The Visionary Girls Starkey Summary
Starkey, Marion. The Visionary Girls. Canada. Little, Brown and Company. 1973.
On April 13th 1901, in Worcester, Massachusetts, a lady by the name of Marion Starkey was born. She was the daughter of Alice T (Gray) Starkey and Arthur E. Starkey, who was known best as a painter and publisher. In 1922 and 1935, Marion received her B.S and M.A from Boston University, and later graduated from Harvard in 1946. She was also a member of many organizations, which included League of Women Voters, Lynn and Saugus Historical Society, Phi Beta Kappa. In 1953 and 1958, she received an award called the Guggenheim Fellowship Award. The Guggenheim Fellowship is an award “intended for men and women who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for …show more content…
productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts” (g.f.org). After obtaining her B.S, M.A, and graduating from Harvard, she soon went on to be an associate and assistant professor of English and became a full time writer in 1961. She has written many books, but in 1973 she wrote “The Visionary Girls: Witchcraft in Salem Village.” However, many years later after her last publication, Starkey passed away on December 18th in 1991. Starkey’s book “The Visionary Girls: Witchcraft in Salem Village” mainly deals with telling the events about all the “madness” that happened to the girls in Salem Village during the Salem Witch Trials in chronological order. The theme of the story is witchcraft.
Starkey wrote this book in the narrative form.
When Starkey tells this story, she tells it in the form of how the girls think. She explains and tells her views of what she thought really happened to the girls. She has a clear line in the book that is stated “the book of Revelation was urgently studied to learn the details of doomsday” (29). With the wording, she is speaking as a narrator and is giving her readers an example or answer to what is going on and why she also uses nouns like he, she, their, and writes the first names of the characters to explain what they are doing. The big part in the book that made me realize that her writing style was narrative was when she gave the definition of a witch in the way the people in that time period would call a witch, so we could understand what a witch meant to them. She states, “A witch was anyone, male or female, who bound his soul over to the devil in return for magical powers…torment enemies at a distance” (49). Also, she tells exactly what one of her charters does. For example, she says “Young Ann entered into her mother’s dream” and then says “The future had no interest for the elder Ann. “What of the past?” she asked. (30). Therefore, the “she asked” clearly states that she is telling the
story. In the beginning of the story, Starkey presents her readers with an author’s note. This note first starts off by talking about ancestors. She explains that when writing her books, some people have tried to get in touch with her because of the things in it, and because some of the people she mentioned were their great descendants. She also says that some people were ashamed because their descendants were hanged. But, after reading her books, their shame turned into pride. Starkey also explains the difference between Danvers and Salem. But, this section basically talks about “which details are drawn from records and which are fictitious” (Book Review Digest, November 1973, 742). In this authors note, I found her thesis. Her thesis clearly stated as “I have invented the scenes with Tituba and the steps that led young Ann, many years later, to public confession, but they are what I believe really happened” (ix). Starkey’s thesis is proven to my satisfaction, because even though I had trouble understanding and catching everything, Starkey gave her assumption on the things that led up to Ann’s confession; therefore, her thesis was answered or correct. Starkey also gives her readers an Epilogue at the end of the book to explain some things that happened after the trials were over. This epilogue discusses a short life span of Ann and tells readers, “even though she feared to die before she could make her confession, she lived many years after it” (172). Starkey also goes back in and talks about the descendants of the people who had died. She says that centuries later, many descendants got together and went to the court to clear the names of their ancestors (174). Because according to modern law there were not any witches; however, Ann may ask herself if she was the true witch. There were some things that I liked about the book, and some things that I thought Starkey was a little weak on. One strength of the book was that Starkey presented her readers with an introduction, a body, and then a conclusion. The authors note was the introduction, the chapters were the body, and the epilogue was the conclusion. She wanted to give her readers some background information on what she was going to talk about, then explain what happened after everything was over. The weakness seen was that this story was not very exciting. It did not keep me on the edge of my seat, wanting to know what was going to happen. I actually wanted to finish reading the book so I could be finished with it. Another big weakness was that Starkey did not have any sources or a bibliography include in the book. This is not a good thing because, what if someone wanted to go and look up where she got her information. Since, she does not have sources or a bibliography, her readers cannot be sure if every little detail is true. Also, what if someone wanted to go find more information on a certain character she talks about. They would not be able to focus their information on where Starkey gets hers from. During my search for reviews, I was unable to find a lot of them; however, I did find some brief ones where people rated this book an average of two to three stars out of five. Those rates meant that they did not enjoy the book as well. Some of them also said that other people would have to read the book in order to determine how they felt about it. However, the two I will be using are The New York Times book review and Book Review Digest.
