Dorothy's Diary Analysis

Through the course of this assignment transcribing and interpreting Dorothy’s diary, there was a great amount of information to be gleaned about her life. While some aspects of Dorothy’s life, such as specific details about herself, are lacking, she provides plenty of evidence from which to draw conclusions about her employment, location, age, activities she does for fun, how she travels around, and the people she teaches and with which she works, shops, and goes out. To begin, it is clear that Dorothy is teacher in a school. We know that she is a teacher, as this is a thread that runs throughout her diary. For example, on November first she writes about overseeing another man, Mr. Wilson, setting up a new playground at the school where …show more content…
A number of problems arose throughout the assignment, the first of which was the transcription itself. Dorothy’s writing is often rushed and messy, and she uses some shorthand. She did not intend this diary to be read by others, so probably never put much thought into writing legibly. The structure of the physical diary itself also presents a challenge. On the second, third, fifth, seventh, eleventh, and twelfth, her writing reaches the bottom of the page and is continued in small print on the left margin. As the dates in her diary were pre-written, it’s likely this was the only choice she had for writing more lengthy entries without spilling onto the next page, and therefore date. But it presents a challenge for transcription of her writing, as her writing is even more difficult to read when compressed into the margin. Finally, there is the issue of simply lacking some of the background information necessary to interpret details specific to this time period. For example, I was not aware at the beginning of this assignment that women were able to vote in Illinois in 1916 as they were not yet allowed to vote nationally, and so was confused when she wrote about voting for Hughes. However, each of these challenges was overcome with a second or third set of eyes on her writing, and some investigation about background details that were …show more content…
Specific to Dorothy’s diary, it provides a rare glimpse into the day to day life of a teacher living to the North of Chicago in 1916. Dorothy’s writing is unedited and personal, and there is no incentive for her to distort her experience as she almost certainly did not expect her writing to be read by anyone else. It seems reasonable to think that diaries overall would be similar in this respect, and would be useful as a unique glimpse into the actual, private thoughts and actions of people in the past. They might contain thoughts that people hold privately, but hold nonetheless, and would not be seen were it not for their expectation of privacy. However, use of a diary as a primary source in this way is not without flaws. As mentioned before, it is lacking detail that Dorothy herself knew already, but that we never will. Diaries also obviously only contain the perspective of a single person, whose experience may not be representative and comes with its own biases and prejudices. Some other sources, such as newspapers, might actively try to remain balanced and present facts without bias, which cannot be expected of a person’s personal diary. Overall, however, diaries such as Dorothy’s are without a doubt valuable primary sources, as long as their flaws are kept in