Hello, my name is Annalice Weatherly, and I am a student at LaGuardia Community college.  In my ENG260 novel class, I decided for my second blog, it will be a Creative writing reflection based on Fanny Fern’s Ruth Hall novel.  In this blog, I explore a very specific part of the book that caught my interest.

            One of the characters that truly intrigue me in Ruth Hall is Ruth’s mother-in-law Mrs. Hall.  Mrs. Hall is a very peculiar woman.  She preaches things she does not practice and she makes her own rules.  She claims she is a Christian, but her actions prove otherwise.  “Young people , now-a-days, seems to think that money comes in showers, whenever it is wanted; that’s a mistake; a penny at a time-that’s the way we got ours; that’s the Harry and you will have to get yours” (Fern 12).  She is supposed to be a good Christian and yet she won’t give her own daughter-in-law a penny if she needs it.  However, she doesn’t have any problem taking her daughter-in-law’s pension money from her.  She is always lecturing Ruth on how to be a better person, yet she is the biggest hypocrite person that ever works this planet. “It is my opinion the child’s death was owing to the thriftlessness of her mother. I don’t mourn for it, because I believe the poor thing is better off” (Fern 50).  What a cruel thing to say about a mother who just lost her child; the child being your own grand daughter.

            The climax of the novel for me is Ruth’s success.  Although Ruth is very intelligent, she is also very humble.  She suffers a lot, but she does not let that justifies her.  As a matter of fact, Ruth uses her pain and suffering to motivate herself and improve as a person.  I love how she proves to everyone she could succeed.  I would have paid anything to see the look in her mother-in-law’s face when she found out the book she loves so much had been written by non other than her hatred daughter-in-law.  “Impossible! Screamed the old lady, growing very red in the face, and clearing her throat most vigorously” (Fern 261).  Ruth would have said in your face, but I would.  I thought that was the best part of the book.