Sorrowful Woman

1. I enjoyed the excerpt from A Secret Sorrow more so than “A Sorrowful Woman”. I feel that the Faye was more likeable than Godwin’s unnamed wife because Faye seemed easier for most readers to relate to. Most of the responses I got from both excerpts were emotional, simply because both families had to go through a rough time, and that is relatable for everyone.
2. In A Secret Sorrow, I particularly enjoyed how the children were first described. “They came to them one at a time, from faraway places, with small faces and large dark eyes full of fear” (38). I enjoyed this part because it showed that Faye and her husband adopted children that really needed a good home, and they provided it for them. In “A Sorrowful Woman,” I also enjoyed the ending.   The way Godwin went into enough detail to describe the food, but at the same time not too much detail to the point where it was overbearing was really impressive to me. “Five loaves of warm bread, a roast stuffed turkey, a glazed ham, three pies of different fillings…” was a great way to say that the wife make a lot of delicious food and was back to caring about her family, but at the same time did not make me want to go and eat every item of food that I have in my house (43).
3. The two women’s attitudes toward family life differ because in A Secret Sorrow, Faye wanted a family, but could not have one. In “A Sorrowful Woman,” Godwin’s unnamed wife had a family, but wanted to get away from them. Both of these situations cause a problem, because both characters must find a way to achieve their goals of either getting a family, or getting away from one.
4. In “A Sorrowful Woman,” the wife’s problem is that she can’t stand being around her family anymore. This is a bit more of a complex problem than Faye’s problem of wanting a family. Faye’s problem can easily be fixed, either by adopting children or finding a different way to form a family. The unnamed wife’s problem is not as easily fixed, because if she were to get...