One review I read was by Zilpha K. Snyder in the New York Times. Snyder states that she wrote her review because she was “spellbound by Starkey’s book “The Devil in Massachusetts,” which she was perhaps predisposed to view with favor her book “The Visionary Girls,” which she knew would enthrall readers” (New York Times Book Review, June 1973, 10). She also says that Starkey’s book read like a novel because it has the use of “foreshadowing, multiple point of views and dialogue, and relies in a few areas on well-informed conjecture” (New York Times Book Review, June 1973, 10).
In the Book Review Digest, I found a good amount of short information. These reviews basically supported Starkey’s books. They all agree with me when I say that the book is told from a narrative point of view. However, these reviews did not agree with me when I said it was hard for me to understand what was actually going on. They claim that not only does Starkey talk about the madness but, by “viewing the social, political, and psychological make-up of the town, also offers an explanation of why the irrational behavior took hold” (Book Review Digest, June 1973, 742 ). They state that Starkey makes it easy for her readers to understand the “perspective of a 12 year old girl, warped by the guilts and fears of her harsh religion…” (Book Review Digest, June 1973, 743). Since I did not enjoy this book, I would not recommend this book to others. Even though Starkey explains the events through the girl’s point of view on what happened during the Salem Witch trials, she does not make it interesting enough. When I first began reading the book, it started out to be good. Then when I reached chapter four and five, I could not keep up with what was going on. It started getting boring to me, and I found myself taking naps in between pages and chapters.
Moreover, I choose this book because I like hearing about the Salem Witch Trials. I also like this topic because I actually know what’s going on, and I can regurgitate it back out to someone. However, I did not enjoy this specific book. Even though this book does not meet my satisfaction, I would recommend people reading her other book called The Devil in Massachusetts. I say this because when I looked and searched for my author, this was the book that repeatedly came up. But if I ever decided to try and read this book again, I will go read “The Devil in Massachusetts” first.
On April 13th 1901, in Worcester, Massachusetts, a lady by the name of Marion Starkey was born. She was the daughter of Alice T (Gray) Starkey and Arthur E. Starkey, who was known best as a painter and publisher. In 1922 and 1935, Marion received her B.S and M.A from Boston University, and later graduated from Harvard in 1946. She was also a member of many organizations, which included League of Women Voters, Lynn and Saugus Historical Society, Phi Beta Kappa. In 1953 and 1958, she received an award called the Guggenheim Fellowship Award. The Guggenheim Fellowship is an award “intended for men and women who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for …show more content…
productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts” (g.f.org). After obtaining her B.S, M.A, and graduating from Harvard, she soon went on to be an associate and assistant professor of English and became a full time writer in 1961. She has written many books, but in 1973 she wrote “The Visionary Girls: Witchcraft in Salem Village.” However, many years later after her last publication, Starkey passed away on December 18th in 1991. Starkey’s book “The Visionary Girls: Witchcraft in Salem Village” mainly deals with telling the events about all the “madness” that happened to the girls in Salem Village during the Salem Witch Trials in chronological order. The theme of the story is witchcraft.
Starkey wrote this book in the narrative form.
