My Life is Still on the Blog

As I continue to read “My Life on the Road,” I think one other way in which it is much better than “Growing a Farmer” is that Gloria Steinem knows that this book is intended to be targeted to a wide audience, so she includes interesting aspects about her various accounts such as her trip to India. Using word choices like “dormitory on wheels” or “kebabs and chapatis,” Steinem simultaneously provided a visualization of what she was seeing with how she could describe it and used Indian terms to bring the essence of the culture to whoever reads this part of the book. I liked her discussion of viewing her past differently after her second trip to India. I appreciate the small sense of closure that she brings to a small section, as she prepares to talk about the next topic within a larger chapter.

I found it coincidental that her next section was talking about the March on Washington, as I am covering this era in my GE class “Black Social Movements in the US.” I was instantly grabbed by her claim that she attended the event herself, as I was interested to see a direct account of the march as opposed to hearing people talk about it years later. Early on, Steinem connected the last section into this one, as she talked about how her experiences in India reminded her of America’s segregated conditions during this time. As I kept reading the section, I found that Steinem seemed to just repeat historical information about the march and its celebration 50 years later. I can agree that the section was well-written, but I wish that Steinem focused more on how she felt. Instead of giving simple thoughts like “I wouldn’t be anywhere else on this earth,” I wish she provided her own insight into how she felt seeing these events unfold right before her eyes. Regardless, it was still a good read, and it did not degrade my opinion of the book overall.