HW#21 Dear Cassidy,

After reading the first chapter in Virginia Woolf's “A Room of One's Own," I understand why you would be asking me for help. It is a very difficult read, even for me; but I will try to help you out the best that I can. In the beginning Woolf has been asked to speak about the topic of women and fiction. Her thesis is that "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction." I think that this so happens to be a very good thesis statement. It's very clear, and makes a good claim that can be used for an argument. The narrator begins sitting on the edge of a riverbank at Oxbridge. Where she uses a metaphor about fishing. As soon as she gets a "bite" a man security guard comes up to her and tells her that woman are not allowed to be on the grass. She then says "no very great harm has been done," but her "fish" was no longer there. I believe she is trying to say that it was harmless for her to be on the grass, and that she had done nothing wrong. Which in that case is true, I don’t believe it is right that women are not allowed to walk on the grass and are restricted to the gravel pathways. I think she feels the discrimination against her, and that she possibly feels excluded because she doesn’t have the same rights as men. She also talks about how she has a room of her own that she can write in without any distractions. This is unusual because she feels that normally women could not afford a room of their own, it was usually men that had that advantage. I think that this piece is important because it's talking about the past times when women didn't really get the same privileges as men, and i'm sure that’s why your teacher is having you read this. Personally I don’t think its going to be one of my favorites, but it’s bearable. If you do have any other questions feel free to email me again. Talk to you later!
-Jackie