"Motherwit"
From “Motherwit” by Onnie Lee Logan
I chose to write about 2 quotes from the excerpt which describes Onnie and her job as a midwife.
“There’s so much that I don’t want to die with. Not sharin it with somebody. That’s what gave me the idea to do a book because I have so much experience in here that I want to explode. I was not taught to do that. God gave that to me.” (Logan, 487)
“Well that wasn’t her. That was the stage she was in at the time, see. When they get in that last stage of labor just most anything they say would come up… I stay cool and calm. Don’t you get irritable like they are. You got to know better than that which I do know better than that. I know better and I just keep my calm. Smile and say something to em. Finally they get right along with you.” (Logan, 488)
The first quote describes Onnie’s relationship with God. She often talks about God to her patients and to herself while she is delivering the babies. She says that things like “here is where God comes in” and “that's God’s way” indicating that she feels a strong connection to God. The first quote also touches on why Onnie wanted to write a book in the first place. She had so much experience and was filled with ideas that she did not want to go to waste once she died.
The second quote describes Onnie’s response to when her patients start to get mad at her. She explains how she stays calm and positive about the situation. She goes on to say that she knows these women's words are just out of pain and that fighting back would just make things worse. I think that a lot of black women in the south tried to stay calm because it was a way to ignore their situations.
I also want to point out the way that she writes. Her writing style is so personal that it made me feel like I was right there having a conversation with her.
Word Count: 355
I like how you touched on two quotes that show her kindness and patience. She used God as an example of natural anesthesia for her patients, this is what she used to calm them. She also said that God gave her what she needed to know referring to using the warm towel and Vaseline to prevent tearing during child birth. I think it is incredible that she was always able to stay so calm durning a very stressful situation.
ReplyDeleteHi Liv! I really like how you talked about why Logan probably wanted to write a book filled with her experiences and the techniques that she has learned. While I was reading, I drew a strong connection between the delivery processes that Logan had and the different women that we have read about so far. She talked about how each baby is different and how, what works for the delivery of one baby probably won't work for the next. I think this ties into the women that we have read about because each woman so far has been vastly different from the next- different experiences, different lessons learned- but the one thing that they all have in common is their strength. Each baby is born differently, but they are successfully delivered, just like how each woman is different, but they all had the same idea to write down their experiences and their stories and deliver them to the world.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the personal feeling that Logan displays through her writing. Not only does she write as if she was talking directly to me, she also seems like a very personable person in the ways that she helps other women during labor. I feel like this passage gave me more insight into the personality of the writer than the other passages that we have read thus far. Logan seems to be a very kind and positive person and that makes me want to meet her and hear her stories directly from her.
ReplyDeleteI agree, I enjoyed her style of writing and the way she told her stories. While it was more of an informal style of writing than most of the other passages we've read during this class, Onnie was still able to get her message and thoughts across to the reader. She seemed really eager to share her stories, and knew that people needed to hear them before she passed. She seemed like a very genuine person, and cared for the women she was helping. It's not easy to be a midwife, but I'm positive she was great at her job, as seen by the way she treated her patients.
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