When Starkey tells this story, she tells it in the form of how the girls think. She explains and tells her views of what she thought really happened to the girls. She has a clear line in the book that is stated “the book of Revelation was urgently studied to learn the details of doomsday” (29). With the wording, she is speaking as a narrator and is giving her readers an example or answer to what is going on and why she also uses nouns like he, she, their, and writes the first names of the characters to explain what they are doing. The big part in the book that made me realize that her writing style was narrative was when she gave the definition of a witch in the way the people in that time period would call a witch, so we could understand what a witch meant to them. She states, “A witch was anyone, male or female, who bound his soul over to the devil in return for magical powers…torment enemies at a distance” (49). Also, she tells exactly what one of her charters does. For example, she says “Young Ann entered into her mother’s dream” and then says “The future had no interest for the elder Ann. “What of the past?” she asked. (30). Therefore, the “she asked” clearly states that she is telling the
story. In the beginning of the story, Starkey presents her readers with an author’s note. This note first starts off by talking about ancestors. She explains that when writing her books, some people have tried to get in touch with her because of the things in it, and because some of the people she mentioned were their great descendants. She also says that some people were ashamed because their descendants were hanged. But, after reading her books, their shame turned into pride. Starkey also explains the difference between Danvers and Salem. But, this section basically talks about “which details are drawn from records and which are fictitious” (Book Review Digest, November 1973, 742). In this authors note, I found her thesis. Her thesis clearly stated as “I have invented the scenes with Tituba and the steps that led young Ann, many years later, to public confession, but they are what I believe really happened” (ix). Starkey’s thesis is proven to my satisfaction, because even though I had trouble understanding and catching everything, Starkey gave her assumption on the things that led up to Ann’s confession; therefore, her thesis was answered or correct. Starkey also gives her readers an Epilogue at the end of the book to explain some things that happened after the trials were over. This epilogue discusses a short life span of Ann and tells readers, “even though she feared to die before she could make her confession, she lived many years after it” (172). Starkey also goes back in and talks about the descendants of the people who had died. She says that centuries later, many descendants got together and went to the court to clear the names of their ancestors (174). Because according to modern law there were not any witches; however, Ann may ask herself if she was the true witch. There were some things that I liked about the book, and some things that I thought Starkey was a little weak on. One strength of the book was that Starkey presented her readers with an introduction, a body, and then a conclusion. The authors note was the introduction, the chapters were the body, and the epilogue was the conclusion. She wanted to give her readers some background information on what she was going to talk about, then explain what happened after everything was over. The weakness seen was that this story was not very exciting. It did not keep me on the edge of my seat, wanting to know what was going to happen. I actually wanted to finish reading the book so I could be finished with it. Another big weakness was that Starkey did not have any sources or a bibliography include in the book. This is not a good thing because, what if someone wanted to go and look up where she got her information. Since, she does not have sources or a bibliography, her readers cannot be sure if every little detail is true. Also, what if someone wanted to go find more information on a certain character she talks about. They would not be able to focus their information on where Starkey gets hers from. During my search for reviews, I was unable to find a lot of them; however, I did find some brief ones where people rated this book an average of two to three stars out of five. Those rates meant that they did not enjoy the book as well. Some of them also said that other people would have to read the book in order to determine how they felt about it. However, the two I will be using are The New York Times book review and Book Review Digest.
One review I read was by Zilpha K. Snyder in the New York Times. Snyder states that she wrote her review because she was “spellbound by Starkey’s book “The Devil in Massachusetts,” which she was perhaps predisposed to view with favor her book “The Visionary Girls,” which she knew would enthrall readers” (New York Times Book Review, June 1973, 10). She also says that Starkey’s book read like a novel because it has the use of “foreshadowing, multiple point of views and dialogue, and relies in a few areas on well-informed conjecture” (New York Times Book Review, June 1973, 10).
In the Book Review Digest, I found a good amount of short information. These reviews basically supported Starkey’s books. They all agree with me when I say that the book is told from a narrative point of view. However, these reviews did not agree with me when I said it was hard for me to understand what was actually going on. They claim that not only does Starkey talk about the madness but, by “viewing the social, political, and psychological make-up of the town, also offers an explanation of why the irrational behavior took hold” (Book Review Digest, June 1973, 742 ). They state that Starkey makes it easy for her readers to understand the “perspective of a 12 year old girl, warped by the guilts and fears of her harsh religion…” (Book Review Digest, June 1973, 743). Since I did not enjoy this book, I would not recommend this book to others. Even though Starkey explains the events through the girl’s point of view on what happened during the Salem Witch trials, she does not make it interesting enough. When I first began reading the book, it started out to be good. Then when I reached chapter four and five, I could not keep up with what was going on. It started getting boring to me, and I found myself taking naps in between pages and chapters.
Moreover, I choose this book because I like hearing about the Salem Witch Trials. I also like this topic because I actually know what’s going on, and I can regurgitate it back out to someone. However, I did not enjoy this specific book. Even though this book does not meet my satisfaction, I would recommend people reading her other book called The Devil in Massachusetts. I say this because when I looked and searched for my author, this was the book that repeatedly came up. But if I ever decided to try and read this book again, I will go read “The Devil in Massachusetts” first.