The Primary Purpose Of The Passage Is To

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Monalisha Ghosh 4 Years Ago
170

During the nineteenth century, privileged travelers from England and the United States often published accounts of their journeys to foreign lands. Some of these travelers were women who wrote travel books. 

 

For most women of the leisure class, immobilized as they were by the iron hoops of the convention, the term abroad had a dreamlike, talismanic quality.

   It conjured up a vision composed of a whole cluster rs1 of myths, half-myths, and truths -of sunlight, liberty, the fantastic and the healing, the unknown and the mysterious - all those concepts that stood in direct contrast to domesticity. When women who had the time and means traveled to India, China, or Africa, their real destination, more often than not, was a restorative idea rather than a place on the nap. 

Though this restorative idea sometimes led them to endure long, uncomfortable journeys to remote places where few of their compatriots had penetrated before them, there was little intent to imitate the male fashion for exploration, which was such a feature of the time. It is apparent that discovery was not the aim of most women travelers, nor did their wanderings inspire other expeditions of greater size or ambition. What, specifically, were these women seeking abroad? From their diaries, letters, and published accounts, travel seems to have been the individual gesture of the previously housebound, male-dominated, wealthy lady. Desperate for an emotional outlet, she often found it through travel. Aboard a boat, perched atop a camel or an elephant, paddling an outrigger, away for months on end, she could enjoy a sense of control and freedom of action and thought unthinkable at home. Travel offered the kind of adventure imaginable to her heretofore only in the Gothic or romantic novels of the day encounter with the exotic, the exciting, the self-fulfilling. The challenges and new experiences increased confidence and allowed the woman within to emerge, at least temporarily. But the motive for going abroad was more than a quest .for the extraordinary. Travel satisfied that established Victorian passion for improvement- of oneself and of others. This passion, once regarded as the property of men only, was shared by these new women. Touring or residing in foreign lands, they learned history, geography, languages, and politics. Many vivid images were imprinted upon the memory that would have been poorer without them. The recorded accounts of their adventures mountain climbing in Japan, outdoor bathing in Finland, monkey watching in India, canoeing along the Nile-helped to educate British and American readers. Simply said, the women travelers brought back a powerful commodity-knowledge. History put these women travelers in a unique position, and they responded in a unique way they created a small but impressive library of first-persor. narratives that combined genuine learning with the spirit of individualism. The succeeding generations of women travelers- the daughters and granddaughters of these pioneers -were impelled by essentially the same impetus, the desire for independence and enlightenment. These were the twin forces that crystallized in the ongoing movement for equal rights. Thus, the once-lowly travel book rather unexpectedly became an important instrument for the emancipation of women. 

 The primary purpose of the passage is to

(A) evaluate womens travel books and journals from a literary perspective

(B) contrast nineteenth-century women travelers with male explorers of the same period

(C) describe changes in travel opportunities for wealthy women in the nineteenth century

(D) examine the motives that some nineteenth: century women had for traveling

E) analyze the historical significance of women travelers books and journals 

 

asked Jun 24 12:00:00 AM

Monalisha Ghosh

Q: 105 A: 0

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