Summary Of A Midwife's Tale

As time fades into history all aspects of life change. The United States past is truly two different worlds compared to present day America. In Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s, A Midwife’s Tale the drastic difference between women now compared to women during the erection of the United States is shown through the journals of Martha Ballard. The journals take place between 1785-1812 right in the thick of the creation of the United States. Laurel Thatcher uses the journal excerpts to show what it was like to be a woman back when men ran almost every aspect of life during this time. Women during post-revolutionary America were held at exceptionally different standards and status compared to the women of present day Unites States. Through the primary …show more content…
Ulrich does a great job about presenting a huge social problem displayed in this book and that’s the problem of rape. Due to the fact that rape has been a constant problem in our country even in the 18th and 19th century it had to be included into this book so the readers could connect with social problems that happened in both eras. The entry of this topic adds an aspect to a book that is deeper and makes the book have more depth other than just telling a simple story. Rape is such a sensitive topic to discuss with anyone, but it does need to become a thing that people are constantly being educated on so it will stop. Ulrich inputs this into her writing to educate the readers on why it is such a grotesque act and a tremendous problem in the United States. This topic wouldn’t have needed to be in the book if it was not a problem, but since it has been such an incredible crime committed throughout all the United States Ulrich makes sure it is a big part of the novel. People in present day America that read this book can relate to the problem of rape because it is constantly on the news. Many people think that rape is just a present day problem that we are trying to end so our future will be better. The fact that Americans have been trying to stop this hideous crime since the establishment of the United States truly shows how difficult it is to …show more content…
As you read throughout the book there are many journal excerpts that are presented to the readers by Ulrich. The use of the actual journal excerpts was a great help in relating to the story but were very hard to read and to understand. Ballard’s English is not very good due to women not being able to go to school and also had incredibly bad hand writing. She talks very shortly in her journal and can never really hold a sentence. Ballard, since she was a girl, was not allowed to go to school to learn. For example, Ballard states in one excerpt from the book, “We sett up. He revivd,” (Ulrich 37) which shows that since she was not educated at all almost all here sentences were broken and severely not at a high level. Another part that was hard to understand was the slang that Ballard uses. Many times she would say things and have no idea what she was truly talking about and it was hard to fully grasp the text. The book was also incredibly boring at many times of the story. This was because Ulrich would spend too much time on one thing and it would lose her readers. Many times throughout the book you wouldn’t understand something and that would take you time to understand. When you finally understood the slang or the misuse of grammar or spelling you would start to read again and find yourself distracted on the actually point of the story that Ulrich was trying to explain to the