[Revision]
Like many of Mark Twain’s stories, “Eve’s Diary” and “Adam’s Diary” fall into the category of realism. Twain’ realism not only describes real incidents, but also contains broader themes. In “Eve’s Diary” and “Adam’s Diary”, Twain deals with issues including stereotypes of each sex at that time and the controversy going on. He depicts the difference between male and female genders within the flow of his story. The story also touches the boundary of issues like women suffrage at the same time.
To start with, Twain differentiates the stereotypes of men and women with convincing details. Twain even digs into the part of how men and women think and look at each other differently. Adam, the male in the story, is an indifferent character. He neither cares about Eve, nor feels love toward her at first. True to nature, Adam “looks a gift horse in the mouth” when God first gives him Eve. He can only complain rather than enjoy the company. He still wants to do everything on his own rather than to share the Garden with a mate.
On the other hand, Eve expects Adam to see and think in the same way as she does, thus never asks his opinion while naming all the objects. She just suddenly appears in his life and yearns for him to approve and understand. She feels anxious for his love all the time, though she also considers him far less intelligent compared to her. On one side, it shows woman's unusual decisiveness at that time. It also shows how a typical woman figure at that time longed for their husband’s love and care, as a stereotype.
Twain not only tries to describe the typical ideals of men and women but also seems to slightly argue that women worth for their suffrage. In “Eve’s Diary”, Eve names every single object and decides what she wants by herself, where Adam is quite indifferent on every matter. This shows the intelligence and decisiveness of women. Unlike the gender stereotype of the time back then, woman is described as someone who worth for deciding matters. Twain’s support for women suffrage is hidden in almost every detail in the plot; Eve takes lead in all the incidents that happens.
Overall, I was impressed on how descriptive and pointy he was in showing the difference between men and women. As a girl, I have always felt in the same way as Eve does in the story. Though it is embarrassing to confess, I have considered females as to be more considerate and decisive than male. But frankly on the other hand, I have wanted to be cared and loved by boys around me at the same time. The fact which I have considered as an irony was exactly described in Twain’s short stories. Twain had a good combination in describing the female character in a way he saw them and in a way that most of others considered them. It was very new to read a piece of writing that I could both enjoy and sympathize at the same time.
[Original Article]
As Mark Twain was a Realistic writer of the time, many of his stories fall into the category of realism. In “Eve’s Diary” and “Adam’s Diary”, Twain put both issues of general thought at that time and the core problem going on. Describing the difference between male and female would be the one dealing with more “general” idea; but Twain also had the issue of women suffrage controversy in the stories.
To start with, Twain depicted the stereotypes of men and women at his time very much in detail. He even dug into the part of how men and women think and look at each other. Adam, the male in the story, is a very indifferent character. He doesn’t care about Eve, considering her annoying. True to nature, Adam “looks a gift horse in the mouth” when God first gave him Eve. He could only complain rather than enjoy the company. He still wanted to do everything on his own rather than share the Garden with a mate.
On the other hand, Eve expected Adam to see and think in the same way as she did and think in the same way as she did, thus never asked his opinion on names, places, anything. She just appeared in his like and expected him to approve and understand. She felt anxious for his love, where she also considered him far less unintelligent than her at the same time. As a girl myself, I agree with Eve more than with Adam. Sometimes, I also long for love and feel anxious because of that.
Twain not only tried to describe the typical ideals of men and women but also wanted to point out that women had right for their suffrage. In “Eve’s Diary”, Eve named every single objects and decided what she wanted by herself, where Adam was quite indifferent on every matter. This shows Twain’s support for women suffrage at the time. Overall, I was impressed on how descriptive and pointy he was in showing the difference between men and women.
[Comments]
Hae Uk Koh: I think you were very precise yet coherent in describing Adam and Eve’s stereotypes. But, the issue regarding women’s suffrage could have been dealt in more detail. It seems you only point at one event (or feature) in the story and don’t give much of an analysis on it. Also, I think labeling the women advocacy issue in the stories as only women’s suffrage issue narrows the discussion too much. Still you dealt the themes presented in the Intro and was fairly good in explaining them. Good work!
