprehension test? Here are a few tricks to help you nail it every time. Read the Introductory Info On most major reading comprehension tests, the test makers will give you a little snippet of information along with the authors name prior to the text itself. Take these two examples from the ACT Reading test: Passage 1: This passage is adapted from the chapter â€Å"Personality Disorders† in  Introduction to Psychology, edited by Rita L. Atkinson and Richard C. Atkinson ( ©1981 by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.). Passage 2: This passage is adapted from the novel The Men of Brewster Place  by Gloria Naylor ( ©1998 by Gloria Naylor). Without reading any portion of the text itself, you can already determine that the first text will have a more serious tone. The author writes in a scientific journal, so the tone will have to be more reserved. The second text could be anything at all, so when youre reading, youll need to use another trick to determine the authors tone. Watch Word Choice Word choice plays a major part in the tone of a piece. If you look at the examples given in the What is Authors Tone article, youll see how very different an identical situation can be by just the words an author chooses to use. Look at the following words and see how they reflect a different feeling, even though the words are similar in meaning. Sit in the sunshine and smile. Bask in the brilliant rays. Discover your giggle.Sit in the hot sun and smirk. Recline in the glaring rays. Hunt for that snicker.  Sit in the warm sun and grin. Relax in the warm rays. Look for a chuckle. Even though all three sentences are written almost identically, the tones are very different. One is more relaxing- you can picture a lazy afternoon by the pool. The other is more joyful- maybe playing in the park on a sunny day. The other is definitely more sarcastic and negative, even though its written about sitting in the sun. Go With Your Gut Often, a tone is tough to describe, but you know what it is. You get a particular feeling from the text- an urgency or a certain amount of sadness. You feel angry after reading it and can sense the author is angry, too. Or you find yourself chuckling throughout the text even though nothing comes right out and screams funny! So, on these kinds of texts, and the corresponding authors tone questions, trust your gut. And on the authors tone questions, hide the answers and make yourself come up with a guess before looking. Take this question for example: The author of the article would most likely describe ballet as... Before you get to the answer choices, try to finish the sentence. Put an adjective in there based on what youve read. Amusing? Essential? Cut-throat? Joyous? Then, when youve answered the question with a gut reaction, read the answer choices to see if your choice, or something similar, is there. More often than not, your brain knows the answer even if you doubt it!