Journal numba 3

                I am now through part one of Daughter of Fortune and am fully immersed in the plot line thus far. Eliza now has a sturdy dowry that her guardians are happy with, so they begin searching for a husband for her. Miss Rose looks for a man who comes from a good family name, wealth, and class. Miss Rose finds the perfect match, Mr. Steward. He is a sailor who is of athletic build and great service. The girls begin the courting process but the plan backfires when Michael Steward misinterprets Miss Rose’s nice favors as love for him. Miss Rose realizes that he never had feelings for Eliza, only for her.

                Also in my recent reading, I learned of Miss Rose’s youth before she journeyed to Chile with Jeremy. She was a young aspiring opera singer who fell in love with and older accomplished performer, Karl Bretzner. While his show is in town they fall in love and share intimacy. When it is time for him to depart the two of them take a farewell trip to Vienna where secrets about Karl are revealed. When Jeremy comes to rescue Rose and bring her home to Vienna, he slips the secret of Karl’s wife and two kids to Rose. Filled with feelings of betrayal and anger Rose stays with her aunt in Scotland for a period of time in order to get over her love, and let the rumors back home settle down. When she returns home to England she is a girl of independence and no emotions on the topic of love.

                The topic of gender superiority surfaced yet again in my reading. This theme is illustrated through Karl’s love affair with Miss Rose. He is in a relationship and confessing his love to her, mean while he has a family waiting for him back at home. This shows his feelings of invincibility being a man more powerful than his wife. He knows that if his wife has a desire to thrive and prosper she would never leave him or her children. For Miss Rose, her walking away from him in Vienna is the ultimate display of independent womanhood. She is declaring herself as a strong woman who can walk away from a man and still live her life. This is refreshing to see because all through the reading the female characters speak of men as their only means to survival in the real world.  

Journal Numba 2

Since I last journaled, Jacob Todd has arrived in Chile bet that he can’t sell 300 bibles to the people there. He makes a special connection with the Sommer’s family, especially Rose Sommer’s. Jacob has a crush on Rose and would love to confess that to her but is intimidated by her single life and lack of interest in marriage. He gets over his crush on Rose and falls for a girl of privilege, Paulina. He never confesses his love to her either so he sits in the shadow again as she marries a Chilean man. Eliza, now grown into a young woman, has Jeremy and Rose worried with regards to a dowry for marriage. The community knows that she is an adopted, under privileged child who will not be courted by someone of wealth and status. Jeremy and Rose take it upon themselves to bulk up her dowry in order to make her more appealing to outsiders. She is a work in progress at this point.  Jacob Todd is discovered as being a false titled missionary in turn ruining his reputation and his savings. He was then picked up off the streets and offered a place to stay by Jeremy Sommer’s. As I continued reading the continuing theme of gender roles in society prevailed. This theme was personified by Paulina’s relationship with her husband. Paulina gains more and more independence both in business and in finance and her husband takes offense to it. She brought much profit to her husbands business through her good sense in the stock market therefore she suggested she receive a profit. This independence causes turmoil in their relationship. “Why? Don’t I give you everything that you want, and more?” (Husband) The male in the relationship desires the power and control over the actions and responsibilities of the woman. Paulina, in her case, is just doing it for means of protection. “Life is long and filled with unpleasant surprises. I do not ever want to be a penniless widow, especially not with children.” In this time period it is painfully obvious that men are subordinate to women.

Reading Daughter of Fortune as a girl of similar age to Eliza makes this all the more interesting. Because I am her age the situations of gender issues are more interesting. I can imagine myself as young Eliza and how different my life would be. Living in the 1800’s would definitely be a different lifestyle than one that I am used to.

Journal numba 1

I have begun reading Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende. The plot begins as we are introduced to Eliza, a young girl left on the front porch of the Sommer’s family as a baby. She grows up with a brother and sister pair, Rose and Jeremy, as her guardians. Rose is a young and free-willed woman where as her brother Jeremy is a strict business man who wanted nothing to do with Eliza. As the years pass Jeremy learns to tolerate her and Rose takes an immediate liking to her, treating her as her “doll” while playing house. Rose, never fond of marriage, took on the role as the woman of the house at her brothers home. There is a continuous reference to femininity when describing the clothing that Eliza is dressed in and the wealthy activities she takes part in, such as dancing and formal education. As well, gender roles play a large part in my reading thus far. “It is a man’s nature to be savage; it is a woman’s destiny to preserve moral values and good conduct.” In the British colony in Chile, the woman plays the part of homemaker, while the men work and provide. Rose, even though the sister, manages the home. “She had good taste and effortless grace; she put a polish on both of their lives…” Jeremy was a hard-working, serious, young man who worked in shipping in Valparaiso, Chile.  He had no interest in human relations; actually, they made him nervous. Deep down he loved watching Eliza play but he would never admit it. Thus far the issue of gender roles has been a dominant theme carried throughout the events of Daughter of Fortune.