Chapter 2 of Slaughterhouse Five is a man’s justification for the worlds cruel and curious ways. The complexities of life and time are the big questions looming over humans for the entirety of their existence, and Billy’s experience seems to be a way to explain that. “he was going to comfort so many people with the truth about time.” (pg. 35) This quote is resonated throughout the chapter, as Billy blinks and is transported to different moments in time. The explanation that time is as linear and visible as the Rocky Mountains is one for people to take comfort in. The idea that we don’t die permanently, because we are alive and well in every moment of our past, is one for people to take comfort in. Vonnegut tackles one of life’s biggest complexities in such a unique way. Throughout the book as a whole, there is a phrase repeated, “so it goes,” This prompts me to take everything written with a grain a salt. This prompts the idea that everything we learn from someone else was just told to them by someone else whom was told the information by someone before them, and so on. This little phrase, “so it goes,” sets this untrustworthy tone. Should we believe everything that we are told to? Who knows! Apparently Billy found the answers on the planet Tralfamador! We are made to think that this is obviously not a true story, and Billy was in fact severely injured in the plane crash, but at a superficial level, the truth behind Tralfamador could be comforting. And if we were to take this crazy story at the same level of reason that we do the more believable recounts of war, maybe we as readers would be able to believe in it just enough to find some comfort in it just like Billy does. This could be a reason for the, “so it goes,” repetition, to make the reader feel slightly unsure what to believe to the point that everything seems believable.

Daisy Miller is a vivacious young flirt hailing from upstate New York and residing in Europe, making a name for herself to say the least. Maggie is a timid, poor girl from a poor family residing in the slums of New York. How are they related? Well to be frank, it’s actually more intriguing to ponder how the aren’t.

Daisy Miller was published in 1878, and Maggie in 1893, this is worth mentioning when considering the completely different approaches these two authors take. Now it seems both stories are takes on womanhood and what it entails, but the protagonist of each are opposites. I would argue that they are both saying the same thing of womanhood, that a woman’s place is where she’s told it is. As horrible as it sounds, this was just the mindset during these time periods. Daisy Miller is a bit more offensive in my opinion, but it’s not like Maggie is an easy feminist read either.

Daisy is constantly being studied by Winterbourne, who is convinced she’s just being a wild young girl who lacks proper guidance. It isn’t until the very end that Winterbourne decides to label Daisy and than immediately loses interest in her. He tags her as someone who can’t be fixed, and sees himself to be above her. The whole time I was reading I thought Winterbourne was a total loser but that’s just an example of how times change. The story ends with Daisy dying of malaria, and she is blamed by everyone around her, for her own death, which I believe was James’ train of thought as well. Despite Daisy’s confidence throughout the whole story, James has the audacity to have her last words be a plea for Winterbourne, as if Daisy knew she was a “bad girl” all along. These ideals seem ancient but it’s honestly sad to think about men around the world today, in this very country, that hold similar beliefs to Winterbourne.

Maggie obviously finds the same fate as Daisy had, but she took a different path, I mean at least Daisy had fun. I imagine all stories of womanhood in this time period either ended in the kitchen or on a deathbed but thats a blog post for another day. Maggie, despite her upbringing, blossoms into a beautiful, polite young woman. Her mother is a degenerate drunk and her brother is a drunk simpleton. Maggie is respectful but she swoons for Pete. Pete is a man of the same neighborhood, and is considered one of the best scrappers around. All the men in this neighborhood seemed rather scum like, treating women with no respect and such, but yet again it was just the times. While courting Pete, Daisy convinces herself that she is in love and it’s being reciprocated, but that doesn’t stop her from dreaming of a better life. It’s almost as if Maggie would kill Daisy if she knew how Daisy carried herself. Maggie wanted nothing more than to be the exact woman that the characters in Daisy Miller begged Daisy to be. As the story goes on, we see this dreamy, playful and hopeful innocence inside of Maggie slowly perish. When Pete leaves her, it takes the first visibly damaging blow. With this slow loss of innocence, we see Maggie walk closer and closer to death, and this is where the paths of Daisy Miller and Maggie collide.

It is the wondering from the womanly place that gets both of these women killed. And both times it is completely and utterly their faults. Despite any class difference, or any difference in character, they are both known as wild girls chasing the depths of hell. They are completely different women and yet, they are renown as similar simply because they both didn’t fit the simple mold of a woman that had been beaten into so many brains during their respective time periods.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.