{"id":1211,"date":"2019-03-05T08:00:29","date_gmt":"2019-03-05T13:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/undergrad-students-publishing\/?p=1211"},"modified":"2019-03-05T08:00:29","modified_gmt":"2019-03-05T13:00:29","slug":"a-literary-tour-of-boston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/2019\/03\/05\/a-literary-tour-of-boston\/","title":{"rendered":"A Literary Tour of Boston"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kyle Labe\/\/Blog Writer<\/p>\n

The summer before my freshman year of college, I noticed something: no one ever seems to talk about that period in a young adult\u2019s life. It\u2019s a moment of displacement\u2014you\u2019re finished with high school; you\u2019ve yet to begin college. In other words, you seem done with childhood and ready to start adulthood. But that summer, that three months of pure waiting, is nothing short of some peculiar episode of limbo. There was so much I wished to know: what would college be like; where would I be within a year; what was I to do, buy, see; where was I to go with my life?<\/p>\n

I grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania, just outside the capital city, right at the bottom of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Suffice to say, I had no clue what living in a metropolis like Boston would entail. This was a notion that plagued my mind, during that time, constantly: the culture shock, the lifestyle shift. So, all through June, July, and August, I did the only thing I knew how to do: read. I read at a furious rate, devouring a novel a week, and oftentimes more. And most of the works I read these months had a similar theme: they all dealt with Boston. To me, reading about Boston was almost like a free trial. I taught myself all I could about the city so that, when I arrived, I\u2019d be one step ahead of my anxiety. Thankfully, the books I read were spectacular too and, for anyone else in this situation, I recommend doing the same. Here are some of my favorite Bostonian books:<\/p>\n

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The Bell Jar<\/em> by Sylvia Plath<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Bell Jar<\/em> – Sylvia Plath<\/strong><\/p>\n

This one is almost too <\/em>obvious. Everything Plath created in her life was nothing short of a masterpiece; losing her so soon was losing a genius. The Bell Jar<\/em> is Plath\u2019s only novel, chronicling a short span in the life of its narrator, Esther Greenwood. The first half covers a summer internship of Esther\u2019s in New York City, and the seriocomic incidents that follow in that period. However, the novel takes a turn when, almost halfway, Esther returns to her home in the suburbs outside Boston. As her mental health gradually worsens, Esther is plagued with flashbacks, anxieties, bouts of depression, contemplations and attempts at suicide. It is a dark book, but nevertheless one that will change the life of anyone who picks it up. Plath deals with themes of mental illness, feminism, hospitalization, and more, creating a long-lasting work both in our cultural subconscious and in the mind of each of its readers.<\/p>\n

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The Boston Girl<\/em> by Anita Diamant<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Boston Girl<\/em> – Anita Diamant<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>This piece of historical fiction highlights the coming-of-age of Addie Baum as she orates her life in twentieth-century Boston to her granddaughter after being asked: \u201cHow did you get to be the woman you are today?\u201d She tells her story with a radical compassion and a wicked sense of humor, detailing trips to Rockport, the tribulations of women, and the sufferings of the Jewish community of which she is a part. Born of an immigrant family, Addie lives a lower-class life in the North End, and much of the novel deals with her ambitions to change her social class as she studies, housekeeps, attends college, finds a career in journalism, gets married, and more. It\u2019s definitely worth a read, and all the history makes it that much more fascinating.<\/p>\n

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The Scarlet Letter<\/em> by Nathaniel Hawthorne<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Scarlet Letter<\/em> – Nathaniel Hawthorne<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you never read this in high school, or even if you did<\/em>, it\u2019s worth it to pick this up and read, or possibly reread, it. The Scarlet Letter<\/em> tells the story of Hester Prynne, a woman in a Puritan society branded with the letter \u201cA\u201d for having given birth while her husband had disappeared for years. The whole of the novel\u2019s events take place right in the city, and the climax even occurs at the graveyard at King\u2019s Chapel. Surprisingly, it\u2019s a very human book, full of empathy, wisdom, and understanding. It\u2019s definitely not a beach read but, with due patience and just interpretation, The Scarlet Letter<\/em> deserves its reputation as a classic, even if Hester never deserved her own reputation.<\/p>\n

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The Bostonians<\/em> by Henry James<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Bostonians<\/em> – Henry James<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another older novel, The Bostonians<\/em> is James\u2019s tragicomedy of the feminist movement. When I first read it, I was pleasantly surprised at James\u2019s ability to tap into the political upheaval of the late nineteenth century and warp it into a narrative of three memorable characters: Basil Ransom, a conservative; Olive Chancellor, a feminist and Basil\u2019s cousin; and Verena Tarrant, a young prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of Olive\u2019s. While the story details the fight for Verena\u2019s attention between Basil and Olive, it deals with so much more. Obviously about feminism, The Bostonians<\/em> also has a motif of queerness, as Verena\u2019s appeal to Olive often reads as overt lesbianism. Also, it\u2019s the book from where the term \u201cBoston marriage\u201d originated, or the financially independent cohabitation of two women. And if that\u2019s not enough to convince you, then your standards are far<\/em> too high.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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