I know my blog post is a little late, but here it is! I really did enjoy this book a lot. I really admired the woman that Mildred is. She is strong, independent, hard working and always is keeping her chin up. I appreciate stories that give a strong independent woman as the main role. I am honestly sick of stories where the woman always need a man on her side in order to succeed. Although, this might contradict my last statement, but my favorite part of the story was when Mildred and Bert got back together. I think this just made the book even more awesome! I like love stories, but it made it even better that Mildred remained strong throughout this one. It’s as if she needed to space between Bert in order to become a strong woman and she is then rewarded with finding Bert again. There were some parts that identified the gender role of woman as the opposite of how Mildred is. On page 30, I believe it is Mrs. Gessler that says this, “Because that grass widow, she went back to the kitchen, where all women belong, and that makes it all right.” This is understandable because of the time period, but if this were said today I would be appalled. I think women have come such a long way to earn the same rights as men, but back then it was more common to see women in the kitchen. Another quote I found was in page 33, “Mildred, not much of a drinker under any circumstances, had decided that tonight might be an excellent time to exercise a certain womanly restraint.” And I believe that this quote exemplifies how women were not even allowed to drink. Women had such little rights and it is almost scary to imagine. But I think this book had helped to understand and appreciate the rights that we have today. We are so lucky to live in this country where we truly all can be free. So I think this book was really enjoyable because it helped to appreciate my rights a little bit more, so thank you Mildred.
